In November 2022, "ongoing operations" started in the temporary main control room. This important milestone is another sign of the progress in systems commissioning. Since going live in Room 2016 of the ITER Headquarters building, the temporary main control room (T-MCR) is staffed by operators from ITER's Science, Controls & Operation Domain (SCOD)—one works in the morning and another in the afternoon. Start and end times depend on workloads, and may be adjusted—but in principle at least, the room is in use every workday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Each operator works about five hours, including a short handover period during which the two operators exchange information on the status of different systems and ongoing activities. The T-MCR had already been used from time to time to start up new equipment. For example, in November 2019, it was used to connect ITER's pulse powered transformer to the French power grid. But beginning what the specialists call "remote operations" marks a significant step. Since 16 November 2022, 13 remote operators have been taking turns running plant systems from the temporary main control room, using the same CODAC workstation—with the same human-machine interface—that will be moved to the main control room when it opens in the Control Building. SCOD operators are already fulfilling several functions from the T-MCR. The first is to help commission the systems that have been transferred to the Science Controls & Operations Domain. "Tasks that we perform to help commission the secondary water loops, the heat rejection system, and liquid and gas systems include starting and stopping pumps and reaching target flow rates," says Andrei Badmaev, shift operator. "We also monitor pressure and temperature levels. We follow commissioning test procedures based on the manufacturer's datasheet for a given set of equipment. Most of the time, everything is fine, so at the end of the day, we stop the pumps and return everything to a safe condition." "This is a good opportunity for us to train on systems before they move from commissioning to operation and to coordinate with operators in the field," says Benoît Chatelain, group leader in the Science Controls & Operations Domain. "Remote operators never start a pump without assistance from an operator in the field, for example. Likewise, operators in the field get used to working with operators in the T-MCR." Today, SCOD operators run several systems and sub-systems from the T-MCR. The compressed air and demineralized water units are operated daily to support activities on the ITER platform. Compressed air is supplied at 9.3 barg to the cryoplant buildings and the Assembly Hall to support commissioning and construction, respectively. Demineralized water flows up to the building for reactive power control to supply the secondary cooling water loop. From their remote location, the operators help commission the systems that have been handed over to Operations, monitor pressure and temperature levels, and support operators in the field. They are also fine tuning the procedures that will be used when the main control room starts up in the Control Building on site. Working from the T-MCR, SCOD operators help ensure safe and reliable service to cool cryoplant equipment for ongoing commissioning activities. Up to 4 MW thermal are withdrawn from the cryoplant thanks to the secondary cooling water loop. In the near future, SCOD Operators will serve additional clients in commissioning—including the coil power supply and electron cyclotron heating systems. "We do more than just support operators in the field," explains Vladislav Kim, principal shift operator for SCOD. "We also serve as coordinators between different groups in unusual situations, such as emergency response and safety interventions." "Not only do we test, commission and operate equipment, but we also work on procedures for handovers, and on the interaction between people in the field and the person in the control room," says Chatelain. "This is our chance to fine tune the procedures that will be used when the main control room goes live." The T-MCR will continue operating from ITER Headquarters until the main control starts up in the Control Building.

Wrapping can be a mere necessity, often a chore and sometimes an art. At ITER, the act of wrapping is an industrial-size operation that requires dozens of operators, sophisticated equipment and tonnes of material. Whether manufactured abroad or on site, components need to be protected in order to withstand the hardships of a long journey and/or long-term storage prior to their installation in the Tokamak assembly pit. There are several efficient techniques for sealing away large components. In April 2019, the cryostat upper cylinder was tightly wrapped in layers of synthetic thermoplastic material and placed into an air-tight, atmosphere-controlled cocoon. The cocooning process, however, uses certain chemical products whose quantity on any given worksite is strictly regulated in France. Once the 10-metre-tall, 30-metre-in-diameter component was wrapped and sealed, the regulatory limit had nearly been reached and would have been largely passed if the same process had been used for the cryostat top lid. Protecting this component for long-term storage required a different solution. Contrary to the cocoon, whose elements were partly produced on site for the upper cylinder, the different layers of plastic wrapping used for the top lid are delivered "ready to use" and do not require the handling of regulated chemicals. "The process chosen, called VCI packing (for "volatile corrosion inhibitor") is equivalent, in terms of leak-tightness and protection, to the cocooning," explains Guillaume Vitupier, the leader of the ITER Cryostat Group. Wrapping operations began one month ago, close to one year after the massive component (665 tonnes) was finalized. Before the first layer of VCI was installed, three cameras were positioned in strategic locations inside to monitor the component's surface. To the tightly adhering first layer, a second wrapping was added and heated by blowtorch in order to fit to the component's shape as closely as possible. Operations are now in their final stages as a thick and heavy external cover (1.5 tonnes) made of approximately 50 made-to-measure sections is being installed. A 50-centimetre-thick reinforced slab was recently created to withstand the weight of the component and its support frame (nearly 1,000 tonnes, combined). Like fragrance diffusers in a room, capsules inside the packing "will saturate the atmosphere with corrosion inhibitor molecules," says Vitupier. "Molecule concentration as well as humidity will be monitored at all time." As its name suggests, the cryostat top lid will "close" the giant vacuum chamber that surrounds the ITER Tokamak at the end of core machine assembly. In the meantime, in early April this massive component—the second heaviest single component of the machine¹—will be moved out of the Cryostat Workshop where it was assembled and welded and placed in outdoor storage across the road near the Cleaning Facility. A 50-centimetre-thick reinforced slab was recently created to withstand the combined weight of the component and its support frame, which approaches 1,000 tonnes. ¹ At 1,250 tonnes, the cryostat base, which was installed in the Tokamak assembly pit in May 2020, is the heaviest single machine component.

A research team at the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences announces that a new type of poloidal field coil power supply has been successfully tested on the EAST tokamak. Described as "the first power supply for poloidal field coil in tokamak devices to adopt fully controlled power electronic devices and pulse power modulation technology," the power supply (rated current ± 15kA) was installed and tested on the EAST tokamak, demonstrating performance that exceeded design requirements.  In the experiment, the fully controlled pulse power modulation technology replaced the thyristor phase-controlled rectifier in the high-power fusion magnet power converter. It has many advantages, including high efficiency, high power factor, controllable harmonics, fast response, high reliability and low embedded cost. "We have been working on this project for six years," said lead researcher Prof. Huang. "Four years on research and two years on key technologies." The development and operation of the new generation of power supplies will not only promote the technical application of fully controlled power conversion technology in the field of high current, but also provide a promising solution for future fusion facilities, according to the team. Read the full press release in English or Chinese.

The fusion community remembers a devoted fusion technologist.  It is with great sadness that we announce that Richard Tivey passed away on 13 February 2023. Richard was a devoted fusion technologist and started his career in fusion with the JET Neutral Beam Engineering team in the early 1980s. His prowess in heat transfer took him in 1993 to the ITER Project where he joined the ITER Divertor Design Team in Garching, near Munich, Germany. Richard was an avid problem solver and travelled the world interacting with scientists and engineers which resulted in a ITER divertor design that is capable of handling heat loads similar to those on the surface of the Sun. In 2010, he took his first retirement and moved back to the United Kingdom. With not so many problems to be solved in the garden, the fusion itch returned and he went back to work for the MAST Upgrade project at the UKAEA solving many engineering dilemmas that the project faced. As if this was not enough, he provided constant support and reviews to the work of EUROfusion and the design of the demonstration fusion power plant after ITER. Richard was a loving husband, caring father of three and devoted grandfather of six. Richard will be greatly missed by the friends he made over many years across the global fusion community.

Under the patronage of H.R.H. Prince El Hassan Bin Talal of Jordan, the Al Hussein Technical University cordially invites you to a join a webinar that it is organizing on 8 March 2023. The webinar, titled "Towards an Arab Initiative for Fusion Energy," will feature speakers Tim Luce, Chief Scientist at ITER; Prof. Tony Donné, CEO of EUROfusion; Prof. Sir Steven Cowley, Director of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL); and Andrew Holland, CEO of the Fusion Industry Association. Scan the QR code on the poster at right or click here to sign up.

The 28th International Conference on Magnet Technology (MT-28) will be held in Aix-en-Provence, France, during the week of 10 to 15 September 2023. The scientific program of MT-28—the preeminent international forum for magnet-related technology and design—will cover fusion, high-energy physics, power engineering and medical diagnosis.  The deadline for submitting abstracts has been extended to 6 March 2023. Don't miss the opportunity to submit your abstract now!

Organized every two years by CEA Cadarache (France) and the Institute of Nuclear Physics PAN (Poland), the PhDiaFusion Summer School of Plasma Diagnostics is designed for graduate students and their tutors in the spirit of a "master and apprentice" approach. Diagnostic measurements are essential in plasma experiments to infer the relevant plasma properties, both for physical interpretation and for real-time control. In modern fusion devices such as ITER, DEMO, or the DONES neutron facility, the huge amount of generated data may require fast and efficient processes to infer the physical quantities with a reasonable computational cost. The use of artificial intelligence can be of a great help to achieve this goal by feeding learning systems with experimental data and/or simulation results. The 2023 edition of the PhDiaFusion Summer School will cover diagnostics data processing, interpretation, validation and real-time control aspects with a focus on artificial intelligence methods. Join us for the next edition of PhDiaFusion from 19 to 23 June 2023 on the topic of "Artificial Intelligence for Plasma Diagnostics and Controlled Fusion."  Register on line by 15 May 2023. See all information on this page.