Start of Party Qualification Process for ITER Divertor

ITER components need to satisfy the highest quality standards. To guarantee this, a qualification process is planned for critical items, such as the plasma-facing components in the ITER divertor. A Party participating in the procurement package of such a component must demonstrate its technical capability through the successful and timely manufacturing of a medium-size "qualification prototype". The prototype includes all the most technically challenging features of the corresponding ITER design.

The work to create these prototypes is covered by Task Agreements between ITER and a Party to do a certain amount of work or research. The Divertor Qualification Task Agreements have recently been signed by the European, Japanese and Russian Federation Participant Teams, and kick-off meetings with the EU and Russian Federation Participant Team have already taken place. The meeting with the Japanese Participant Team is scheduled early in July.

"After more than one year of negotiations to resolve all the technical and formal details, that's an important step forward towards the procurement of the divertor", said Mario Merola of the ITER Divertor Section, "and it's equally important that it could start according to the planned time schedule".