Summing up TAG

Last week, 3-5 November, the Technical Advisory Group to ITER (TAG) met at the Château de Cadarache. At its fourth meeting, the independent experts from various fusion research institutes around the globe focused on the project's progress, its schedule and resources.

"The Advisory Group was impressed by the overall progress achieved in building up the ITER Organization staff as well as project organization," Michel Huguet, Chairman of the TAG, said. "We also noted the good progress in key Tokamak components such as magnets and the vacuum vessel where design is stabilizing. Regarding the divertor design, we think it is premature to decide whether the first operation of ITER should be with a carbon-reinforced carbon or a tungsten divertor."

Remote handling nevertheless remains an area of concern for the Group, "as we believe resources in this area are significantly underestimated." So TAG recommends a strong increase in resources and "giving priority to a systematic analysis of the remote handling compatibility of components and a full review of remote handling technologies and required test rigs."

TAG also expressed its full support for the proposed Integrated Product Team (IPT) scheme which is viewed as essential to establishing an efficient working relationship between the ITER Organization and the Domestic Agencies, providing a way to solve a number of issues at working level.