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Dhiraj Bora
Even though the whole Organization is buzzing, getting prepared for the third Council meeting taking place here in Cadarache this week, let me draw your attention to the department of CODAC, IT, Heating & Current Drive. We have made good progress over the last few weeks preparing further R&D contracts on diagnostics and heating systems. An example of how we attempt to save R&D money by collaborating with existing facilities is the in-situ calibration of the ITER diagnostic systems at the AMANDE facility at IRSN here in Cadarache. AMANDE delivers neutron fields between 2 keV and 20 MeV for testing the response of diagnostic instruments to neutron scattering. A preliminary study has already started.

In CODAC, our team is interacting closely with many of the Domestic Agencies to involve them in design activities for the various systems. For this purpose the team is currently setting up engineering contracts and task agreements with experts from external companies. As CODAC is financed out of the Joint Fund, it is extremely important to develop a strategy that involves the whole ITER community. We are in the midst of discussions with the Domestic Agencies to assess their interest and expertise so that they can contribute to our program through long-term Task Agreements. This would help us establishing groups of experts in the Domestic Agencies who could help us negotiate and collaborate with industry during the later procurement phase. The CODAC team has just returned from Barcelona where it participated in a meeting with suppliers organized by the European Domestic Agency.

The design of the port plugs is currently being discussed in order to optimize the interfaces between the diagnostic instruments and the launchers for the heating systems. We currently have visitors from Japan, Korea and China working with us on the integration of these interfaces.

In the Heating & Current Drive Division we are working on the procurement planning for the diagnostic neutral beam power supplies. Again we are working closely together with the responsible officers from the Indian Domestic Agency who have come here to jointly prepare the required documentation. As closer collaboration between the ITER Organization and the Domestic Agencies is wanted and needed, we very much appreciate this integrated effort at this early stage of development.

The keys—and the building that goes along with them—are ours now.
It might be a small step for mankind, but certainly a big one for the ITER Project: today, Monday, 17 November, Agence Iter France handed over (some of) the keys for the new Headquarters building to the ITER Organization. Prior to the handover, the ITER Director-General Kaname Ikeda, and the Director of the Agence Iter France, François Gauché, signed the agreement "to make available the B22 Area on the ITER site." The first staff will move into the new office building at the beginning of next week.

ITER's Norbert Holtkamp with Financial Times editor Stefan Wagstyl; Vladimir Evtushenkov from AFK Sistema; Uwe Krueger, CEO of Oerlikon; and Serguei Aslanyan, President of Sitronics (from left).
The Carlton Hotel in Cannes is used to being in the limelight. Once a year this is where Hollywood stars and starlets walk the red carpet at the annual Film Festival. And back in January 1922 it was here where the Allied governments agreed to temporarily postpone German reparation payments due to the German economic crisis. Last week, the spotlights were turned on once again in Cannes' most luxurious hotel, this time though with a more modest aim.

It was on the eve of the EU-Russian summit held in Nice last week that some of the most influential industrialists from Europe and Russia came together for their tenth Round Table conference. This year, the conference was clearly set against the background of the international financial crisis and so the President of the Russian Federation, Dimitry Medvedev, on his way to Nice and afterwards to Washington for the G20 meeting, took the time to address the industry representatives of East and West. The only way to address "this global challenge," Medvedev said, was by "enhancing the value and the efficiency of our cooperation."

But the discussions at the Round Table were not only about financial troubleshooting, talk was also about innovation and "tapping unused potential." In a special session moderated by Stefan Wagstyl, Editor of the Financial Times Eastern Europe Office, the ITER Principal Deputy Director-General Norbert Holtkamp presented the ITER Project as an outstanding example of international collaboration. "With its in-kind contributions, the sharing of intellectual property rights, ITER is a perfect example for innovation across borders," Holtkamp summarized during his talk.

The EU-Russian Round Table is an annual meeting of business leaders established in 1997 on the initiative of the EU-Russia Summit. It is co-chaired by Nils Andersen, chief executive of Moller-Maersk, the Danish transport group, and Anatoly Chubais, head of Rusnano, the Russian government's nanotechnology enterprise. Its main objective is to provide a permanent forum for businesspeople to present joint recommendations to the European Commission and the Russian Government with regard to business and investment conditions and promotion of industrial cooperation.

Other keynote speakers at this year's Round Table included the European Union's Vice President and Commissioner for Enterprise and Industry, Gunther Verheugen, and the Russian Federation's Minister for Industry and Trade, Victor Khristenko.

Kijung Jung
Kijung Jung, previously Deputy Director General of ITER Korea, has succeeded Gyung-Su Lee as Director General of ITER Korea. Kijung Jung, who has a PhD in Chemistry from the Institut National Polytechnique in Toulouse, has been in France for half his professional career. In March 2006, he moved to the Korean National Fusion Research Institute to build up the Korean Domestic Agency for ITER.

Congratulations again for your appointment as Director of ITER Korea.

Thank you very much.

When did you officially take over responsibility?

I became Head of the Korean Domestic Agency on 15 October this year.

Is the Korean Domestic agency fully established and operational?

Yes, the Korean Domestic Agency was established in September of 2007, just about one year ago. We have now a total of about 70 staff members working on technical and administrative issues. And though we are closely linked to the Korean National Fusion Research Institute (NFRI), we operate as an almost autonomous branch with independent policies and a separate budget.

What role will your predecessor as director of the ITER Korea, G.S. Lee, play in the future?

Gyung Su Lee is now the president of the NFRI, and as such he is responsible for national nuclear fusion research and development. As far as the ITER Project is concerned, he is vice-chair of the ITER Council Management Advisory Committee (MAC) and a member of the ITER Council. So, he will play a very important role for the ITER Project in Korea despite his departure from ITER Korea.

So I imagine you will continue to work together in future?

As I said, ITER Korea is an independent branch of the NFRI, but there will certainly be close interaction between us and the NFRI. There is and, I expect, there will continue to be good relations between the Korean Domestic Agency and the NFRI. And good cooperation will certainly be necessary.

Who will act as your Deputy?

My Deputy is Joo Shik Bak who was acting as Director General in the NFRI during the construction phase of KSTAR following G. S. Lee, and as such he was responsible for the project. He successfully completed KSTAR construction and saw the project through first plasma in June of this year. He now has moved to ITER Korea to join me in successfully constructing ITER. His experience and knowledge will certainly be very helpful not only for ITER Korea but also for the ITER Project as a whole.

Constructing KSTAR, what would you say were the most important lessons learned?

Before KSTAR, Korea had no major fusion research facility at all. So, from this point of view, we started from zero. We gained a lot of experience during the construction of the facility, such as how to best fabricate the toroidal field conductors based on niobium-tin (Nb3Sn) like the ones that will be used in ITER. The lessons which would be of most interest to ITER technicians relate to the toroidal field coil joints and their leak testing, various aspects of the cryogenic system, silver coating of the thermal shield which has been adopted by ITER and the many interfaces of the magnets. It should be kept in mind that the general configuration and the basic concept of KSTAR is very much the same as in ITER. Thus, KSTAR is an important test-bed for ITER, and there is and will be active cooperation between the two projects.

What is the status of progress within ITER Korea? Have you started manufacturing yet?

Not yet, but we have signed the Procurement Arrangement for the toroidal field conductor on 7 May this year and we are currently preparing for the call for tender. Toroidal field conductor qualification samples are being tested at the SULTAN facility this month which should complete all of the Procurement Arrangement implementation plan requirements prior to the call for tender. We hope to be able to award the contract before the end of this year. At least, this is our target and we are striving hard to stick to this schedule.

What about the vacuum vessel procurement, when is ITER Korea going to sign this?

Recently we had a technical meeting between the ITER Organziation and the Korean Domestic Agency, and another technical meeting on interface issues in November. All major outstanding issues have now been resolved between ITER and our agency, and we have an agreement despite there being some open technical issues that we will have to discuss later. We would thus like to take the opportunity presented at the ITER Council this week and have the Procurement Arrangement signed by Director-General Ikeda and me in the presence of the Korean Vice Minister.

With all the publicity and news about KSTAR, do you feel an increased interest of young scientists and engineers in fusion?

Yes indeed! The ceremonies commemorating construction completion in September of last year and first plasma this year were covered by the media and made an important impression on the general public. Currently we are trying to set up a strategy to promote fusion energy among young scientists. Korea has recently started a study on policies for human resources development especially targeted at young scientists. We are hoping to educate many good young interested scientists through this effort. Also, though it is perhaps a little bit premature to elaborate on, we are planning to build a demonstration plant that will provide the opportunity for those young scientists to realize nuclear fusion power in about three decades.

A demonstration plant?

Yes, but this will certainly not happen before the ITER Project is successful. First we have to get this project running. That is the first goal. In parallel, we have to successfully achieve routine operation of KSTAR. Nevertheless a demonstration plant is part of Korea's long term outlook which we can discuss at a future date.

Talking about your personal background, how did you enter the fusion community? Are you a fusion scientist?

No, not really. I spent half of my professional career in France. First graduating with a degree in Applied Chemistry from the Institut National des Sciences Appliquées in Toulouse, France, I obtained a PhD from the Institut National Polytechnique also in Toulouse. Between 1986 and 1993, I went back to Korea to work at the Korean Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI), after which I got on the plane back to Paris to work at the OECD/NEA for three and a half years. From Paris back to Korea, I went on to become Director for Decommissioning projects at KAERI, then the Director of the Planning Division and later Director of the Nuclear Control Division and finally Director for Spent Fuel Management. In March 2006, I moved to the NFRI to build up ITER Korea together with G.S. Lee, and this year I succeeded him as Director General.

What is your personal feeling about ITER?

ITER is an important beachhead on the way to industrializing fusion energy in the future. As such, the ITER Project must succeed. If you sometimes see me arguing about ITER, this is only for the success of the project and nothing else. The ITER Project is unique in that it is a joint venture of seven members, seven different cultures. We must keep in mind these different cultures that are at work and the seven governments that work very differently. With this in mind, I recall that ITER has often been compared to a boat. For the boat to stay afloat, mutual confidence is very important.

To him, retirement means one big relief: no more neckties! In September Sir Chris Llewellyn Smith, Chair of the ITER Council, retired from his post as Director of the UK fusion program, handing over to Steve Cowley, formerly of University of California Los Angeles and Imperial College. "Fusion power is going to happen," Cowley said in an interview recently published in the UKAEA annual report. "Our job is to make it happen as soon and as cheaply as possible."

Read the full interview published in the 2007 UKAEA annual report


The Star Trek Enterprise ...
"The idea is really like in Star Trek, when Scottie turns on a shield to protect the starship Enterprise from proton beams—it's almost identical really,'' Bob Bingham of the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory near Oxford says. Their study on how to protect astronauts from a dangerous source of space radiation, thus lifting a major doubt clouding the dream to send humans to Mars, was recently published in a journal by Britain's Institute of Physics. It draws on numerical simulation that is also used in nuclear fusion, in which a hot plasma is kept in place by a powerful magnetic field.

Read the full paper here ...

© Gérard Lesénéchal
Today, Monday, 17 November, the ITER staff gathered once more for an all-staff-meeting in the Salle Polyvalente where Director-General Kaname Ikeda gave an update on the project's status. Prior to that meeting, all the staff gathered outside the Joint Worksite I for a family photo. And the family is definitely growing fast: on 8 February this year, the ITER team counted 219 staff members plus subcontractors and visiting scientists. Nine month later, we count a total of 293 directly employed staff, including 217 professional and 76 technical support staff, plus subcontractors.

With the new Visitor Centre open, situated high over the ITER construction site, visitors are now welcome to take a close look at the construction site. One of the first groups that took the opportunity were the representatives of the two villages next to ITER, Vinon-sur-Verdon (top) and Corbières (bottom).

The 20th Meeting of the Test Blanket Working Group in Aix-en-Provence.
Breeding blankets represent one of the major technological breakthroughs that will be required for moving on from ITER to the next step, DEMO, a demonstration reactor able to supply electricity power to the grid. In fact, a breeding blanket and its associated systems will have to ensure tritium breeding self-sufficiency, to show good power conversion efficiency and to withstand high neutron flux.

In order to comply with this mission, a Test Blanket Working Group (TBWG) was established by the ITER Director in the early stages of the ITER Project, charged with defining and coordinating the breeding blanket testing program in ITER and acting as a technical forum in support of the Test Blanket Module (TBM) Program.

At its 20th meeting held in Aix-en-Provence in the first week of November 2008, the Test Blanket Working Group focused on the progress made on the establishment of specific safety requirements and on the definition of the interfaces between the ITER machine and the six Test Blanket Systems (TBS) that will be tested in three dedicated equatorial ports. The ITER Organization had presented proposals on how to allocate space in the Tokamak Complex for the test blanket cooling systems, the tritium circuits and the control cubicles.

A preliminary design of the TBM port plugs was also presented together with a proposal for the replacement sequence in the case of replacing the TBM port plug and the ancillary equipment unit via the ITER remote handling devices. As this would require space in the Hot Cell, the creation of two short-term working groups has been discussed to identify the required operations in detail. Moreover, the Working Group addressed the interactions of test blanket modules with the plasma, in particular the expected heat loads on the TBM's first wall and how to minimize the effects of the TBM's ferromagnetic materials triggering magnetic field ripples. The latter could lead to a request to reduce the size of each TBM. All contributing Parties to the TBM program (all ITER Members) were requested to assess the consequences of such a reduction.

The second part of the meeting was dedicated to the integration of the TBM Program into the ITER Research Plan. A preliminary proposal, covering the first ten years of ITER operation, has been prepared and presented by the ITER Organization. The Parties were requested to give their comments within the next three months.

The third part of the meeting addressed the R&D activities performed on TBMs over the last six months by all the Parties. The result: significant progress has been made, in particular in TBM manufacturing processes and TBM mockup fabrication.

At the end of the meeting, representative from ITER and the seven parties went back home with a series of actions to carry out over the next few months.

Nadia Fabre, ITER Itinerary project manager, Hélène Philip (Mission ITER), and Bernard Saunal, works director for BEC-Eiffage, point to the newly completed bat habitats in the Mirabeau vaulted canals.
Bats are a fast-disappearing species: agricultural intensification, the use of pesticides, marauding cats, light pollution and development projects have caused a spectacular decline in their population. This is especially true in Provence, which hosts 29 of the 35 different species present in Europe.

Several bat colonies lived in the bridge on the D96 in Peyrolles and in the underground canals in the Pont de Mirabeau area. While the bridge is being rebuilt and the canal tunnels reinforced to withstand the weight of the future ITER "extra-large convoys," the colonies have been captured and entrusted to the local bat protection society, Groupe Chiroptère de Provence.

The canal tunnels and the almost-completed new bridge have been equipped with cosy and well-protected bat shelters—60 x 60 cm "boxes" hollowed out of concrete in the tunnels' ceilings—and a gallery-like "housing" area under the bridge. Colonies are expected to move back in the spring, once their hibernation period is over.

By the way: bats have a nice name in French—they're called "chauves-souris," which means, literally, "bald mice." But bats are not "bald"; on the contrary they're quite hairy. Originally, in Late Latin, bats were called "cava sorix" (owl mouse) which sounds very close to "calve sorix" (bald mouse)... Since it was easier to picture a bald mouse than an owl mouse, the name, once it had evolved into French, stuck.

In case of a fire in any office building, you should follow the procedure below:

1. alert the Rescue Team (CEA/FLS) by dialling 18, or 2218 (internal network), or 04 42 25 22 18 (from a cell phone)

2. alert the ITER First Aid Team and ITER Building Safety and Security Supervisor (Alain LeBris - 7535)

3. if the fire is small, try to extinguish it using the fire extinguishers available in the corridors, but only if you can do so without risk to yourself. Training for using extinguishers will start next January, but here are brief instructions in the meantime:

How to use an extinguisher:

-Remove the pin

-Strike the extinguisher if necessary

-Direct the jet towards the base of the flames

-Press the operating handle

-Fight the fire from the outer limit of the extinguisher's range, then move closer.