On a hot day in July, two surveyors made their way down the metal stairs leading to the Tokamak Complex construction site carrying precision laser measurement equipment. It was the day before pouring was scheduled for the floor of the drain tank room (part of the Tokamak Building basement, this room will house five large tanks for ITER's cooling water system). In an area adjacent to the northern wall, a survey to control the dimensions had been requested to verify the position and elevation of the 80 embedded steel plates used to anchor the tanks. It was the first task of a metrology framework contract signed by the ITER Organization in January 2014. Concluded for an initial duration of four years, the contract is extendable up to 10 years to cover later assembly phases. Following a worldwide tender, three consortia were chosen (G2Métric & Arkadia; Metromecánica & Technitop; PES (UK) Ltd & Setis Groupe Degaud); each will compete for specific jobs through Task Requests made by the ITER Organization metrology team. David Wilson, alignment and metrology responsible officer at ITER, explains:  "Controlling the interfaces between the building and the principal Tokamak components is vitally important to ensuring the successful construction of the Tokamak and its associated plant systems. By definition, these 'cast in concrete' items are immovable; therefore, problems will arise if they do not meet the specified tolerances. The philosophy a carpenter goes by—measure twice and cut once—holds true for all metrology activities and supports a rigorous quality regime." The surveys were carried out over two visits to coincide with the two phases of concrete pouring and were in addition to those carried out independently by the building contractor—providing the vital double check. All of the survey results were communicated to the ITER Buildings & Site Infrastructure team who, together with the European Domestic Agency, were then confidently able to authorize the pouring of the concrete. A repeat survey will be carried out when the concrete is fully set. The Tokamak Complex will have 83,000 embedded plates on completion; some (3.6 percent) will have very special requirements.  Systems such as the cryogenic magnet feeders and the cryostat all have very challenging alignment requirements and, just as for the drain tanks, the accurate position of the steel plates embedded in the building concrete has an important role to play. Many more metrology measurements will be required over the coming years as construction proceeds. In parallel with civil construction activities, Tokamak components are being manufactured all over the world. These huge items require even more exacting tolerances to be met to ensure that they can be assembled together and function to design parameters. Metrology requirements are currently being assessed with the departments responsible for the design of the Tokamak so as to ensure that resources are available when needed. "We have now left the design stage and are in construction," says David. "From a metrology perspective this means developing, qualifying and documenting processes for the multitude of systems requiring alignment and dimensional control. Our selected industrial partners will support this evolution and provide the expertise necessary to carry out the metrology tasks." The need for metrology support will increase exponentially once machine assembly gets underway. Before machine assembly can start, measurements will be taken to accurately determine the as-built 3-dimensional position of each wall, floor and ceiling of the completed Tokamak Building (and all the steel embedded plates) to transform the ideal CAD design into reality. From this survey, the coordinate system to allow machine construction to commence will be established together with associated survey networks to act as reference points during assembly. Phase one machine assembly is broken down into some 950 construction work packages—it will be up to the ITER metrology team to select the measurements that need to be done and to schedule the metrology tasks.

The last time a méchoui was served at ITER it was 18 April 2012 and the 493rd—and final—seismic pad had just been installed in the Tokamak Complex Seismic Pit.   A North-African tradition, méchoui, or roast lamb on a spit, was back on site last Thursday 18 September ... along with mussels and boiled squid ... to celebrate the recent completion of the Tokamak Complex basemat.   From those who had worked on the rebar arrangement to the workers who had poured the concrete, they were all present: staff from GTM, the company that led the construction consortium; designers from Engage; safety specialists from Apave; management support personnel from Energhia; and of course staff from the ITER Organization and the European Domestic Agency Fusion for Energy.   Julio Diaz, the general foreman for the GTM says that the work "... was quite challenging, beginning with the nature of the rock and the extreme density and complexity of the steel reinforcement and culminating in the delicate positioning of the embedded plates. But the job was done, and well done..." As whole lambs roasted slowly over the open fire, joy and pride could be read in the faces assembled around the tables. "Happy! I'm just happy," smiled Julio Diaz, a veteran construction worker and the general foreman for the GTM consortium. "I've been part of this adventure since the very first day in the summer of 2010. The work was quite challenging, beginning with the nature of the rock and the extreme density and complexity of the steel reinforcement and culminating in the delicate positioning of the embedded plates. But the job was done, and well done..."   This feeling of "mission accomplished" is shared by GTM's project director Thierry Lebeault. "What's particularly satisfying is the excellent result that we have achieved in terms of worker safety. I see two reasons for this good safety record: the high level of requirements from the building owner Fusion for Energy and our own commitment to safety and quality."   The méchoui offered by GTM isn't the end of the story. "There is still finishing work to be done on the slab that will keep us busy until the end of the year," says Diaz.   We can expect another méchoui  when civil works are completed on the Tokamak Complex Building.

As work proceeds behind the hill on the east side of the worksite, the feeling is one of déjà vu: things look strangely familiar, as if time had rolled back to the years 2007-2008 when the ITER platform was being levelled and readied for construction.   The two-hectare logistics platform will host the 9,000 m2 warehouse and an outdoor storage area. It is located on a stretch of land that was transferred from CEA to the ITER Organization earlier this year. And indeed it is another platform that is taking shape, although on a much smaller scale. One that will support the 9,000 m² warehouse and outdoor holding area where average-size components will be stored, pending their integration into the machine.   Whereas the ITER platform had to be levelled, the new logistics platform behind the hill has to be compacted, as it is formed from accumulated backfill (up to 30 metres in depth) from the ITER construction site.   Compacting is a time-consuming and spectacular operation, achieved by repeatedly dropping, every 10 square metres or so, an 18-tonne steel mass from a height of 12 metres. As a consequence, the level of the platform will eventually be lowered by one to two metres.   Compacting is achieved by repeatedly dropping an 18-ton steel mass from a height of 12 metres. Compacting operations will take about one month. Once finalized, soil pressure tests will be performed to confirm that the two-hectare platform presents the required bearing capacity to support the warehouse and outside storage area.   By the end of 2015, a climate controlled, steel-structure warehouse will be in place for component storage. Half of its surface will be used for mass storage; the other half will be equipped with racks (up to eight metres high) for pallet storage.   Components will reach the warehouse by way of the heavy-haul road build along the edge of the ITER site, where they will be unpacked, stored, and sometimes pre-assembled within the warehouse.   The logistics platform is part of a ten-hectare parcel of land that was transferred from the CEA to the ITER Organization earlier this year. Two hectares will be used by the European Domestic Agency to dispose of some 200,000 m3 of soil and rock resulting from the ongoing construction work on the ITER platform.  

​In November 2006, the last LHC dipole and quadrupole cold masses arrived at CERN, signalling the end of the industrial construction of the major components of the new 27-km particle collider (CERN Courier October 2006 p28 and January/February 2007 p25). The LHC then entered the installation and the commissioning phases. In the same month, at the Elysée Palace in Paris, the ITER Agreement was signed by seven parties: China, the EU, India, Japan, Korea, Russia and the US. The Agreement's ratification in October of the following year marked the start of a new mega-science project — ITER ... that in many respects is the heir of the LHC. Both machines are based on, for example, a huge superconducting magnet system, large cryogenic plants of unmatched power, a large volume of ultra-high vacuum, a complex electrical powering system, sophisticated interlock and protection systems, high-technology devices and work in highly radioactive environments. Read more on the CERN website.

​The University of Wisconsin Fusion Technology Institute, founded in 1971, has been a leader in fusion and plasma physics research, with a broad range of basic science, engineering, and applications programs. The Institute has done pioneering experimental work using advanced helium-3 fuel to produce fusion energy. Dr. Kulcinski is the Director of the Institute, Associate Dean for Research in the College of Engineering, and Grainger Professor of Nuclear Engineering. He has led a scientific team which has doggedly pursued, and tirelessly promoted, research into the advanced fusion fuels, such as helium-3, which will create the energy for the future. Read more in the Executive Intelligence Review

​For its fourth edition, the Low Carbon Earth Summit confirmed its role as a major annual event attracting an international audience concerned by—and involved in—the issue of sustainable development. About 1,000 participants from all over the world, two Nobel Laureates, and a hundred of presenters were present from 21 to 23 September in Qingdao, China; from a quantitative point of view the event was clearly successful. And from a qualitative point of view as well, as the conference convincingly showed that we have entered a new age. Many examples of technological developments were presented that result or will result in a net decrease in carbon emissions. The diversity of low-carbon initiatives around the world is absolutely impressive. Adaptation and mitigation of climate change are now embedded at all levels at the society (technology, law, education) and in all countries. In Australia, for example, the government has begun approaching groups that will be affected by the rise in ocean level to explore the possible actions. In China, Oxfam is conducting pilot projects in rural areas in order to evaluate the resilience of the food system and the vulnerability of the poorest to climate change. Legislation and law also need to be adapted. Studies conducted in several countries by the Swedish lawyer Peter Lohmander show that forests can be exploited in a sustainable way provided that regulations are modified. Many initiatives have been taken across all countries in educating people and raising public awareness. Hence the diversity of the participant's profiles: there are not many conferences today where you can find at the same table a lawyer, an economist, a farmer, a physicist and an entrepreneur. Against this backdrop, I presented ITER as a genuine disruptive and innovative technology that is likely to change the course of our civilization. As the world's most populated country and a key economic actor, China was obviously the focus of many discussions. During the opening session two Nobel Prize winners in economics, Edward Prescott (2004) and Sir Christopher Pissarides (2010), showed that the future of the Chinese "economic miracle" will depend on the government's capacity of reforming the country's economic institutions and significantly deregulating its services industry. In this respect, said Sir Christopher, China has a historical opportunity "not make the same mistake as many European countries." The 2010 Nobel Prize winner added that he saw "China's opportunities in the globalized world as high technology manufacturing. Its research system is now mature enough to really start innovating." -Michel Claessens, head of ITER Communication & External Relations

On 18 September, three trucks arrived from Italy loaded with equipment for ITER's Steady State Electrical Network (SSEN). The high voltage disconnectors and earthing switches were procured by the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), which serves as the SSEN engineering support subcontractor to the US Domestic Agency, and manufactured by the Italian branch of Alstom.

​As the international ITER project to develop an experimental nuclear fusion reactor eats into research budgets around the world, an advisory panel to the US Department of Energy recommends mothballing at least one of three major experiments and focusing on research necessary to bring ITER online. The Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee (FESAC) released its report on 22 September at a meeting in Gaithersburg, Maryland. The document outlines a 10-year plan for US nuclear fusion research for various budget scenarios, the most optimistic of which calls for "modest growth". Nuclear fusion offers the potential for producing practically limitless energy by smashing heavy atoms of hydrogen into helium inside a burning 100-million-kelvin plasma and capturing the energy released by the reaction — but scientific and engineering challenges remain. The report says the US should focus research initiatives on the biggest impediments to ITER's donut-like design, called a tokamak — how to control the writhing plasma at the reactor's core, and understanding how it interacts with surrounding material in order to engineer walls that can maintain the reaction. Read more on Nature web site.  

​Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories' Z machine have produced a significant output of fusion neutrons, using a method fully functioning for only little more than a year. [...] The experimental work is described in a paper to be published in the Sept. 24 Physical Review Letters online. A theoretical PRL paper to be published on the same date helps explain why the experimental method worked. The combined work demonstrates the viability of the novel approach. "We are committed to shaking this [fusion] tree until either we get some good apples or a branch falls down and hits us on the head," said Sandia senior manager Dan Sinars. He expects the project, dubbed MagLIF for magnetized liner inertial fusion, will be "a key piece of Sandia's submission for a July 2015 National Nuclear Security Administration review of the national Inertial Confinement Fusion Program." Inertial confinement fusion creates nanosecond bursts of neutrons, ideal for creating data to plug into supercomputer codes that test the safety, security and effectiveness of the U.S. nuclear stockpile. The method could be useful as an energy source down the road if the individual fusion pulses can be sequenced like an automobile's cylinders firing.   Read more on Sandia National Laboratories web site.