A crown usually sits on a king's head, or on the top of prestigious buildings such as cathedrals or skyscrapers. In ITER, the "crown" sits under the machine: it is the structural element that supports the combined mass of the cryostat, vacuum vessel, magnet system and thermal shield—in short, the support system for the 23,000-tonne machine. From both a structural and safety perspective, it is one of the most strategic parts of the installation. Designing the ITER crown has proved an utterly complex and challenging task, involving several ITER departments as well as experts from the ITER European agency and its architect-engineer Engage. The crown's complexity stems from the fact that the huge mass that it will support will not be an idle one. In the course of operation, the ITER Tokamak might slightly "up-lift", wobble, or shrink...causing considerable load transfers from the machine to the Tokamak Building basemat. In late 2012, following some ten months of collaborative effort, the crown design was finalized: it will consist of a thick, circular concrete structure connected to the three-metre-thick bioshield by radial concrete walls.  The mockup will consist in a 20° segment of the Tokamak crown, complete with a one-metre-thick radial wall and a three-metre-thick section of the bioshield. In order to allow for the smooth transfer of horizontal and rotational forces generated by the movement of the Tokamak, 18 spherical bearings acting like ball-and-socket joints will be installed between the concrete crown and the steel ring that acts as the interface with the cryostat. Actual construction, however, is a long way from 3D design documents. When a structural element is as complex and as strategic as the ITER crown, an intermediate step is necessary to demonstrate constructability. "Just like for the Tokamak Complex basemat slab, we need to be certain that the rebar principles we have opted for are constructible, and we need to qualify the bespoke concrete formula," explains ITER's Nuclear Buildings Section leader Laurent Patisson. "And there's only one way to do this: by trying it first on a real-size mockup." On the very place where the "B2 slab" mockup was standing just a few months ago, a new mockup has been under construction since the end of 2014. When completed, the large structure will reproduce a 20° segment of the Tokamak crown, complete with a one-metre-thick radial wall and a three-metre-thick section of the bioshield.

On 2 February in Moscow, academician Evgeny Velikhov—distinguished scientist, president of the Kurchatov Institute, and initiator and key player of the ITER Project—turned 80. At a celebration on 4 February, ITER Russia staff and the heads of leading institutes and industries involved in project implementation cordially congratulated Mr Velikhov, as messages poured in from home and abroad to wish him professional and private success, good health and longevity.   Evgeny Velikhov was born on 2 February 1935 in Moscow.   His life journey has been an example of rare professional focus and devotion. After graduating from Moscow State University, he began his career as junior researcher at the Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy. He was appointed head of laboratory in 1962 and head of department in 1970. From 1971-1978 Evgeny Velikhov directed a branch of the Kurchatov Institute in Troitsk (now TRINITI). In 1988 he became the director of the Kurchatov Institute and, four years later, its president.   It would be difficult to overstate academician Velikhov's contribution to the world of science, especially plasma physics and fusion. In 1973, he accepted the torch from Lev Artsimovich to take the lead in the Soviet Union's controlled thermonuclear fusion program. He helped to initiate the ITER Project at the highest political level by persuading Secretary-General Mikhail Gorbachev that the next generation fusion device needed to be a joint international effort. He was ITER Council Chair during the technical design phase for ITER and again at the start of ITER construction from 2010-2012.   Evgeny Velikhov has received numerous national and international distinctions, including the Order of Merit for the Fatherland and the Order of Courage. He is a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and holds honorary positions at a number of Russian and international universities.

​Nuclear fusion is the dream of energy scientists the world over, because it promises limitless, clean electricity. Most efforts to kickstart the process use high-intensity lasers, insane magnetic field and super-hot hydrogen plasmas. But there may be a more humble alternative. It's called sonofusion, and it involves bubbles... When liquid undergoes rapid changes in pressure, cavities can form — seemingly from nowhere, but usually around some kind of impurity or imperfection in the fluid. The changing pressure causes this cavity to expand and contract: this is a bubble, and its method of creation is known as cavitation. In particularly violent pressure fields, the bubble can contract so quickly and with so much force that it collapses entirely, producing a shock wave. This phenomenon's what causes the dramatic pitting on boat propellor and water pumps, where high fluctuating pressures causes bubbles to form and collapse. But in the controlled environment of a laboratory, the bubbles can do more than cause damage. Way back in 1934, at the University of Cologne, H. Frenzel and H. Schultes turned of the lights in their laboratory, put an ultrasound transducer in a tank of photographic developer fluid, and turned it on. They were hoping to speed up the development process of photographic film — but instead, they noticed dots of light that appeared for a split-second at a time This was the first evidence of a process called sonoluminescene, where the large quantities of energy generated by a collapsing bubble cause light to be emitted. And where there's light, there's energy. [...] Read the full article on the Gizmodo Australia website.  

​On an icy and sunny morning, a delegation of engineers, designers and design office coordinators from the seven Domestic Agencies went down into the Tokamak foundations for a technical visit. Part of the CAD (Computer Aided Design) Working Group, the 15 members of the delegation were on site for the 13th CAD Working Group Workshop that took place at ITER Headquarters from 27 to 29 January. The group was warmly welcomed by Laurent Patisson, Section Leader for Nuclear Buildings, who took them for a one-hour tour to the heart of the ITER platform: the foundations of the Tokamak Complex. After a first glance from the belvedere—the viewpoint from the northern corner of the Tokamak Complex worksite where visitors are usually taken—the group went onto the Tokamak Complex floor (the B2 slab), which was icy in some places due to a recent cold snap.  Although the delegation was more than familiar with the design and the drawings of the ITER facilities, for many it was the first time on site. Philippe Le-Minh, Design Office coordination officer, was particularly thrilled to "feel all the activity going on," while Pierre-Yves Chaffard, head of Technical Support Services for the European Domestic Agency, remarked that it is "always interesting to see with our eyes, what we are used to seeing through our computers."    As the group returned to ITER Headquarters for the rest of their meetings, Geun Hong Kim, Design Office team leader for the Korean Domestic Agency, summed up the general feeling: "Now I can believe that ITER will be successful." -- Julie Marcillat

​The Institute for Magnetic Fusion Research, ITER's neighbour in Saint Paul-lez-Durance, has published issue #8 of the WEST newsletter. The issue features a report about the integration of WEST into the EUROfusion ITER Physics Programme, progress on the calibration of diagnostics in the machine, and the test deployment of a WEST inspection robot inside of the EAST tokamak.WEST stands for (W Environment in Steady-state Tokamak), where "W" is the chemical symbol of tungsten. The Institute for Magnetic Fusion Research is modifying the Tore Supra plasma facility to become a test platform open to all ITER partners. Read the eighth issue of the WEST Newsletter here.