From one end to the other of the on-site manufacturing facility for poloidal field coils, the different production stations are now clearly delimited, with tooling in various stages of installation. In this 257-metre-long workshop, European contractors will carry out the winding, impregnation, and assembly phases for the four largest ring magnets, with diameters of 17 to 24 metres. The process will require at least 18 months per coil. Series manufacturing for the "building blocks" of the coils, called double pancake windings, can begin as soon as qualification activities are validated. The first pre-dummy pancake—made with several turns of copper conductor instead of the real superconducting materials—has been wound and the manufacture of a full two-layer PF5 dummy double pancake is underway to qualify all processes.   Contractors are installing the later-phase tooling stations now. In the gallery below, you'll see progress made recently on the double pancake impregnation station in the centre of the facility and on the full coil impregnation station at the far end.

It takes more than the flipping of a switch to connect the ITER site to the French national grid. The operation, called a "first energizing," is a complex, step-by-step procedure that requires close coordination with the French transmission system operator RTE (Réseau de transport d'électricité). For the moment, the electrical needs of the ITER worksite and buildings are covered by a 15 kV line extended from the neighbouring CEA research centre. But as activity increases the installation will feed directly from the grid through the switchyard that sprawls over four hectares at the southeast end of the platform.   Preparation for this moment—an ITER Council milestone to be achieved during the first quarter of 2017—began on Friday 20 January at the first of the seven switchyard's "bays." Busbars, switches, pantographs, breakers ... all of the complex equipment and systems that link the grid to the ITER transformers were activated and tested in close coordination with RTE control room in Marseille.   Tests will continue for the other bays individually and will conclude with the energization of the entire switchyard. The steady state electrical network (SSEN), which occupies four bays out of seven, is set to be operational in June, whereas the pulsed power electrical network (PPEN), which is only needed for Tokamak operation, will be energized at a later date.   Performed under "real" conditions, Friday's operations provided a precious opportunity to test and demonstrate the integration of the ITER installation (with all its specificities) into the environment of France's national grid. Beyond the technical dimension, they represented a full-fledged exercise in coordination, methodology, and safety procedures that will be applicable to other plant systems.

The bioshield structure is rising at the heart of the Tokamak Building. The last plot of the B1 level was poured last week; about half of the first ground level (L1) is now complete and the first elements of L2 are in place ─ namely the first of 18 massive embedded plates, each weighing 4.5 tonnes. These plates will support the temporary sub-assembly tool bracket (the rectangular blueish structure visible in the axis of the third column from the left).   The large openings in the circular structure of the bioshield are for the cryostat bellows that will connect the machine to the port cells for systems such as remote handling, heating, diagnostics, etc.

See the BSC press release. In a Memorandum of Understanding signed on 12 January 2017, the ITER Organization and the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) in Spain have agreed "to promote cooperation and exchange in all academic and scientific fields of mutual interest and to advance the training of young researchers."   ITER and BSC already collaborate in the area of numerical modelling to assess the design of the ITER pellet injector, under development to reduce the effects of plasma disruptions. These computer simulations, based upon non-linear 3D Magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) methods, focus on modelling the injection of pellets to forecast and control instabilities that could damage the reactor. The goal of these simulations is to assess the optimal pellet size and speed of the pellet injector.   The new Memorandum of Understanding will allow expansion in the areas of cooperation to include further areas of integrated modelling, particularly in the area of ion cyclotron resonance heating (ICRH), which is one of the strengths of the BSC Fusion Team led by Mervi Mantsinen.    ITER's Simon Pinches, from the Confinement & Modelling Section and Responsible Officer for the ITER Integrated Modelling Program, is confident that the cooperation with BSC will be mutually beneficial, providing the means for enhanced simulation capabilities of importance to ITER. "We are pleased to strengthen our collaboration with BSC in the area of integrated modelling. The ability to accurately simulate the influences of the different heating systems in ITER is an important capability for predicting the behaviour and performance of ITER plasmas."  

Specialists from The Welding Institute (TWI) in the United Kingdom visited ITER on 18 January to deliver a workshop to over 70 attendees from across the organization. Overviews were given on different welding, joining and inspection techniques as well as the benefits and services available to ITER as corporate members of the TWI. Details of previous case studies carried out for both the ITER Organization and the European Domestic Agency were provided to demonstrate the large portfolio of services that can be called on. During the open discussions there was particular interest from a number of ITER divisions in the potential use of ultrasonic inspection for both thin wall pipes and thick-section plates as an alternative to radiography; auditing of potential/in-contract suppliers; and third party manufacturing process review capabilities. Follow up meetings and initiatives on these and other subjects are anticipated to address the challenging, state of the art manufacturing processes required both at suppliers and on-site to enable the construction and assembly of ITER. --Paul Edwards, ITER mechanical engineer/blanket manifolds

The EUROfusion consortium welcomed its 30th member in January: Ukraine. The Ukrainian signatory is the Kharkov Institute for Physics and Technology (KIPT), acting as coordinator for fusion research in seven national universities and research institutes. Fusion infrastructure in Ukraine includes two stellarators and two plasma accelerators, with particular expertise in the areas of plasma-facing components, materials, stellarator research and diagnostics. The EUROfusion consortium coordinates work within the EUROfusion roadmap, which breaks down the path to the realization of fusion energy into specifically defined missions. Thirty research organizations and universities from 26 European countries plus Switzerland are now members; in addition about 100 Third Parties contribute to the research activities through the consortium members. EUROfusion collaborates with the European Domestic Agency for ITER and intensively supports the ITER Organization. Read the full story and find out more about EUROfusion and the European roadmap here.