His Serene Highness Prince Albert II of Monaco (here with then Director-General Kaname Ikeda) visited ITER on Tuesday 12 January. The ITER project, said the Prince, "opens vast prospects for future generations [...] It should ultimately open the way for energy from abundant resources, equitably distributed over the entire planet."
German Chancellor Angela Merkel (here at the Max-Planck-Institute for Plasma Physics in Greifswald, home of Wendelstein 7-X), wants more research into nuclear fusion. "Nuclear fusion is a form of energy that could provide an infinite amount of energy for us," said Merkel in her weekly video message broadcast Saturday 30 January.
"Seven years ago, the press was full of stories about this great scientific project named ITER that France hoped to host", says the owner of Iter, a spotless coal-black thoroughbred who won many local and regional races. "I liked the name, which is short and elegant, and I liked the concept of developing a safe, clean, unlimited source of energy."
Surveys and levelling of the area around JWS3 have been completed and a whole set of operations is now underway: embankments (3 700 square metres) are being seeded with vegetation; roadways and underground storm basins are being created; manifolds for the drinking water network are being installed and three access gates are being opened in the 200 metre-long fence that secures the area.
On Tuesday 13 April 2010, the Architect Engineering contract for the majority of the ITER buildings was signed between the European Domestic Agency "Fusion for Energy" (F4E) and the ENGAGE consortium. Worth EUR 150 million, the contract is one of the biggest engineering contracts ever signed in Europe.
An important ceremony was held onTuesday, 27 March, in Rokkasho, Japan, as Japanese and European personalities celebrated the completion of the International Fusion Energy Research Centre. IFERC is part of the "Broader Approach", the agreement that was negotiated in 2005 between Europe and Japan.
The Procurement Arrangement that then ITER Director-General Kaname Ikeda and Frank Briscoe, the Director of the European Domestic Agency signed on Friday 14 May represents the largest procurement in ITER history. Worth more than EUR 537 million, it covers the construction of all the ITER buildings and infrastructure.
Many people at ITER had recently inquired about the possible "disappearance" of the wild boars of CEA-Cadarache. They should have asked the people in the 525 buildings who had to put up this notice to keep intruders from getting into the premises after work hours...
Members of the ITER Magnet Division spent a week last month at the Institute of Plasma Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (ASIPP) in Hefei and witnessed the first bending and insulation trials on conductor dummy lengths.
Prof. Osamu Motojima, the new Director-General of the ITER Organization addressed the ITER team on Thursday 29 July. In his address he thanked his predecessor Kaname Ikeda (right) for his contribution to the project and especially for finalizing the Baseline that was approved the day before at an extraordinary meeting of the ITER Council.
The first days of August in southern France are usually very quiet. However, they weren't this year on the ITER platform: on Wednesday 4 August a lone power shovel began removing the top soil from the Tokamak pit — the first of some 230,000 cubic metres that will have to be extracted in order to make room for the installation.
Marina, Alexia, Véronique, Anaïs and Sylvie are part of the newly established "Joint Visit Team" responsible for the organization of visits on the ITER work site. More than 11,000 visitors were welcomed to the ITER in 2010 which brings the total, since 2007, to 27,400.
Back in September 2007, when the International School of Manosque was still a virtual entity hosted by the nearby Lycée des Iscles, total enrollment from nursery to senior high reached only 79. It was up to some 400 on Back-to-School Day on Thursday 2 September.
"You can read about ITER, watch documentaries and sit through presentations, but in order to grasp the full scope and significance of the project, nothing beats a visit to the platform", said Members of the European Parliament who visited the ITER site on Friday 10 September.
The first major concrete slab pour in took place, at the east end of the Poloidal Field Coil Fabrication Building during the week of 20 September. In parallel, activities are progressing westwards along the building, including work on the column footing installation, concrete column reinforcement and cast-in-place concrete placement.
At ITER Headquarters on Friday 1 October, as Liman, Jean-Daniel, Kaushal, Shoko, Unkyu, Lana and Topher, — the youngest among the ITER staff — hoisted the flag of their respective countries, the symbol was clear to everyone: out of a collection of nations with different and sometimes conflicting history; different cultures; different work habits, ITER has gathered a "family", intent, in Deputy Director-General Chuyanov's words, on "achieving a great job."
Ongoing rock blasting and excavation are continuing in the area of the future Tokamak Complex. The first phase of blasting is nearing completion. At the west end of the building for the future permanent ITER Headquarters Buildings. Concrete placement work has begun for the foundation and ground foundation anchors and other ground preparation works are progressing.
Arnaud Devred, Section Leader of ITER's Superconductor Systems, checks the first five meter archival sample of TF conductor being shipped from Japan to Cadarache. Seven suppliers around the world are now massively producing niobium-tin (Nb3Sn ) wires: two in Japan, one in Korea, one in Russia, one in Europe and two in the USA.
On 17 November, the ITER Organization celebrated the unveiling of the Foundation stone for the Headquarters Office building. "Our long dream has now become a tangible reality", said Director-General Motojima in his address. In a little more than 18 months, we will move into this beautifully designed and functional building [...] where we will work as hard as we can to meet our deadlines and make ITER happen."
From 23 to 25 November the First Monaco ITER International Fusion Energy Days were held in Monaco. Jointly organized by the ITER Organization, the Principality and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the three-day conference, offered an exceptional opportunity to explore and discuss what is at stake today in the energy world. It also provided the "Monaco Fellows" a great photo opportunity with His Serene Highness Prince Albert II of Monaco.
The first copper and superconducting conductor unit lengths produced under a Toroidal Field (TF) Conductor Procurement Arrangement took to the sea last month in Japan. The copper dummy conductors are respectively 100 and 760 metres long; the niobium-tin superconductor is 415 metres long.
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