On your mark...get set...go!
The Russian Domestic Agency was created in May 2007 on the premises of the Kurchatov Institute research centre by a special decree of the Russian government. The Russian Domestic Agency is composed of five divisions: Project Management, Technical Systems, Science and IT Technologies, Engineering and Design, plus Administrative Support. The Agency operates in very close cooperation with the state corporation "Rosatom" which is responsible for the Russian contribution to the ITER Project.
The main task of the Russian Domestic Agency is to organize the cooperation of national science labs and industry in the manufacturing and procurement of the Russian in-kind contributions to ITER. These contributions include more than 20 systems such as: superconductors for the ITER magnets made out of niobium-tin (Nb3Sn) and niobium-titanium (NbTi) alloys; blanket shield modules and their connections; the first wall; the upper ports, poloidal field coil number one; the divertor dome; the power supply; the gyrotrons; nine of the diagnostic systems, etc.
For all these systems, the main responsible scientific centres have already been determined. These are the Efremov Institute in St. Petersburg, the Research and Design Institute for Power Engineering NIKIET near Moscow, the Bochvar Institute in Moscow, the Institute of Applied Physics in Nizhniy Novgorog, the Ioffe Institute in St. Petersburg and the State Research Center RF TRINITI in Troitsk. We also have a cooperation set up with TVEL, and let's not forget the Kurchatov Institute.
At the moment, the team here in the Agency comprises 43 specialists, and we expect this number to rise to 65 permanent positions as we move ahead toward signing off Procurement Arrangements. Four Procurement Arrangements for Russias share of the conductors for the toroidal and poloidal field coils, the divertor dome, and the upper ports have already been signed, two more for poloidal field coil number one and the high heat-flux tests of the divertor's plasma-facing components will be signed before the end of this year.
In line with the ITER Integrated Project Schedule, the Russian government provided the necessary budget for the development and the manufacturing of the Russian share to the ITER systems back in 2007. This resulted in intense activity of system development within the frame of the Russian responsibility. Taking into account the priority of the systems on the critical path to First Plasma in 2018, we are focusing on the manufacturing of the Nb3Sn and NbTi superconductors, poloidal field coil number one, and the upper port.