Looking into the heart of the matter
6 Jul 2012
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Sabina Griffith
Getting first-hand information from Laurent Patisson, ITER's Building & Site Infrastructure Directorate: Sibylle Guenter, Director of IPP, Rem Haange, Juergen Mlynek, Ulrich Samm from the Research Center Juelich, and Robert Wolf from the IPP Greifswald.
The Helmholtz Association (34,000 employees, 18 research centres) is Germany's largest scientific organization with strategic programs in six core fields, among them the development of fusion energy. The Helmholtz Association's nuclear fusion program is currently pursuing two priority goals: to carry out Germany's contributions to building and operating ITER, and to finalize and operate the Wendelstein 7-X Stellarator in Greifswald.
This week, the president of the Helmholtz Association, Juergen Mlynek, assembled the heads of the German fusion research institutes and paid a visit to ITER to get first-hand information about the project's status. The group was welcomed by ITER Deputy Director-General Rem Haange who summarized the most recent progress before the bus took the group to the very heart of the matter, the Tokamak Pit.