The ITER Council has met for the twenty-fourth time since the signature of the ITER Agreement. Representatives from China, the European Union, India, Japan, Korea, Russia and the United States reviewed project status, performance metrics and the organizational changes that are planned to help the project prepare for the start of machine assembly next year. The ITER Council is responsible for the promotion and overall direction of the ITER Organization and has the authority to appoint the Director-General, to approve the Overall Project Cost (OPC) and Overall Project Schedule (OPS), to approve the annual budget, and to decide on the participation of additional states or organizations in the project. Meetings are held at least twice a year, with representatives from every ITER Member.   The two-day meeting this week (19-20 June) started off with the renewal of Director-General Bernard Bigot's contract. In keeping with the decision of the Council in January 2019, Director-General Bernard Bigot officially formalized his acceptance of a second five-year term (beginning 5 March 2020) by signing a contract with Council Chair Arun Srivastava.   Heads of Delegation from each ITER Member congratulate Director-General Bigot on the signature his contract. Another important point of business was examining the internal organizational chart proposed for the next phase of project execution—machine assembly. The ITER Council approved the reorganization, which reflects the transition from an engineering/manufacturing project focus to one that facilitates the execution of assembly, installation and construction on site. The ITER Organization plans to have the new organization in place for January 2020, just before Assembly Phase I begins officially with the installation of the cryostat base in the Tokamak Building (March 2020).   Performance metrics show that, today, project execution to First Plasma stands at 63 percent. More than 70 percent of the buildings and infrastructure required for First Plasma are in place on the ITER construction site in Saint Paul-lez-Durance, France.   Read the full press release in English or French.

Under Practical Arrangements signed in June, the International Atomic Energy Agency and the ITER Organization will be expanding and deepening a long history of cooperation. Since its inception in 1957, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has worked to foster international collaboration in fusion research and development by facilitating the exchange of scientific and technical information among its Member States. As early as 1958, the newly created IAEA was entrusted with the responsibility of leading the global collaborative effort on fusion at the Second United Nations Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy, in Geneva. Supported by the dedicated community of fusion researchers in the Member States, the Nuclear Fusion journal was set up in 1960 by the IAEA to disseminate knowledge in this niche area of science. Today the journal is considered the main source of information about advances in nuclear fusion. An International Fusion Research Council was also established in 1971 to advise and provide guidelines to the IAEA Secretariat on matters relating to the fusion R&D program. The Agency played the role of godparent to the ITER Project through its early conceptual and engineering design phases, and kept the fusion community abreast of developments through ten years of ITER newsletters (1988-1998). The early cooperation phases and the ITER negotiation phases were carried out under the auspices of the IAEA. The Director-General of the IAEA is the Depositary of the ITER Agreement. A representative of the IAEA is invited to attend every ITER Council meeting. The IAEA hosts a variety of fusion-related forums, including the biennial Fusion Energy Conference, a series of workshops on the next phase DEMO, and many technical meetings. A Cooperation Agreement signed in 2008 with the ITER Organization formalized cooperation between the two institutions on the exchange of research results, training, publications, conferences, research, modelling, and safety and security. For the more than 120 IAEA Member States that are not part of the ITER Organization, the IAEA performs an important bridging function, disseminating knowledge from ITER to the wider community and providing a platform for exchange between ITER and the rest of the world. In June, the IAEA and the ITER Organization agreed to strengthen their cooperation through a new agreement known as the Practical Arrangements. The document was first signed at IAEA Headquarters in Vienna, Austria, by Assistant Director General and Chief Coordinator Cornel Feruta, before being conveyed for signature to the ITER Director-General by Mikhail Chudakov, IAEA Deputy Director General and Head of the Department of Nuclear Energy, who was arriving to attend the 24th Meeting of the ITER Council (see related article).   Under the Practical Arrangements, ITER will share its experience related to nuclear fusion safety and radiation protection with the IAEA and its 171 Member States, including those who are not members of ITER. This information from the first fusion device in the world to undergo nuclear licensing will play an important role in the potential development of IAEA safety standards related to nuclear fusion as well as relevant nuclear security guidance.   The two organizations will also implement educational initiatives on plasma physics and fusion engineering; coordinate public outreach activities; and cooperate in knowledge management and human resources development.   Follow these links for the IAEA press release and the IAEA fusion portal.

Creating reliable high-energy neutral beams at ITER parameters, from a negative ion source, requires such a large technological leap that the components of the neutral beam injection system are being tested in advance at the ITER Neutral Beam Test Facility in Padua, Italy. Construction of the testbed MITICA advanced another step this month, as a critical high voltage component was installed.  Neutral beam injection is one of the external heating systems on ITER that will bring the plasma to fusion temperature.At the ITER Neutral Beam Test Facility in Italy, the MITICA experiment (for Megavolt ITER Injector and Concept Advancement) is a full-scale prototype of the ITER heating neutral beam injector, with a deuterium beam of 1 MeV and 16.5 MW of power.   Europe is contributing all MITICA mechanical components (including beam sources and accelerators); the MITICA low-voltage power supply and high-voltage deck; plant auxiliaries (cooling, vacuum and gas injection systems, insulating SF6 gas handling, cryogenic plant); diagnostics; and instrumentation and control. Japan is providing high voltage components for the 1 MV power supply system of MITICA (including the megavolt bushing, the megavolt transmission line and the high voltage part of the megavolt power supply); Italy is providing the buildings, auxiliaries and power grid; and host lab Consorzio RFX lab is providing expertise through a large contribution to staffing.   On 10 June, the high voltage bushing procured by the ITER Japan in collaboration with Hitachi was installed on MITICA vacuum vessel procured by the European Domestic Agency (Fusion for Energy) in collaboration with manufacturer De Pretto Industrie SrL.    The high voltage bushing is a highly innovative component, whose design required significant R&D. It works not only as an electric feedthrough between the transmission line and the injector, but also as an interface between two environments—the ultra-high vacuum inside the vessel and the high-pressure SF6-gas- insulated transmission line.   "So many actors have been involved in this operation, each of them with different responsibilities: Fusion for Energy and ITER Japan for procurement; the ITER Organization as the final owner of the components; the companies involved in manufacturing and installation activities; and Consorzio RFX for the integration," says Vanni Toigo, project manager of the Neutral Beam Test Facility.   All MITICA "utilities" will pass through the high voltage bushing—the voltage of 1 MV, water for cooling, and gas for the plasma—in 50 tonnes of highly concentrated technology. See more about the ITER Neutral Beam Test Facility here.