All efforts converging toward the start of machine assembly

Arun Srivastava (India) has completed his two-year term as ITER Council Chair. The Council expressed its gratitude to outgoing Council Chair for his leadership and dedication, and congratulated Mr LUO Delong (China) on his appointment to the Chairmanship starting 1 January 2020.

US Head of Delegation Christopher Fall, Director of the Office of Science, US Department of Energy (right) shares a laugh with Tomohiko Arai, Director, International Nuclear and Fusion Energy Affairs Division, Research and Development Bureau, MEXT. Interpreter Naomi Toda is just passing by.

Director of the European Domestic Agency (F4E/EURATOM) Johannes Schwemmer (left) and next Chair of the ITER Council Chair, LUO Delong from China.

Delegates to the Twenty-Fifth Meeting of the ITER Council (IC-25), which convened at ITER Headquarters on 20 and 21 November 2019.

Anatoly Krasilnikov and Vladimir Vlasenkov from the Russian Domestic Agency (Head and Deputy Head) try out a virtual reality tour of the ITER construction site, assisted by Communications Intern Tomomi Yokoyama.

Council Chair Arun Srivastava signs the 2019 Management Assessment contract with Alexey Zyablov, who has been appointed as the 2019 Management Assessor. Every two years, a Management Assessor is appointed by the Council to assess the management of the activities of the ITER Organization in accordance with Article 18 of the ITER Agreement.

On the second day of the meeting, local newspaper La Provence publishes a two-page spread titled "ITER for Dummies." Having a look is Shashank Chaturvedi, Director of India's Institute for Plasma Research. Behind him is India's Head of Delegation Ravi Bhushan Grover, Atomic Energy Commission member.

Three members of the US delegation—Tom Vanek (Senior Policy Advisor, Facilities, Operations and Projects Division, Office of Fusion Energy Sciences, Office of Science, Department of Energy (DOE)), James Van Dam (Associate Director, Office of Fusion Energy Sciences, Office of Science, DOE), and Cole Donovan (Foreign Affairs Officer, Office of Science and Technology Cooperation, Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, Department of State)—speak with ITER's Tim Luce (second from left), Head of the Science & Operations Department.

IC-25 was Bernard Bigot's tenth regular Council meeting as ITER Director-General. Before that, since 2008, he had attended the meetings as the French government's High Representative for the implementation of ITER in France. With him in this picture are Gyung-Su Lee, ITER Chief Operating Officer; Atsushi Yoshida, Head of the ITER Central Integration Office; and Sachiko Ishizaka, ITER Council Secretary.

Yoshio Yamawaki, Japan Head of Delegation, Senior Deputy Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT).

From left to right: Atsushi Yoshida, Head of the ITER Central Integration Office; Sachiko Ishizaka, ITER Council Secretary; Arun Srivastava, Chair of the ITER Council; and Oleg Patarakin, Chair of the ITER Council Management Advisory Committee.

Sergey Mazurenko, Member of the Russian Federation Presidential Council for Science and Education, and Marina Zbaratskaya, Interpreter for the Russian Domestic Agency, during a break in the proceedings.

ITER Council Secretary Sachiko Ishizaka exchanges with members of the Japanese delegation: Masaki Taniguchi (Group Leader, ITER and Broader Approach Promotion Group, Fusion Energy Directorate, National Institutes for Quantum and Radiological Science and Technology (QST)), Taro Matsumoto (Senior Principal Researcher, Department of Research Planning and Promotion, Fusion Energy Directorate, QST), Makoto Sugimoto (Head of Japanese Domestic Agency), Hiroshi Shirai (Senior Principal Researcher, Fusion Energy Directorate, QST), and Kenichi Kurihara (Director General, Naka Fusion Institute, Fusion Energy Directorate, QST).

Behind the goggles is Joseph May, Director Facilities, Operations and Projects Division, Office of Fusion Energy Sciences, Office of Science, US Department of Energy.

Representing Europe (EURATOM): Joaquín Sánchez, Chair of the Governing Board, F4E/Euratom Domestic Agency and Massimo Garribba, Head of Delegation, Acting Deputy Director-General, DG Energy, European Commission.

ZHAO Jing, China's Head of Delegation, Deputy Director-General, MOST.

First row, left to right: Hyeon Gon Lee, Vice-President of the National Fusion Research Institute in Korea (NFRI); Dongmin Hwang, Deputy Director, Nuclear and Big Science Cooperation Division, Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT); Won-ho Choi, Head of Delegation for Korea, Director General, Space and Nuclear Energy Bureau, MSIT; and interpreter Hae Yin Oh. Second row: Seung-Min Shin, Leader of External Relations Team, ITER Korea, NFRI; Kijung Jung, Director-General of ITER Korea, NFRI; and Japanese delegation members Hiroshi Shirai, Senior Principal Researcher, Fusion Energy Directorate, QST; Kenichi Kurihara, Director General, Naka Fusion Institute, Fusion Energy Directorate, QST; and Kenkichi Ushigusa, Managing Director, Fusion Energy Directorate, QST.

From the fifth floor of ITER Headquarters, delegates have a direct view of the Tokamak Complex. Taking the photo is SUN Yuming, Minister Councillor, Chinese Embassy in France. At left is SU Mingxing, Administrative Officer in the ITER Director-General's Cabinet.

Japan's National Institutes for Quantum and Radiological Science and Technology (represented by Kenkichi Ushigusa, Managing Director, QST Fusion Energy Directorate), the ITER Organization (represented by Director-General Bernard Bigot), and the European agency Fusion for Energy (represented by Johannes Schwemmer, Director of the F4E/Euratom Domestic Agency) sign a collaboration arrangement by which the experience gained by Euratom and Japan under the Broader Approach Agreement—in particular in the assembly, installation, integrated commissioning and operation of the tokamak JT-60SA, the construction of which will be completed next year—should support ITER activities in the coming phases of the project.