On Thursday 30 August, the National People's Congress of China ratified the Agreement on the establishment of the ITER Organization, and the Agreement on the privileges and immunities of the ITER Organization. This is a first step to full ratification of the ITER Agreement by China, the final step being the signature of the Chinese President, which is expected shortly. The ratification took place as part of the seven-day, bimonthly meeting of the 170-member Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) in Beijing.

The ITER Agreements were signed during a ceremony on 21 November last year in Paris, but before the ITER can be established formally as a true International Organization, the ITER Agreement needs to be ratified, accepted or approved, in accordance with the procedures of each ITER Party. In the course of the year, the other six Parties have already concluded this process.

The ITER Agreement will enter into force 30 days after the reception by the IAEA - which is the repository of the ITER Agreement - of the official notification of the ratification from the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. At that time, ITER will officially become an International Organization.

Besides this most important issue, ITER Director General Kaname Ikeda updated the STAC participants on the progress of staff recruitment by the IO, and in establishing the Domestic Agencies and the forthcoming licensing milestones which include the submission of the so called Preliminary Safety Report by the end of this year and a public hearing mid 2008.

Mr. Mamoru Mohri signing his autograph on a children's drawing.

Born in Yoichi, Hokkaido, Japan, Mamoru Mohri dreamed of becoming an astronaut ever since seeing Russian Yuri Gagarin setting off into space on 12th April 1961. Mohri was 13 then, and a big fan of the famous cartoon "Atomic Boy". At the age of 21 Mohri saw the first man walking on the moon and that was when he decided to become an astronaut, "to get closer to the sun".

But before he finally did so as a payload specialist in 1992 and again in 2000, logging more than 459 hours in space on board of the International Space Station (ISS), Mamoru Mohri studied the physics that actually powers the sun: nuclear fusion. He received his degree from Flinders University in South Australia, later he became an exchange scientist under the U.S./Japan Nuclear Fusion Collaboration Program.

After a tour around Tore Supra and the ITER site, Mamoru Mohri last week took the chance to address the members of the STAC meeting while they were having lunch at the Chateau. "It is astounding what humans can do when they work together", Mohri said. "I know that you will astound the world."

3-14 September
8th International Summer School on Fusion Technologies
Karlsruhe , Germany

3-14 September
8th Carolus Magnus Summer School on Plasma and Fusion Energy Physics
Bad Honneff, Germany

9-15 September
Energy Conversion Systems in Tokamak Reactor
Erice, Italy

10-13 September
EUROMAT 2007
Nuremberg, Germany

16-20 September
8th European Conference on Applied Superconductivity
Brussels, Belgium

16-21 September
8th International Conference on Tritium Science and Technology
Rochester, New York

17-22 September
12th Latin-American Workshop on Plasma Physics
Caracas, Venezuela

18-21 September
13th International Symposium on Laser-Aided Plasma Diagnostics
Takayama, Japan

24-26 September
12th European Fusion Theory Conference (EFTC)
Madrid, Spain

24-28 September
The 6th International Symposium on Applied Plasma Science
Nikko, Japan

24-28 September
IPP Summer University on Plasma Physics and Fusion Research
Greifswald, Germany

24-28 September
Burning Plasma Diagnostics, International Conference
Varenna, Italy

26-28 September
H-mode Physics and Transport Barriers
Tsukuba, Japan

30 September-5 October
8th International Symposium on Fusion Nuclear Technology (ISFNT-8)
Heidelberg, Germany

For full agenda, click here.

Click on picture for high-res.

Un stylo rouge, un stylo bleu. These are the words little Johannes will always remember. Not only are they the first words he saw on his first day in school, written on the blackboard. They are also the first words he heard in a new language.

Johannes comes from Bavaria, Germany. He is one of the 30 or so primary class pupils that attend the new International School in Manosque which opened its doors last week. In total, about one hundred pupils age 3 to 18 will attend the newly opened nursery school, the primary and secondary classes or the nearby lycee. 31 teachers will teach them half time in French. Depending on their origin and mother tongue they can then choose from German, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Korean and Chinese as their second language.

Besides Johannes, there are children with origins all over the world. There is Maureen from Villeneuve, France. Her mother is French and her father English. Then there is Camille who ´s mother is German, but who grew up in France. And there is six year old Nassim who is already a Cosmopolitan in its true meaning: Born in California, he grew up in France with one part of his family originating from Tunesia. Already capable of speaking three languages, Nassim is now heading for English and Chinese. His comment: "I will have to work hard!"

The International Atomic Energy Agency has published an online and updated version of its World Survey of Activities in Controlled Fusion Research. It provides a comprehensive listing of fusion sites worldwide, including names, addresses, phone/fax, email and web URLs. It has an easy to use search engine.

Go to the IAEA database »

On 14 August, a group of 130 scientists and engineers united in the Australian ITER Forum, launched a strategic plan for fusion science and engineering, which outlines the path towards an Australian involvement in ITER. The launch event was held in Parliament House in Canberra. The plan calls for an investment of 38 million Euro over 10 years.

Physicist Matthew Hole, chairman of the Australian ITER Forum, described ITER as the world's largest science project. The money would be spent on fellowships and travel for scientists working directly on the ITER project or on ITER-related science and would also fund Australian scientists to build a component for the reactor.

Read the full report »

A new book, "Plasma Physics and Fusion Energy" by Jeffrey P. Freidberg from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has just been published by Cambridge University Press. It can be ordered online at their website. The book, which is based on a series of course notes from graduate courses in plasma physics and fusion energy at MIT, covers the potential role of fusion in future energy systems, fusion power production, design of a fusion reactor, and basic plasma physics. Exercises are included.

Secondly, there is the book "Fusion - The Energy of the Universe", written by Garry McCracken and Peter Stott, which has been translated into Korean and which is now available through Books Hill Publishing Co. The ISBN number of the translation is 9812598596. It will soon also be available at the ITER library.

Kaname Ikeda, ITER Director General

Early September 2007 the offices of the ITER Organization are buzzing: New staff members of the first block of vacancies are moving in and taking up their new tasks in the ITER project, adding up to a total of 170 (status September 10, 2007). 140 more people will join within the next half year.

Also within the next few months we will see another big step in the history of ITER: the entry into force of the ITER Agreement. With China about to finalize its adoption of the Agreement and the other parties having concluded their ratification processes, we are now very close to ITER formally becoming a true International Organization.

Besides these political and administrative aspects, an intensive technical effort is currently focused on the design of the ITER machine. Starting on the 17th of this month, we organize extensive review meetings with experts from all seven ITER Members for one week at the Chateau to finalize the draft baseline design for ITER, which will then be presented to the ITER Council for approval in November. This will certainly mark the start of a new era of this project, where we can fully focus on construction.

Interview with Anatoly Krasilnikov »

The Russian government last month adopted the main provisions of a draft strategy for developing a fusion power industry, including the construction of commercial fusion reactors by 2050. "If we fail to adopt this fusion research program now, we will soon lose the existing scientific potential and professional knowledge to implement the strategy", Akademician Yevgeny Velikhov was quoted by the Russian News Agency Novosti.

As Velikhov put it, the 2009-2015 program represents a first stage of a new fusion power strategy, including the modernization of technological potential that has been created during Soviet times, as well as training of scientific personnel. The cost is estimated at 30 billion roubles ($1.17 billion), but it could rise along with the implementation of specific projects, the scientist is quoted as saying.

The second stage of the proposed strategy (2016-2031) envisions the development and testing of materials to be used in future fusion power reactors. During the third stage, which will start after 2031, Russia hopes to design and start building commercial fusion power plants.