Early on Monday 8 February over 500 actors from the worlds of energy, high technology, fusion and industry gathered in Monaco, the "little kingdom by the sea" that has used its privileged location on the Mediterranean to become an outspoken defender of environmental causes including marine conservation, pollution control and environmental sustainability. Little wonder, then, that Monaco has been a staunch supporter of ITER from the start, signing a Partnership Arrangement in 2008 with the ITER Organization to establish five Postdoctoral Fellowships in fusion technology and science at ITER and to provide the means for a regular international conference on ITER progress, research and industrial opportunities.   Following editions in 2010 and 2013, the third Monaco-ITER International Fusion Energy Days has combined this year with the ITER Business Forum (IBF/2016) to offer a four-day program that focuses on informing industry about the challenges of ITER components and systems and the business opportunities ahead.   "We have come a long way since the project began to take shape thirty years ago," said ITER Director-General Bernard Bigot in his opening address. "We are now well past the research and design phases ... the 'paper project' has turned into a steel and concrete reality. The industrial phase that we have now entered holds the key to our success. All of you, present or future industrial partners, hold the key to our success..."   Detailed sessions are planned on all of the major ITER systems and works, including machine assembly, magnets, heating and current drive systems, the fuel cycle, and diagnostics. "To manufacture for ITER, you are often standing at the cutting edge of what is technologically—and industrially—feasible," stressed the ITER director. "But the benefits are many and they reach beyond ITER. The sophisticated production that the project requires presents tremendous opportunities for industry in a wider sense. By driving technological development, ITER contributes to enlarging the strategic capabilities of the companies involved."   In break-out sessions called B2B (business-to-business) or B2C (business-to-customer) meetings, the 578 participants from 283 companies will be seeking to pool their expertise and form collaborations in order to participate in the competitive international tenders launched by the ITER Organization or the Members' procurement agencies, the Domestic Agencies. Companies already involved in manufacturing for the ITER Project will be sharing their experience and advice. Optional excursions are offered to the ITER site, or to one of the industrial facilities (Toulon, France or Camerana, Italy) currently manufacturing components for ITER's toroidal field coils.   As he officially opened the third Monaco-ITER International Fusion Energy Days, HSH Prince Albert II wished all participants success in their endeavours. "Your meetings and discussions over the next days and the initiatives you are involved in will continue to develop and grow. You know that in Latin ITER means 'path' or 'way.'" And you know that Winston Churchill said 'Where there's a will there's a way.' You have The Way and we have the will, and so it is with great pride that I stand at your side for one of the most ambitious projects in the energy sector which is striving for better conservation of our world."   See the full MIIFED-IBF 2016 program here.

Collaboration between the European Domestic Agency, Oxford Technologies Ltd and the Katholieke Universiteit of Leuven (KU Leuven) has led to the development of an electronic chip for sensors that has shown promising results in a radiation environment.   Remote handling operations in ITER will rely on sensors capable of transmitting information about the many interconnected tools, manipulators and cranes responsible for maintenance and repairs. Receiving real-time data on temperature, pressure and position will be important to operating the equipment in limited space with millimetric accuracy. Other considerations for the design of these small but crucial components include exposure to radioactivity, limited space for interconnecting wire between the sensors, and the necessity of having a common "language" for sensors located in different parts of the machine.   In a five-year collaboration, engineers from the European Domestic Agency, Oxford Technologies and KU Leuven have developed an electronic chip that is able to sustain the radiation environment, and which converts analogue data picked up by sensors to a digital format and transmits the information through a single wire.   A full-fledged design of a chip using Taiwanese technology has been designed and irradiated at the SCK-CEN research centre in Belgium. The results are promising and could have an impact on the development of other electronics to be deployed in the ITER device. Read the original story on the European Domestic Agency website.

The Wendelstein 7-X fusion device at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP) in Greifswald, Germany produced its first hydrogen plasma on 3 February 2016, marking the start of scientific operation. As the world's largest stellarator, Wendelstein 7-X will investigate the suitability of this type of fusion device for the design of a fusion power plant.   Since the start of operation on 10 December 2015, Wendelstein 7-X has produced more than 300 discharges with helium. These served primarily to clean the plasma vessel, and as cleanliness increased, plasma temperature increased ... finally attaining six million degrees Celsius. Plasma heating and data recording were also tested during this period and the first measuring instruments for investigating the plasma were put into operation (X-ray spectrometers, interferometers, laser scattering and video diagnostics).   The first hydrogen plasma, which was switched on by German Chancellor Angela Merkel at a ceremony on 3 February 2016, marks the start of scientific operation. A 2 MW pulse of microwave heating transformed a tiny quantity of hydrogen gas into an extremely hot (80 million degrees Celsius) low-density hydrogen plasma for a quarter of a second.   The present initial experimentation phase will last until mid-March. The plasma vessel will then be opened in order to install carbon tiles for the protection of the vessel walls and the divertor. "These facilities will enable us to attain higher heating powers, higher temperatures, and longer discharges lasting up to ten seconds," explained Thomas Klinger project head for Wendelstein 7-X. Successive extensions are planned until, in about four years, discharges lasting 30 minutes can be produced with full heating power of 20 MW.   Wendelstein 7-X, the world's largest stellarator-type fusion device, will not produce energy. The goal is to put the quality of the plasma confinement on a par with that of a tokamak for the very first time. And with discharges lasting 30 minutes, the stellarator should demonstrate its fundamental advantage—the ability to operate continuously. In contrast, tokamaks can only operate in pulses without auxiliary equipment.   The assembly of Wendelstein 7-X began in April 2005. Investment costs of approximately EUR 370 million are being met by the federal and state governments, and also by the European Union. The components were manufactured by companies throughout Europe and numerous research facilities at home and abroad were involved in the construction of the device. Within the framework of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres, the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology was responsible for the microwave plasma heating; the Jülich Research Centre built measuring instruments and produced the elaborate connections for the superconducting magnetic coils; installation was carried out by specialists from the Polish Academy of Science in Krakow; and American fusion research institutes at Princeton, Oak Ridge and Los Alamos contributed equipment including auxiliary coils and measuring instruments.    Read the full press release in English and in German. Learn more about Wendelstein 7-X and the stellarator type of fusion device on the IPP website.

A new series of five downloadable posters is available in the ITER on-line Publication Centre (/posters). Designed for A1 printing, they are sized for classrooms, offices and labs. This first series features the ITER machine, several of its principal components (the cryostat and the divertor), assembly tooling and ITER construction. A second series is planned. ITER aficionados to your printers!

China has conferred its annual International Scientific and Technological Cooperation Award on a figure closely associated with the ITER Project—Academician Evgeny Velikhov, who helped to initiate the project at the highest political level in the mid-1980s and who served as ITER Council Chair during the technical design phase for ITER and again at the start of ITER construction from 2010-2012. Currently director of the Kurchatov Institute in Moscow, Academician Velikhov was recognized by the Chinese government for his long-term contribution to Chinese-Russian fusion cooperation. He initiated bilateral cooperation between the Kurchatov and ASIPP (Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences), helping China in the successful development of a superconducting tokamak. He has visited China multiple times in recent years as an international advisor and has made valuable suggestions on the conceptual design of China's next-phase device, the China Fusion Engineering Test Reactor (CFETR). The International Scientific and Technological Cooperation Award is the most prestigious honour in China for foreigners or foreign organizations "who make outstanding contributions to science and technology development in China." Read the full story in ASIPP's January newsletter, below.

During its fifth General Assembly held at ITER on 4 February, the European Fusion Education Network FuseNet approved a work plan for the period 2016-2017. The FuseNet Association was founded in December 2010 as a platform for stimulating, supporting and coordinating fusion education in Europe, with the aim to the aim of attracting good students and providing them challenging education in fusion science and technology, developing educational tools, encouraging student mobility, and acting as matchmaker between industry and research labs/academia for student internships and vacancies. FuseNet members are made up of universities with programs in fusion as well as research institutes and industry involved in ITER and/or fusion technology. Membership is not restricted to European organizations. For more information, visit the FuseNet website.

In the latest issue of NFRI News Korea's National Fusion Research Institute reports the latest KSTAR experimental campaign. Ten overseas research institutes and nine Korean institutes collaborated on this eighth campaign, which ended in December 2015.  The January issue also announces the 2015 NFRI Award was attributed to Hyeongon Lee, the Deputy Director General of ITER Korea. The award recognizes Prof. Lee's leading work on non-destructive testing technology for ITER and the validation of analysis relating to the ITER thermal shield and assembly tooling. Read the January issue of NFRI News here.