In an important manufacturing milestone for Russia and Europe, the first two 414-metre production lengths of conductor for poloidal field magnet #1 (PF1) have been successfully manufactured.   On 5 August and 3 September, poloidal field cable manufactured in Russia underwent all of the phases of jacketing and compaction at the Criotec facility in Italy. Destined for spooling into the PF1 magnet, the jacketed conductor will be returned after necessary tests to the Efremov Institute in Saint Petersburg, where magnet manufacturing will take place. Criotec specialists have already begun welding activities on the metal jacket of a third conductor length for Russia prior to its compaction.   This cross-border cooperation is part of a Procurement Implementation Agreement signed between Europe and Russia that stipulates that the Russia will manufacture the niobium-titanium (NbTi) superconducting strand and cables for both the Russian and European poloidal field conductor lengths (26 lengths for Russia and 10 for Europe), while Europe will jacket both the Russian and European poloidal field cables.   In compliance with procedure, qualification samples were cut from both jacketed lengths for testing at the SULTAN facility (CRPP, Switzerland). Testing of the first qualification sample is planned for November 2014.   The first poloidal field conductor length for PF1 has already passed final tests in the vacuum chamber. The conductor will be delivered to the Efremov Institute by the end of 2014, where spooling activities for the first double pancake will start in 2015. Russia will complete the poloidal field conductors for PF1 by the end of 2016. 

At the Efremov Institute in Saint Petersburg, Russia, work is underway on the final design of the ITER fast discharge units—specialized components that are designed to protect the superconducting coils in the case of a sudden loss of superconductivity (quench). Among them, the discharge units for ITER's powerful toroidal field coils will have the capacity to extract 41 GJ of stored energy. In the case of a quench, a set of mechanical circuit breakers will isolate the coils from the power supply and deviate the toroidal field current into discharge resistors that will dissipate the energy in about half a minute. With such an important role to play in the safety of the ITER installation, the components are classified as Protection Important Components (class 2) by the French nuclear safety authorities (ASN), a category that is subject to regulation and inspection. On 24 July, two members of the ASN travelled to Saint Petersburg to perform an inspection of the work underway at the Efremov. The ASN inspectors were accompanied by two technical specialists from the French Institute of Radioprotection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN); representatives from the ITER Organization, the Russian Domestic Agency and the Efremov Institute were also present. It was the first ASN inspection carried out in Russia and also the first one for a component under the responsibility of the ITER Electrical Engineering Division. Toroidal field busbars are the large components that will feed will feed power to ITER's 18 D-shaped superconducting magnet coils (prototype pictured here). "A lot of attention was paid during the inspection to show the modalities of the ITER Organization's supervision of the whole supply chain, and how safety and quality requirements are propagated," says Francesco Milani, an electromechanical engineer from ITER and technical responsible officer for this procurement. "This includes reviewing how subcontractors are evaluated and selected, how audits are carried out, and the management of documentation, hold points and eventual non-conformances." Special attention was also paid to the type tests, reliability tests and the qualification of the pirobreaker—the backup circuit breaker that must be available to operate in the case of the failure of the main circuit breaker. The pirobreaker conceived by the Efremov Institute over several years of R&D makes use of explosive charges to interrupt the current. During the inspection, the ASN delegation made a factory visit to examine a prototype. At the conclusion of the inspection, the experts congratulated the Efremov Institute, the Russian Domestic Agency and the ITER Organization for the work underway on the fast discharge units. In its official inspection letter, ASN noted that, "Other than a few improvements that could be made, the organization implemented by both the operator and the chain of suppliers involved in the Procurement Arrangement was efficient and rigorous." The work carried out on the fast discharge units at the Efremov falls under the Procurement Arrangement signed in March 2011 between the ITER Organization and the Russian Domestic Agency for the Switching Network, Fast Discharge Units, DC Busbar & Instrumentation.

Development is underway on vacuum windows that will allow ITER diagnostics to extract light from the plasma in a safe way. Most of ITER's diagnostics will have optical, microwave or spectroscopic viewing lines in order to monitor the plasma characteristics and make physical measurements inside of the vacuum vessel. For many of them, the nature of the physical signal transmitted dictates the design and makeup of the windows assemblies, which incorporate material such as glass or ceramics. Work is ongoing to determine the best material combinations and manufacturing procedures for these ITER diagnostic window assemblies. The work benefits from experience gained on other tokamaks such as JET, TFTR and JT60. Considering the additional challenges of the ITER operating environment, there is a continuing requirement for innovative solutions—at all times with an eye to ensuring conformance to nuclear safety requirements. The design, manufacture and assembly of the vacuum windows are not explicitly covered by nuclear construction codes; consequently, the Diagnostic Division has worked with experts in the field and produced a code of practice to ensure that the assemblies meet the nuclear installation requirements. One of the key requirements for these window assemblies is the transmission of optical, microwave or spectroscopic signals from the plasma to the diagnostic without attenuation or disturbances. Several types of materials will be incorporated, all chosen to fit the specific wavelength used by the diagnostic equipment (typically from 200 nm up to several mm). Integration of a bolted window assembly on the port plug closure plate. Both the window interspace and the metallic seal interspace are monitored for leak tightness. A second requirement is ensuring the vacuum integrity required for the plasma. The window assemblies—including window and seal—must remain leak tight to the very last day of ITER operation. With this in mind, a robust double window disc arrangement will be incorporated (see images), creating an interspace that will be monitored to detect a leak on either side. There have been many design challenges to overcome during the development process. This includes the choice of materials for the windows themselves (materials under investigation include fused silica, sapphire, SF06G05 Shott glass, synthetic quartz, CVD diamond and barium fluoride) and the challenge of incorporating the windows into the machine environment. Tantalum has been widely used in the past as an interface material (also known as a ferrule, this is a ring that surrounds the window to facilitate the attachment of the window to its surrounds). But in ITER, tantalum is not suitable: "Neutrons activate the tantalum and make it a dominant radiation source," explains Alejandro Suarez, one of the engineers in the Diagnostics Division. "As a result, other materials have been successfully developed." Experience gained on other tokamaks has shown that aluminium diffusion bonding can be used to bond the window materials to a flexible metallic ferrule. Technical developments are still necessary to address specific issues. R&D is underway at the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy, UK (Special Techniques Group) and, in addition, the Diagnostics team at ITER is working on an ongoing basis with Bertin Technologies (France). Collaboration with companies like these is an integral part of the success of this project. "The preliminary design for each type of window assembly is ongoing," says Philippe Maquet, from Bertin Technologies, "and a particular effort is being made to standardize the diagnostic window assemblies in order to manage the cost and reduce interfaces." The next milestone of the window assemblies roadmap is the Preliminary Design Review, planned for the end of 2015. The first batch of window assemblies shall be shipped to the ITER site in early 2018.

On 11 August, during the opening session of this year's Applied Superconductivity Conference in Charlotte, North Carolina (US), ITER's Arnaud Devred received the IEEE award "for continuing and significant contributions in the field of applied superconductivity." The prestigious prize delivered by the IEEE Council on Applied Superconductivity was awarded for his "many and significant contributions to the field of large scale applications."    "I am indebted to many people, who have inspired me and made me the person I am today," said the head of the ITER Superconductor Systems & Auxiliaries Section in his acceptance speech. "One of my greatest privileges—and rewards—is that throughout my carrier I have been able to meet and work with great people. First in Europe, then in the US and Japan, and now from all around the world. Therefore, I would like to share this award with my numerous collaborators in China, Europe, Japan, Korea, Russia and the United States, and, in these times of heightened political tensions, it is my wish that we can keep working together in the same open and peaceful manner—our little contribution to making the world a better place to be."

Last Saturday 13 September, the fourth edition of the ITER Games attracted a crowd of close to 250 competitors and their supporters for an all-day sports event including football and tennis competitions, a cross-country run, a kayak race and a petanque tournament. For the participants—people working for the ITER Project, club members from the local sports associations, and their families—this was another opportunity to meet, compete and share ... all ways to strengthen ties between ITER and its environment. (Photo AIF-AP)

This year's FuseNet PhD Event will take place on 18—20 November in Lisbon, Portugal. Organized by the University of Lisbon under the umbrella of the FuseNet Association and with the financial support of EUROfusion, the PhD Event brings together PhD students working in the field of fusion science and engineering. The aim of the event is to enable students to disseminate their research, develop a network of contacts and learn from each other's experiences. The Event is open to all PhD students involved with research in nuclear fusion research and who are registered at a European university or a FuseNet member university.   The deadline for applications is 15 October 2014 (financial support is available). More information on the event and the application procedure can be found on the FuseNet website. 

​The latest newsletter from the IPFN Institute in Portugal (Instituto de Plasmas e Fusão Nuclear) is available here.

​The world's largest research consortium in the field of metals research and manufacturing is to be created by European industry in the form of Metallurgy Europe. The R&D program has recently been selected as a new Eureka Cluster and will bring together over 170 companies and laboratories from across 20 countries. Funding for the project has been stated as EUR 1 billion over seven years. The European Powder Metallurgy Association and a number of other European organizations such as the European Space Agency (ESA), European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, the Institut Laue-Langevin and the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy are reported to be providing their expertise and innovation to this initiative. Read more on the Powder Metallurgy Review website.

​Hutch Neilson, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory's (PPPL's) head of Advanced Projects, is saying "auf wiedersehen" to the lab for the next nine months as he travels to Greifswald, Germany, where he will be paving the way for future US researchers to participate on the Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) program as the experiment begins preparing for operations next year. David Gates, a principal research physicist and the stellarator physics leader at PPPL, will be serving as Interim Head of Advanced Projects in Neilson's absence. Neilson's new position comes after the US Department of Energy and the European Atomic Energy Commission signed an agreement in June establishing a long-term partnership with the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP) and PPPL, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Los Alamos National Laboratory. The agreement names PPPL as the lead institute for the US collaboration on the W7-X. Read more on the PPPL website.

​At the onset of the atomic age, governments on both sides of the iron curtain sought to harness the power of nuclear fusion. Researchers at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory in New Jersey stood at the forefront of the American effort when, in 1953, they began using Stellarators — one of the earliest controlled fusion systems. Early fusion research in the western world nearly immediately split into two halves after the end of WWII, with one subset of researchers observing super-compressed fusion materials at very short timescales, the others — including Dr. Lyman Spitzer, chair of the Department of Astronomy at Princeton University — observing these materials at a lower compression for longer times. Spitzer's invention served this purpose wonderfully. The Stellarator that Spitzer invented in 1950 is designed to hold superheated, electrically-charged plasma — a most vital and basic component of nuclear fusion research — within a designated field using electromagnetic currents. Read more on the Gizmodo web site.