For the 35th time, the ITER Council has convened to review the progress of the ITER project, received presentations on the progress of construction, manufacturing, assembly, and licensing during its two day meeting on 20 and 21 November 2024. Discussions focused on the performance of the project against its work plan for this year and on the Proposed Baseline 2024. Based on the analyses carried out so far by the ITER Members, the Council endorsed the overall baseline approach. Presented to the ITER Council in June 2024, the proposed Baseline 2024 prioritizes the start of substantial research operation as rapidly as possible. With a divertor, blanket shield blocks and other key components and systems in place, ITER's first operational phase, Start of Research Operation, will feature hydrogen and deuterium-deuterium plasmas that culminate in the operation of the machine in long pulses at full magnetic energy and plasma current. The proposed baseline also includes more time for integrated commissioning, the testing of some magnet coils at 4 K (minus 269 ° C), additional heating, and the availability of disruption mitigation. The material for the plasma-facing blanket first wall is also changing from beryllium to tungsten. The ITER Council supported the use of Baseline 2024 by the ITER Organization, together with the Domestic Agencies, as a working plan for progress monitoring and operational management this year. And as reported to the Council this week, the project has performed according to the schedule of the proposed new baseline, with an execution rate that surpasses all previous years. Going forward, the Council approved the 2025 budget, which conforms to the proposed updated baseline, and requests continued efforts to reduce the risks of the project and optimize costs, through the determination of project phases and gates with appropriate milestones.  Sergio Orlandi, head of the ITER Construction Project, speaks to the Member delegates while Massimo Garribba, ITER Council Chair, looks on. Approximately 90 people attended the two-day meeting. Other project advancements were reported, including the good progress of repair to critical components, the recently delivery of two additional vacuum vessel sectors (#1 and #5), the completion of all toroidal field coils, and the achievement of helium liquefaction in the ITER cryoplant—a precursor to other critical commissioning activities of the ITER plant. Council members also welcomed the channels that have been established for sharing knowledge with private sector fusion companies established after a major workshop in May. Council members ended their visit to the ITER Organization by visiting different parts of the worksite and, for some, participating in a short ceremony for vacuum sector arrival. (The ceremony will be covered in the next issue of the ITER Newsline.) Read the full press release in English or French.

Of the nine vacuum vessel sectors required to form the tokamak’s toroidal plasma chamber, five are already present on site. In the ITER Assembly Hall, two are being assembled into modules that will be installed later in the assembly pit. Another is undergoing repair in the former Cryostat Workshop, where two other recently arrived sectors have just been stored. The reception of the first vacuum vessel from Europe (out of five expected) on 25 October and that of the fourth and final sector from Korea on 8 November, was celebrated last week following the conclusion of the 35th ITER Council. The celebration included several speeches by European and Korean stakeholders, an award ceremony, and the sharing of a tokamak-shaped cake in the former Cryostat Workshop under the towering presence of the massive components. Jan Panek, Europe’s Head of Delegation to the ITER Council, described the vacuum vessel sectors as “the most complex fusion structures ever built” and, like his Korean counterpart Deputy Science and ICT Minister Pan-sik Hwang, praised the “tireless dedication” of all those who had contributed to their successful manufacturing. In the former Cryostat Workshop, under the towering presence of the massive components. Marc Lachaise, director of the European Domestic Agency Fusion for Energy, noted that on the European side, “15 factories and several hundreds professionals” were involved in vacuum vessel fabrication. Kijung Jung, head of the Korean Domestic Agency, insisted on the quality of the collaboration between the two ITER Members. “As we have done up to this point,” he said, “we will move forward together, strengthened by the trust and mutual respect that we share.” The audience also heard the testimony of representatives of industry. Marcello Parodi, the director of the AMW Consortium that was charged with vacuum vessel manufacturing in Europe, confided that he hadn’t expected “to feel such emotion” when he saw the European vacuum vessel sitting in storage on the ITER site. Kyung Ho Park, Vice-President of Hyundai Heavy Industries, noted that the journey that began in 2010 with the signature of the manufacturing contract had been “marked by continuous challenges” due to uniquely stringent requirements in terms of dimensional tolerances and quality standards. Hundreds of specialists have contributed to the manufacturing and safe delivery of the ITER vacuum vessel sectors. Representatives gathered onstage in the ITER amphitheatre on 21 November 2024 to receive their “Certificate of Appreciation.” The manufacturing and safe delivery of the ITER vacuum vessels was—and still is—the work of hundreds of specialists throughout the world. Addressing their representatives gathered onstage to receive a “Certificate of Appreciation,” ITER Director-General Pietro Barabaschi recalled, quite jokingly, how in its early phases the ITER project “was very fervent about complicating simple affairs, and even about further complicating affairs that were already complicated…” But despite compounding organizational complexities on top of an already daunting industrial challenge … the job had been completed. And although the delivery of five vacuum vessel sectors and the finalization of four others is far from being the end of the road for plasma chamber assembly, the ITER Director-General marvelled at the fact that “we are where we are today.”

Located not far from the city centre, the round, modern structure of the Baku Stadium usually hosts thousands of sports enthusiasts as they cheer on their teams. For two weeks in November, the world climate summit took over the venue, and fusion energy was once again part of the discussion. From 11-24 November 2024, the world came together in the capital of Azerbaijan for the 29th Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)—as the climate change summit is officially called. Under the overall slogan “In solidarity for a green world,” participants to this year’s gathering were expected to set out clear climate plans and mobilize financial resources for the realization of targets agreed on at COP28 in Dubai the year before.  In an emotional plea at the outset of the summit, UNFCCC Executive Secretary Simon Stiell from Grenada emphasized the rising stakes of climate change. “This crisis is affecting every single individual in the world in one way or another. […] It is here that the Parties need to agree to find a way out of this mess.” Fusion energy, as a potential contribution to a carbon-free future, is becoming a fixture at the climate change summit—ITER first held up the fusion flag at the COP21 in Paris in 2015 and also participated in the 2017, 2021 and 2023 editions; the first panel discussion on fusion was organized at COP26 in Glasgow in 2021; and fusion made quite a splash last year at COP28 in Dubai. This year, supported by EUROfusion, the private fusion industry and the Clean Air Task Force, the ITER project set up its stand in the Green Zone and continued feeding the increasing appetite for hearing about progress in the development of fusion energy. “We have you on our radar,” said Adil Aliyev advisor to the president of Azerenergy, Azerbaijan’s largest electrical power producer, and member of the National Assembly. Thousands of attendees visited the ITER booth, including delegations from Peru, Brazil, the United States, Iran, the Comoro Islands, Mongolia, China (pictured), Malaysia, Japan and Azerbaijan, all eager to learn about ITER's progress and fusion’s promise. (Pictured is ITER Deputy Director-General for Corporate, Luo Delong.) The many visitors to the stand—students, scientists, climate activists and political decision-makers—all showed a keen interest in the ITER project. Discussions revolved most frequently around the project’s ambitious science and precision engineering, its international nature, and the latest news and updates.  ITER Deputy Director-General for Corporate Luo Delong was pleased with the number of interactions he had on the ITER stand with young visitors. “We need more education and more promotion of fusion to attract young people to join the quest.”  In two panel discussions organized at the ITER stand by the Clean Air Task Force (CATF) and chaired by ITER’s Luo Delong, experts looked at ways to accelerate the development of fusion energy.    At the ITER stand, a panel is held on how international collaboration can accelerate the commercial deployment of fusion energy. Panelists are Jose Aguilar (IFMIF-DONES), Andrew Smith (American Nuclear Society), Gale Hauck (Oak Ridge National Laboratory), Anders Wulff (European Fusion Association), Sehila Gonzalez (Clean Air Task Force), and Luo Delong (ITER Organization). At the first panel, Sehila Gonzales from CATF, Jose Aguilar from the fusion materials project IFMIF-DONES, Andrew Smith from the American Nuclear Society, Gale Hauck from Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Anders Wulff from the newly founded European Fusion Association all agreed that international cooperation is key to speeding up commercial fusion deployment. They listed the areas that stood to benefit in particular from joining efforts internationally as: fusion industry standardization, material testing, the development of global markets and supply chains, data sharing and storage, and the development of a skilled workforce. The second panel focused on the rapid advancements in enabling technologies. The ITER stand was the perfect stage for a discussion of a new CATF report on how artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) can accelerate fusion energy in a range of areas, including in materials, superconductors, tritium breeding and diagnostics. CATF’s Sehila Gonzalez was joined by Erik Fernandez of the European Fusion Business Association (EUFBA), Lucio Milanese, the Co-Founder of Proxima Fusion, and Jake Oster of Amazon Web Services. Gonzalez said that with AI and HPC providing resources that were unimaginable just a few years ago, “we now have the opportunity to develop fusion much faster.” Lucio Milanese predicted how generations of fusion hardware iterations can be leapfrogged. “The more we can model this hardware in silico, the more we can understand the behaviour of systems and sub-systems, from plasmas to different engineering components, without having to spend millions if not billions on hardware development.” Both panel discussions at the ITER stand demonstrated how quickly the fusion field is evolving, and how public and private fusion initiatives are joining together to develop fusion as a clean, safe and abundant source of energy. Read a related article on how ITER is collaborating with the private fusion sector here. Click to watch the fusion panel discussions: Panel 1: "International collaboration: A tool to speed up commercial fusion deployment" Panel 2: "Fusion 3.0: The combined effect of AI & high-performance computing to deploy fusion energy"

DeLeah Lockridge, previously a senior R&D staff member in the Nuclear Operations and Licensing group at the United States Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), has joined the ITER Organization as head of the Engineering Services Department.   The ITER Council formally appointed Lockridge to the position in June 2024.  The Engineering Services Department is instrumental for ITER assembly and commissioning of subsystems now underway. In past engineering and management roles, Lockridge supported completion of Units 3 and 4 at the Vogtle Electric Generating Plant in Waynesboro, Georgia. “This showcases the integrated capabilities and expertise that ORNL brings to bear to accelerate fusion energy coming online to serve humanity,” said Mickey Wade, associate lab director for ORNL’s Fusion and Fission Energy and Science Directorate. “DeLeah has engaged internationally on workforce development and we’re pleased that she can continue those efforts on behalf of ITER.” “Adding talent from the United States to ITER is valuable for the international project,” said Kathy McCarthy, the US ITER Project Director. “DeLeah’s experience with nuclear power plant construction is extremely valuable for this stage of ITER assembly and preparation for operations.” “Over the past few weeks, I’ve seen that the ITER team is passionate about fusion and making this project successful,” Lockridge said after her arrival in October. “ITER brings together talent from across nations, cultures, and backgrounds to accomplish something incredibly impactful—together.” The United States participates in the ITER project through US ITER, a Department of Energy Office of Science project managed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory with partner labs Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and Savannah River National Laboratory. US ITER offices are located in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.