The ITER Council, ITER's governing body, met for the twenty-second time on 20 and 21 June 2018 at the ITER Organization in Saint Paul-lez-Durance, France. Council Members approved refinements to the construction strategy which will optimize the installation of components in the Tokamak Complex. With this strategy in place, the project is on track to achieve First Plasma in 2025 while adhering to overall project costs. Representatives from China, the European Union, India, Japan, Korea, Russia and the United States gathered in the fifth floor Council Chamber for a two-day review of the most recent reports on organizational and technical performance. They agreed that the project continues to sustain its strong performance and fast pace. Since January 2016, ITER has achieved 33 scheduled project milestones, including the recent commissioning of the first experiment of the ITER Neutral Beam Test Facility in Padua, Italy.    The Council stated that significant progress has also been made on the manufacturing of technologically challenging components such as the vacuum vessel and the toroidal field magnets. They also highlighted progress in the installation of the cryoplant and in the build-up of the magnet power supply and conversion system. Based on their review of the latest performance metrics, Council Members confirmed that project execution towards First Plasma is now over 55 percent complete.   Project execution towards First Plasma in 2025 is now over 55% complete. The Council acknowledged the efforts undertaken by each Member to reach approval of the overall project cost through their respective government budget processes. Having completed their internal consultation procedures, China, Europe, Japan, Korea and Russia are ready to approve the 2016 Baseline.   Expressing their resolve to work together to find timely solutions to facilitate ITER's success, Council Members reaffirmed their strong belief in the value of the ITER Project to develop fusion science and technology. Download the full press release in English and French.

Of all the different concrete formulations that are implemented in ITER construction—and there are more than a dozen—one has a unique attribute: an insatiable appetite for neutrons. The neutron-eating concrete's voracity stems from the inclusion of boron, a light element whose isotope 10 acts as a trap for incoming neutrons.   In ITER, borated concrete is used when strong protection against neutrons is needed in areas of the Tokamak Complex where there is not enough space for ultra-thick walls like those of the bioshield.   By including a certain proportion of boron into a mix of high-density aggregates, borated concrete provides a shielding that is efficient while not being exceedingly thick.   "The formulation is a compromise between the mechanical properties that are expected from a structural concrete and the need for neutron absorbtion capacity," explains Laurent Patisson, head of ITER's Civil Structural Architecture Group. "The ITER Nuclear Integration Unit¹ ran models and calculations for several months before reaching the optimal adjustment."   The borated concrete that is being used in ITER is a high-density concrete (3.7 tonnes per cubic metre as compared to 2.4 tonnes for a standard formulation) that includes 0.3 percent of boron.   The neutron-eating element is obtained from ground colemanite aggregates, a borate mineral that is imported from Turkey.   Borated concrete has provided a solution to the long-standing issue of neutron emission from the activated water inside the primary loop of the Tokamak cooling water system.   All in all, there will be approximately 10,000 tonnes of borated heavy concrete (3.7 tonnes per cubic metre as compared to 2.4 tonnes for a standard formulation) inside the Tokamak Building. This closed loop snakes in between the inner and outer shells of the vacuum vessel and circulates between the lower and upper pipe chases of the Tokamak Building.   When exposed to the intense flux of neutrons from the fusion reaction, the oxygen present in the water generates short-lived radioactive isotopes of nitrogen—one (isotope 16) emitting a highly energetic gamma ray, the other (isotope 17) a fast neutron.   As the entry and exit points of the loop (the lower and upper pipe chases) are located outside the bioshield, specific shielding was needed to protect personnel and nearby electronics from this "secondary radiation."   The pouring of borated heavy concrete began early this month in the area of the cooling water exchangers in the Tokamak Building and will continue throughout the summer, following the routing of the cooling system inside the building.   All in all, there will be approximately 10,000 tonnes of borated concrete inside the Tokamak Building—eagerly waiting for the neutron feast to begin.   ¹ The Nuclear Integration Unit was formed by the ITER Director-General in 2016 to ensure a consistent and fully integrated nuclear engineering approach in the project. Staffed with experts from the ITER Organization and the Domestic Agencies, the Unit is currently improving the radiation mapping in the Tokamak Complex.

They look like cabins on the roof but in ITER parlance they are called "mezzanines." Under the protection of these large structures, the two bridges connecting the Magnet Power Conversion buildings to the Tokamak Building will get off to a good start.   Installed 10.5 metres above the platform, the 50-metre-long bridges will shelter the massive, actively cooled busbars that feed DC current to the magnets, as well as cooling pipes running parallel.   The space inside the two bridges connecting the Magnet Power Conversion buidings to the tokamak will be occupied by the massive busbar delivering DC power to the magnetic system(orange), cooling water piping (light blue) and cable trays. (On this drawing the Magnet Power Conversion buiding is on the left.) As busbars cannot be bent, they need to be fitted with massive "angle pieces" when transitioning from vertical routing inside the Magnet Power Converter Building to horizontal routing inside the bridge. The size of the "angle piece" has determined the size of the mezzanine (see drawing).

There is news of success from Wendelstein 7-X, where a record "triple product" value for stellarators was obtained during the most recent experimental campaign. Newly equipped with 8,000 graphic wall tiles and ten divertor modules, Wendelstein 7-X resumed operation in September 2017, ready for higher plasma temperatures and longer discharges.   The first experiences with the new wall elements were highly positive, according to Thomas Sunn Pedersen, head of the Stellarator Edge and Divertor Physics group. Plasmas lasting 26 seconds (up from six during the first campaign) and 75 MJ (18x higher) were routinely produced.   As a result, a record value for fusion triple product (a plasma's particle density, energy confinement time, and ion temperature) was achieved. This parameter tells scientists how close they are getting to the values needed to "ignite" the plasma and have it become completely self-sustaining (i.e., without external heating).   Further adjustments to the device's diagnostic and heating systems are planned. The objective of Wendelstein 7-X is to investigate the suitability of the stellarator type of fusion device for a future power plant.   Read the article published on the website of the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP).

Russia has officially completed its second in-kind Procurement Arrangement for ITER—producing 20 percent of the superconductors required for the poloidal field magnet system. Following the completion of its share of toroidal field superconductors in 2015, Russia completed its second magnet-related procurement package for ITER in June.   According to the terms of a Procurement Arrangement signed with the ITER Organization in 2009, Russia is responsible for supplying one-fifth of the niobium-titanium superconductors for ITER's ring-shaped poloidal field coils. Fabrication is a highly sophisticated, multi-stage process that requires absolute accuracy and compliance with stringent technological requirements.   The superconductors are formed from thin filaments of niobium-titanium superconducting material braided with copper strands to form cables, which are compacted and pulled into structural steel jackets. In Russia, a strand manufacturing workshop was organized at the Chepetsky Mechanical Plant (ChMP) in Udmurtia, where more than 100 units of the most advanced equipment were acquired. The manufacturing line was formally launched in April, 2009; the following year ChMP reached its optimum production pace.   Cabling was performed by the VNIIKP specialists in Podolsk (near Moscow) on the basis of novel technologies that were conceived and implemented by Russian scientists and engineers.   For the subsequent production stages, a unique arrangement was found with the European Domestic Agency, which is responsible for a similar share of poloidal field conductors. The two Domestic Agencies agreed that all niobium-titanium strands and cables—both Russian and European—would be manufactured in Russia, while all jacketing and compaction operations would be carried out by European contractors. The jacketing of the Russian cables was performed by the Italian Consortium for Applied Superconductivity (ICAS) with jacket material from Mannesmann Stainless Tubes (France). Electro-physical tests of full-scale conductor lengths were carried out on the SULTAN stand in Lausanne, Switzerland.   Special mention in the process of the Russian superconductor manufacturing belongs to the Bochvar Institute, whose staff was able to preserve and refine the superconducting technology that had been invented at the Institute in 1960s. This technology played a large role in the fulfillment of Russia's procurement obligations.   In all, Russian industry produced more than 120 tonnes of niobium-titanium superconducting strands. The material was incorporated into 16 unit lengths of cable (414 metres each) for poloidal field coil #1 (PF1, procured by Russia), and 18 unit lengths of cable (730 metres each) for PF6 (procured by Europe). Each cable contains 1,440 strands.  

What do Anna, Margaret, Aneeqa, Natalia, Sarah, Kat and Karina have in common? All these women are engineers who are contributing to ITER by working on exciting issues such as building the ion cyclotron antenna, designing and manufacturing the divertor, reducing the risk of beryllium exposure to future workers, or modelling material migration. For the first time this year, the ITER community joined in to mark the International Women in Engineering Day on 23 June. You can find out more about ITER's women engineers in the Twitter feed of the ITER Women's Network. The day was launched as a national day by the Women's Engineering Society in the United Kingdom in 2014 to celebrate its 95th anniversary. Due to a high level of  response, interest and enthusiasm, the event turned international in 2017 and received UNESCO patronage in 2016 and again in 2018. The International Women in Engineering Day is now an international awareness campaign to raise the profile of women in engineering and related sciences. By celebrating the achievements of women in this field, the annual event seeks to inspire young women to consider a career in engineering. Find out more here. --Anneqa Khan is a mechanical engineer in ITER's Science Division, working on modelling material migration and fuel retention.

India plans to reboot its steady state superconducting tokamak, SST-1, on time to be showcased at the upcoming IAEA Fusion Energy Conference, reports the media platform The Better India. Commissioned at the Institute for Plasma Research in 2013, the SST-1 experiment has produced plasma discharges up to ~ 500 ms. Experiments were halted after some small damage was detected in the tokamak's toroidal magnet system in December 2017. Organized from 22 to 27 October 2018 by the Government of India in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, the 27th IAEA Fusion Energy Conference will be one of the year's highlights for the world fusion community, providing a platform for discussions around key physics and technology issues in fusion research. Read about SST-1 on the website of "The Better India." Find more about the 27th IAEA Fusion Energy Conference (or pre-register online) here.