In recognition of and in gratitude for outstanding contributions to the ITER Project, the National Fusion Research Institute (NFRI) in Korea presented three of its suppliers with plaques of appreciation on 4 November 2014.   Recognized for the quality of their manufacturing contributions to ITER were: Kiswire Advanced Technology (KAT); Nexans Korea; and the Italian Consortium for Applied Superconductivity (ICAS).KAT, who was awarded the manufacturing contract for 93 tonnes of niobium-tin (Nb3Sn) superconducting strand for ITER toroidal field conductors in 2009, completed the procurement last year. "To have completed the manufacturing in four years is impressive," stressed the head of the Korean Domestic Agency Kijung Jung, "especially considering that the worldwide rate of Nb3Sn strand production before ITER did not exceed 15 tonnes per year."   The cabling contract for the toroidal field conductors was awarded to Nexans Korea, also in 2009. From the superconducting strand produced by KAT, Nexans manufactured 27 superconducting cables and 2 qualification dummies—the entire Korean share of toroidal field cable procurement. Production was successfully completed and all the authorization to proceed points (ATPP) were cleared by the ITER Organization in May 2014.   "I would like to thank the NFRI for their constant support during the manufacturing of cables for the ITER toroidal field conductors," stated Nexans Director Han II-Young. "We will do our best to become one of the worldwide references for superconductor production."   And for the final step in toroidal field conductor manufacturing—jacketing—the contract was awarded by the Korean Domestic Agency to ICAS in 2011. In a very successful and productive collaboration, the entire Korean share (20.18 percent) of toroidal field conductors was successfully manufactured and the hold points cleared on 12 September 2014.   "I am very happy to be here today with ITER Korea members and to thank the NFRI for a great collaboration," said Antonio Della Corte, ICAS president.   The Korean Domestic Agency is thus the first of six producing Domestic Agencies to complete toroidal field conductor procurement.   "We will continue in collaborative spirit with the ITER Organization and the industries interested in participating in the ITER Project for the success of our procurements in the future," concluded Kijung Jung, at the end of the recognition ceremony.

For the eighteenth time since the signature of the ITER Agreement, the ITER Council Management Advisory Committee (MAC) convened at the ITER Headquarters last week to assess the progress of the project and make its recommendations to the ITER Council for the next Council meeting which will take place on 19-20 November 2014. "The ITER Project has passed the point of no return," ITER Director-General Osamu Motojima stated in his opening address. "The manufacturing activities for ITER components and plant systems are advancing at an increasing rate and the first components have started to arrive on site. Over the next months, a rapid expansion of the on-site construction activities will take place and the construction of 16 buildings will be launched." The MAC Members could personally bear witness to the progress made on the construction site, where a milestone was reached in August 2014 with the completion of the Tokamak Complex foundations, and where the installation of the first tall pillars on site heralds the erection of the Assembly Building.   Back in the ITER Council Chamber on the fifth floor of the Headquarters building, the heads of delegation from each of the seven ITER Members reported on the manufacturing of plant systems and components underway around the world. To date, 99 Procurement Arrangements—the documents that govern the procurement of plant systems, components, or site construction by detailing all the necessary technical specifications and management requirements—have been signed between the ITER Organization and the Domestic Agencies, representing 89.8 percent of the value of in-kind construction contributions. The MAC members appreciated the progress reported and the quality of the presentations. However, the Committee expressed its concern about the continued and persistent challenge the ITER Project faces: the need for closer collaboration between the ITER Organization and its Domestic Agencies to improve the project execution schedule. This important articulation is "more important than ever" and will be at the centre of discussion during the ITER Council meeting later this month.   Click here to see a gallery of photos from the event.

As a large international science project, ITER faces various challenges. Rivalling its complex and innovative design is the difficulty of planning, executing, monitoring, and controlling a project with hundreds of thousands of activities split between the ITER Organization and the seven Domestic Agencies.   For this reason, the discipline of project management, which uses specialized knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to achieve project requirements¹, was strongly recommended as a key strategy for the remainder of construction in the 2013 Management Assessment².   One of the ways in which ITER is meeting its obligation to create a project management culture is by fostering association with project management organizations like the Association for Project Management (APM) in the UK. This provides a forum for the exchange of ideas and best practices. Recently, the ITER Organization was invited by the APM chairman to present fusion energy and the ITER Project to project managers from around Europe at its annual Project Management Conference held at the Airbus assembly facility in Toulouse, France.   Many participants had never heard of ITER. They were interested in the potential of fusion energy for solving global energy concerns and in how ITER is addressing risks during construction. For their part, Airbus employees shared experiences in using earned value management and other tools to deliver successful projects to their customers. In addition, they gave a guided tour of their 490 metre-long assembly building where Airbus produces a new A380, the world's largest passenger airplane, every ten days.   The ITER Organization looks forward to continuing its association with APM and similar organizations. We are working to host the annual APM conference on site in 2015 in order to provide staff from the ITER Organization and the Domestic Agencies with an opportunity to broaden their understanding of project management and learn how it can help ITER achieve its schedule and cost goals. We are also planning a series of talks on project management that will be scheduled for early next year.   --- 1- 2008 Project Management Institute. A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide) — Fourth Edition 2-According to the ITER Agreement, a Management Assessment of the activities of the ITER Organization must be is undertaken every two years by an independent management assessor appointed by the ITER Council.   

​Wildlife is thriving on the ITER site. Wild boars, mouflon goats and deer freely roam the vast expanses of forest that surround the installation. This picture of two young does was taken last week by APAVE's Health and Safety Coordinator Laurent Feron, as he drove along the track leading to the Logistics Platform located behind the hill on the east side of the worksite. These does are no ordinary animals — they are descendants of the two pairs of Sikka deer that were offered to French President Sadi Carnot by the Emperor of Japan Mutsuhito, the "Meiji Emperor", in 1890. The two couples were originally hosted in the Presidential Hunting Reserve near Paris. By 1928, the original four had become a small herd, and a few individuals were entrusted to various national parks and wildlife reservations. The National Forest in Cadarache was one of them. Eighty-six years later, the Emperor's deer are still here, scattered between the CEA-Cadarache enclosure, the National Forestry Commission reserve and the outskirts of the ITER site.  

​From 20-22 May 2015 the ENERGY, SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY Conference and Exhibition (EST-Energy) will be taking place at the Karlsruhe Convention Center in Germany. The conference will focus on all energy-related topics with an emphasis on renewable and CO2-free forms of energy. The establishment of a sustainable, reliable and achievable energy system needs a worldwide cross-linked effort. Research, development and implementation of innovations by both the scientific community as well as industry is necessary. EST-Energy 2015 aims to provide a platform for the most recent research findings and allow participants to network with other researchers and engineers from all over the world. Fusion is one of the themes of the conference. A call for abstracts has been launched for topics that fall in the following categories: ITER- and DEMO-related issues, the development strategies of new fusion devices (W7-X, JT-60 SA... ), and technical issues that may be of interest to others. The deadline for paper abstracts is 15 December 2014. All information can be found on the conference website.

​Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researchers, in collaboration with General Atomics and the University of Arizona, have developed an infrared and visible camera viewing system that's able to produce wide-angle, tangential views of full poloidal (north-south direction of the magnetic field) cross-sections inside the tokamak. The camera's images provide researchers with data about the interior conditions of the DIII-D, which was built under contract for the US Department of Energy. "We wanted to look inside the tokamak's chamber to see where things were heating up on the walls," said Kevin Morris, a designer with LLNL's National Security Engineer Division, who was part of the research team that developed the camera system. "There are a lot of critical areas that are heated by the plasma, and researchers want to understand them better."   ... The camera system consists of a commercially available infrared camera, a fast visible camera and an optical system designed by a collaboration of physicists, engineers, optical designers and mechanical designers.   Their design will be used as a prototype for a set of larger cameras that will be built for ITER. Read the full story on the LLNL website here.