ITER India is responsible for the procurement of the diagnostic neutral beam, which will play the very important role of helping to detect the amount of helium ash inside of the ITER Tokamak. It will do so through charge exchange spectroscopy (CXRS), which is a measure of the efficiency of the fusion reactions in the device.
 
The diagnostic neutral beam will consist of a negative ion source-based neutral beam of hydrogen atoms with 100keV of energy and 17-20A of beam current with a divergence not exceeding ~7millirad. India has already signed the Procurement Arrangement for the delivery of this key component. At present, the detailed engineering design and R&D for the diagnostic neutral beam system is ongoing.
 
Strong support for the development of the system will be provided by the ongoing activities in the domestic neutral beam program, such as the positive ion-based injector that is mandated to deliver about 1.7 MW of NB power to the SST-1 Tokamak under steady state conditions (1000 s). This activity has been strongly supported by the Indian industries involved in development of technologies related to electrical and mechanical engineering hardware—many of them state-of-the-art. A dedicated assembly group has participated with infectious enthusiasm in the assembly and integration of the injector.

The first quarter of 2010 witnessed the campaign for the first phase of operation of an integrated system with the 5 MW ion source. Technicians are busy providing the final connections to the filaments and carrying out the final installations of 50 kV electrical isolators for the assembly housing the gas feed system.

The success in operating ion sources can be largely attributed to effective control of the discharge current. This complex task is performed by a set of controllers that are integrated through fibre optic or hard wired cabling. The positive ion injector is now in its final stages of integration with the cryosystem and will soon be available to the engineers for the commissioning of a full power beam.

In parallel, a negative ion source R&D program has also been undertaken at the Institute for Plasma Research (IPR), with the goal of successfully operating the BATMAN-type radio frequency ion source at IPR for operation, training and physics experiments. Up to 100 kW of radio frequency power can be coupled to the source to produce ~10 A of —ve ion beam in hydrogen at an accelerating voltage of ~ 25 kV. An engaged team of technicians is currently performing the pre-commissioning integration checks on the radio frequency integration, pre-integration checks for vacuum sub-assemblies and integration of control systems.
 
The plasma source has just been commissioned with 85 kW of radio frequency power coupled to the plasma. The program will be expanded to include creation of facilities for tests of larger sources, ultimately converging towards the commissioning of a test facility in India for R&D of the ITER diagnostic neutral beam system to address the complex physics and technology aspects of the neutral beam systems.

The 12th Meeting of the ITPA Coordinating Committee took place in Cadarache on 28-29 June. The ITPA (International Tokamak Physics Activity) provides a framework for coordinated physics research activities among the world's tokamaks in support of ITER. Director-General Ikeda opened the meeting with a review of the status of the project. He noted that over the past two years, the operation of the ITPA under the auspices of ITER has been very effective and he invited the ITPA-CC to prolong the present arrangement for another two years. 

David Campbell, Assistant Deputy Director-General of the Fusion Science and Technology Department at ITER, summarized ITER research needs and recent STAC/IC (Science and Technology Advisory Committee/ITER Council) actions. The seven Topical Group Leaders reviewed research work in their areas and discussed how that work supported ITER.

Brief reports were also made on the status of magnetic fusion research programs in China, the European Union, India, Japan, South Korea, Russia, and the United States. Excellent progress has been made relocating the ITPA website to the ITER website.  A new proposal on tokamak physics databases that would be common to all ITPA Topical Groups was also discussed.

The Design Integration Section organized a design integration review (DIR) on 7-8 July dedicated to the Tokamak Complex buildings, comprising the Diagnostic, the Tokamak, and the Tritium buildings.

The scope of the meeting was to review the maturity of the physical and functional interfaces between systems and buildings prior to the preliminary design review meeting scheduled end July. The Responsible Officers for the systems as well as European Domestic Agency (F4E) representatives were invited to comment on the status and maturity of the interfaces in order to consolidate the documentation for the next phase of the building design (functional schematics, configuration management models and interface sheets).

The status of safety requirements implemented into the building designs and the instrumentation and control (I&C) strategy were both discussed in relation with the cable routing in the buildings, potentially having a significant impact on building layout.

This week's meeting was the first of its kind, and was a crucial step in the further development of the Tokamak Complex design. The various actions generated will be resolved within the next weeks in order for the European agency to proceed with the design of the buildings. A second DIR for the Tokamak Complex buildings is expected to be held by end of the year to review actions and progress made in the maturity of the systems prior to the finalization of the tender preparation phase.