Summer is for all kinds of reading—thrillers and romances, historical novels, poetry or political essays. In the fusion world, it can also be a time for catching up on what has occurred at ITER since Newsline's last summer recess. The past twelve months were a time of change and challenge. In September 2022, the ITER Council appointed a new Director-General, Pietro Barabaschi, who took up his functions on 17 October. In an interview with Newsline, he clearly stated the course he intended to take, expressing the need to 'reorganize,' regretting the lack of a 'strong common culture' within the project, and anticipating the issues ITER was soon to face. 'In a first-of-a-kind project such as ITER, issues, challenges, setbacks and errors are to be expected.' And issues there were. Two and a half years into ITER's machine assembly phase, dimensional non-conformities were discovered on three vacuum vessel sectors—one of them already assembled into a 'sector module' and installed in the assembly pit. Considering the first-of-a-kind nature of these massive components, as tall as a five-storey building and heavier than a fully loaded Airbus A380, the non-conformities would complicate the automated welding that was to take place in situ, inside the Tokamak pit. The subsequent discovery of instances of 'stress corrosion cracking' in the cooling pipes of the thermal shield—also part of every vacuum vessel sub-assembly—raised a crucial question: were the instances a one-off problem, limited to the elements examined, or could they represent a more systemic problem affecting all thermal shield panels? ITER opted for the no-risk option and, having identified the root cause of the cracks, decided to remove and replace all the piping in all thermal shield elements, including the ones already in place as part of pre-assembled modules."When you find three instances of cracks, it is a red alarm because there could be hundreds of locations where cracks could develop," explained Director-General Barabaschi in this January 2023 article. As a module's thermal shield panels are sandwiched between the vacuum vessel sector and the pair of toroidal field coils that close upon it, completely module disassembly was required. For sector module #6, already in the Tokamak pit, a complex and delicate 'reverse lift' operation was required. This was performed in early July; disassembly activities have already started and will proceed for several months. The repair strategy for both types of defects has been finalized and contracts have been awarded. How dismantlement and repair will impact the project's schedule and cost is still being evaluated. Industrial issues were not, however, the only news of the past year. Component fabrication and deliveries continued at a steady pace. In the European poloidal field coil winding facility on site, one of the largest ring-shaped coils (24 metres in diameter) was finalized (PF4) and another is ready to undergo final cold testing (PF3). Japan and Europe each delivered one toroidal field coil in January and February (and two others are travelling), while the Russian-made poloidal field coil PF1 safely reached the ITER site. Whether installed, stored or nearing finalization, all ring-shaped magnets are now 'home' at ITER. In the wake of Pietro Barabaschi's nomination as ITER Director-General, familiar figures from the worldwide fusion community were appointed to senior management positions: Yutaka Kamada from Japan as Deputy Director General (Science and Technology) in March and Luo Delong from China as Deputy Director-General (Corporate) in April. Another familiar figure, Eisuke Tada, retired after having devoted almost two decades to the project and even longer to international cooperation in fusion. One of the ''Original Six'' who staffed the ITER Joint Work Site in 2006, Eisuke Tada was appointed Deputy Director-General in 2015 and assumed the duty of interim Director-General following Bernard Bigot's passing in 2022. These momentous 12 months at ITER were also a time of profound change in the fusion landscape globally. For decades, the quest for fusion energy had been the exclusive reserve of publically or academically funded projects. Now, things are changing. Startups are popping all over the world, attracting massive funding (USD 2.8 billion just for the year 2022) and challenging the commonly accepted timeline for bringing fusion energy to the grid. In this context, one Newsline article raised a crucial question: 'What is the value of ITER as a scientific instrument?' The answer, by ITER top scientists Tim Luce and Alberto Loarte, makes a worthwhile conclusion to the list of our recommended summer reading.

What a venue for a conference! The Examination Schools of the University of Oxford were built in the late 1880s to host the annual examinations of all of the university's colleges. These hallowed halls provided a spectacular backdrop for the 30th IEEE Symposium on Fusion Engineering (SOFE), which took place from 9 to 13 July 2023. It is only the second time that the conference has taken place outside of the United States, after Shanghai 2017. And whether it was the unique venue that attracted the large crowd of fusion engineers and scientists or the thirst for in-person exchange after the long period of absence imposed by the COVID pandemic, the organizers were overwhelmed with interest. 'We expected about 300 people,' said the technical chair of the conference, Michael Gorley, from the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA). 'We had over 700 registrations.' According to Gorley, the focus of the organizers was to continue the conference's tradition of highlighting strong fusion engineering. 'But this year we wanted to also capture the new wave that's coming along,' he said. 'I think there is a new optimism. There are more people and more funding going into fusion, and that is bringing a whole range of new ideas and excitement.' ITER was represented by a large group of scientists and engineers, who were present to share their expertise across a large range of engineering topics, including vacuum technology, construction coordination, diagnostics, plasma control, and remote handling, and also share the efforts underway on site to recover from the technical setbacks announced last year—an "openness" that was appreciated, according to Gorley. Kathryn McCarthy, the Head of the US ITER Project, opened the conference with a comprehensive account of project's status and aims. 'ITER is an important part of the international fusion ecosystem. It is providing practical experience in designing, fabricating and assembling a licensed fusion facility. It is developing the fusion supply chain and industrial capacity, and helping to build a diverse fusion workforce. All of this is highly valued information for ITER's partners and for the private fusion sector. ITER will demonstrate processes at industrial scale, not just lab scale.' Sehila Gonzalez from the non-profit Clean Air Task Force, was enthused about technology development efforts. 'All the technologies that fusion needs to develop are being explained and discussed here,' she said. Discussions also focused on how to set up a fusion industry, and on how to address regulatory and even non-proliferation issues. 'This is very unique and it shows the progress that the field is making towards industrialization.' Ian Chapman, UKAEA CEO, also stressed the importance of developing the economic and regulatory aspects of the fusion industry. Looking ahead to a future powered by fusion energy, Gianfranco Federici, head of the Fusion Technology Department at EUROfusion, stressed the need for engineering skills. 'The work force is the critical bottle neck for fusion development, in particular concerning engineers.' In Europe, he said, ten times more PhD students are trained in fusion physics than in engineering. Federici also advocated for stimulating 'more objective and open technical discussions across the community.' In that respect, the SOFE 2023 was a new beginning.  

When ITER plant systems come online, special care is taken to ensure the new systems do not interfere with those already in operation. The ITER instrumentation and control group made significant changes last year to accommodate the first real-time system that was connected for integration and commissioning—reactive power compensation. This was a milestone for the group because it required a real-time communication network and a real-time data archiving system. (Note: In this article, the term 'real-time' means that a response time of 1 millisecond, or under, is required.) These changes highlight the fact that while the integrated control system provides a means for all systems to act in unison, integrating individual control systems is inherently complex. As new systems are added, intricate interplays among individual systems during integration and commissioning often raise challenges, which are sometimes related to the first-of-a-kind nature of the ITER machine. As more systems are integrated, the network of control systems becomes more complicated, making it more difficult to shelter existing systems from change. The requirement to support real-time systems adds to the challenge, because it relies on very tight time synchronization among all components. 'If your architecture is based on having each client request the time from a central service, the more clients you add, the more the central system is interrupted,' explains Bertrand Bauvir, leader of ITER's Central Control Integration Section. 'We selected the technology for time synchronization, and we defined the architecture so as to guarantee that even if we bring in a new system there would be no impact on anything else on the network. We use PTP [precision time protocol], where the time is broadcast over the whole network instead of being requested by each client.' Another consideration when adding a new system has to do with naming and addressing¹. New signals will be transmitted on the network—in some cases, hundreds of thousands of them—and those signals and the components that make up the new system have to be uniquely identified within the overall system. 'We have a database with the name of every component within every plant system and of every measurement and signal associated with the component,' says Bauvir. 'A combination of all this information gives you a unique way to address any individual signal in the machine.' But it is not just a question of naming and addressing equipment. When physicists wonder what the average temperature of the cooling water in the part of the machine is, they do not think of cables. They express their problem in the terms of their own domain. That is then translated to sensors, cables, and signals. 'To operate the machine, you have to associate abstract concepts to collections of names and then to collections of addresses,' says Bauvir. When new systems are added, another consideration is adherence to local standards. Each new system comes with one or more new cubicles, manufactured in different parts of the world. In the end, though, everything must satisfy the French standards related to electrical installations. 'It's actually a non-negligible milestone to energize a cubicle,' says Bauvir. 'We have cubicles manufactured in different parts of the world. Sometimes they don't satisfy the critical norms in France, where they will operate.' Each cubicle is fed with electrical power and a backup in case primary power is lost. The cubicle is also fed with connections from the data network to industrial computers running a real-time operating system inside the cubicle. The connection to the data network is also redundant in case the primary cables fail. Other dedicated cables run outside the cubicle to connect to sensors, actuators and other controllers. In addition to hosting a system mechanically and electrically, the cubicle serves another crucial role—protecting the system from dust, water, electromagnetic radiation and seismic events. 'We have many cubicles with as few interdependencies as possible,' says Bauvir. "We distribute the control system so we can add or modify one system without affecting others. If systems were implemented with software that ran on the same computer as software from other systems, you would have to stop the other systems to make the change and restart the computer.' For this reason, every single system has its own set of central computers and its own dedicated set of services. A change to one system has little or no impact to any of the others. ¹ In computer networking there is a fundamental distinction between names and addresses: A name is a symbol that uniquely identifies a resource on a network; an address is a data structure that uniquely identifies the location of a resource on a network.

The sixth and last episode of Season 2 of The ITER World is now available. "Narrating A Giant" caps off the season by interviewing ITER Head of Communication Laban Coblentz. What public information strategy should be followed for this project that has so many complex layers of science, engineering, technology and politics? How to sustain interest in a project that spans decades? How to combat misconceptions?  Listen to the latest episode directly on the ITER website or through Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, PodBean, Spotify, or Tune In.

RAZOR, CGTN Europe's science and technology show, has published a 27-minute episode on the ITER Project. Host Neil Cairns takes the viewer into some of the most interesting spaces of the ITER site, including the cathedral-like Tokamak pit, the gargantuan Assembly Hall and ITER Headquarters where staff from 35 nations are collaborating to "recreate the Sun's energy" on Earth. Through interviews with workers, managers and staff, the documentary captures the ambition of ITER and the gamechanging nature of fusion. "It's like when humans learned how to use fire," says one of the Chinese consortium members involved in machine assembly. "This is the second fire of humans in our history." Watch "Are we any closer to recreating the Sun's energy at ITER?" on the RAZOR Science YouTube channel here.

The Fusion Industry Association has released its third annual survey of private fusion enterprises around the world. The fusion industry continues to grow globally, with 13 new entrants, USD 1.4 billion (EUR 12.5 billion) in fresh funding, and nearly 1,000 direct jobs (+3,000 in the supply chain) created. Private fusion initiatives exist in Australia (1), Canada (1), China (2), France (1), Israel (1), Italy (1), Germany (3), Japan (3), New Zealand (1), Sweden (1), the United Kingdom (3), and the United States (25). These fusion companies are also benefitting at times from public money, as governments seek to spur innovation through public-private partnerships. The companies participating in the survey spoke of their optimism about delivering fusion power to the grid, although "challenges remain." You can download "The Global Fusion Industry in 2023" from this page on the Fusion Industry Association website.