Whether standing vertically in the Assembly Hall or lying horizontally in the former Cryostat Workshop now assigned to component repair operations, the non-conformities on three vacuum vessel sectors are undergoing similar treatment: the depressions along the bevel joints, where sectors are to be welded to one another, are filled with metal, while the "bumps" are machined in order to restore geometry to nominal. Following close to one year of study and preparation, repair work on sector #7 began in the Assembly Hall in March and is expected to be completed by late August. Sector #6 should follow soon afterwards. As for Sector #8, the most affected of the three, repair work in the former Cryostat Workshop started in earnest a few weeks ago. Metal build-up operations on the bevels of sector #7 passed the 95% mark last week and machining is half-way to completion. Work is a little less advanced on sector #6, with approximately 65% of build-up done and machining just beginning. Metal build-up, which is done manually on sectors #7 and #6, is a delicate operation that demands extreme concentration to achieve uniformity, homogeneity and reliability. It is also a lengthy one—no less than 24 kgs of metal fill-up need to be deposited, pass after patient pass, on the bevels of both sectors. The repairs on sector #8 will require significantly more fill-up and, as a consequence, the process will be partly automated. A massive support structure is now in place inside the component to support the automated welding machine which will be installed this week. Machining is an automated but no less lengthy process. The milling heads that shave the excess metal have to be positioned with micrometric precision along a series of predetermined positions along the bevel. Each position requires approximately 10 days to be fully machined and there are thirteen successive positions to cover on each side of every sector. Three milling machines can be operating at the same time at different locations on the same sector. The nature of the work, both a painstaking craft and an industrial process, is illustrated in the gallery below.

The new ITER baseline and its associated research plan were presented last week at the 50th annual conference of the European Physical Society Plasma Physics Division. The Plasma Physics Division of the European Physical Society (EPS) held its 50th annual conference from 8 to 12 July 2024 with the participation of 660 scientists from more than 40 countries. The magnificent university town of Salamanca in Spain was the chosen venue to mark this momentous anniversary, with the conference being hosted by the Spanish Centre for Pulsed Lasers in collaboration with Madrid's Polytechnic University. Salamanca's University was founded in 1218 and presently has 26 faculties/schools and over 30,000 students. It is the oldest university in Spain, also one of the oldest in Europe, and was used as the template for the first universities founded in the American continent from the 1550s onwards. The Spanish Centre for Pulsed Lasers operates a petawatt-class laser facility which is open to the Spanish and international scientific community for the application of high-power laser technologies in a wide range of fields such as physics, engineering, biology, and medicine. This remarkable venue and important EPS anniversary provided an ideal setting for the first presentation of the new ITER baseline and Research Plan in a scientific forum after the submission of these documents to the ITER Council in June. The new baseline and its associated research plan were described in a plenary talk at the conference and this description was supported by detailed scientific analysis reported in invited, oral and poster presentations from ITER staff, postdoctoral researchers, Scientist Fellows and collaborators. The rationale and strategy for the new baseline and the detailed objectives of the research plan were presented to the EPS scientific community. The research plan includes three phases (Start of Research Operation and 1st and 2nd Deuterium-Tritium phases) that provide a scientifically sound and robust path to the demonstration of ITER's scientific and technological goals. Open R&D issues which need to be addressed in the near future in order to consolidate the details of the research plan were also presented to the EPS attendants, triggering very productive discussions with a wide range of researchers from ITER Members fusion research institutions interested in supporting the new ITER baseline and research plan. In this EPS conference there were more than 160 papers orally presented (plenary, invited and oral presentations) and more than 400 as posters. Results of particular relevance to the new ITER baseline and research plan reported at this conference included the validation of the models to describe the transport of tungsten in the main plasma and the demonstration of power exhaust with a tungsten wall (including Edge Localized Mode control) in ASDEX Upgrade; the demonstration of high-performance long pulse H-mode operation with a tungsten wall in EAST; and the confirmation and enhancement of edge tungsten screening and deuterium-tritium fusion plasma performance at JET, to cite a few.  

The ITER Organization has signed an agreement on technical cooperation with TAE Technololgies.  This private fusion energy company located in California is developing a proprietary compact, linear device called "an advanced beam-driven field-reversed configuration" designed to operate with hydrogen-boron fuel. Two subsidiaries—TAE Power Solutions (for a more efficient and resilient power grid) and TAE Life Sciences (novel cancer drugs)—complement its fusion power activities, which have been underway since the company's founding in 1998. The purpose of the agreement between TAE and ITER is "to promote cooperation and exchange in technical fields of mutual interest." "Together, we will work to advance the development of fusion power and a well-trained workforce," said the company in a post on Facebook. -- ITER Director-General Pietro Barabaschi (second from left) meets (left to right) Chief Technology Officer Artem Smirnov, SVP Fusion Science Sergei Putvinski, CEO Michl Binderbauer, and VP R&D Mike Meekins during a recent visit to TAE Headquarters.

The Board of Directors of Fusion Power Associates (FPA) has announced its 2024 Leadership Awards. The awards will be presented at Fusion Power Associates 45th Annual Meeting and Symposium "Fusion Energy: Progress, Challenges and Promise," December 2-3, in Washington, DC. Ian Chapman (UKAEA, left) is recognized for the broad range of his technical and management skills, including the completion of the JET scientific mission and the expansion of the UKAEA Culham Laboratory's role in establishing a UK national focus on moving more quickly toward fusion power. Constantin Haefner (Fraunhofer Institut, right) is recognized for his demonstrated leadership in the areas of state-of-the-art laser and optical technology for inertial fusion, high energy density physics and the generation of secondary sources for a range of applications, and the role he is playing in elevating national attention on fusion energy development. FPA Leadership Awards have been given annually since 1980 to recognize persons who have shown outstanding leadership qualities in accelerating the development of fusion as a commercial power source. A list of previous recipients can be found at http://fusionpower.org and click on Awards.