ITER publishes research plan R&D needs

2025-06-09 - The sixth central solenoid module sent by the US Domestic Agency and its partner General Atomics to ITER has been unloaded in the port of Fos-sur-Mer. It will arrive on site at the end of the month.

2025-06-06 - The European Domestic Agency hands over the completed Fast Discharge and Switching Network Resistor Building to the ITER Organization in June. The facility will house fast discharge resistors, designed to protect ITER’s magnets in case of a sudden loss of superconductivity. ©F4E

2025-06-04 - On 4 June, the Cooperation Agreement between the ITER Organization and the National Nuclear Center of the Republic of Kazakhstan (NNC RK), originally signed in 2017, was officially extended and updated. The updated scope includes the exchange of scientists and experts, as well as scientific and technical cooperation related to the ITER project.

2025-05-30 - As part of the new baseline research plan, the ITER Organization has identified the top R&D issues requiring consolidation or refinement. To make these R&D support needs more accessible to the fusion research community, they have been published as an ITER Technical Report. Download the report (dated 30 May 2025) at https://www.iter.org/scientists/iter-technical-reports.

2025-05-22 - A central solenoid module is loaded onto an ocean-going vessel at the port of Houston, Texas (USA). When it arrives at ITER it will be the fifth module added to the central solenoid stack (six are required in all to form the tower-like central solenoid magnet).

2025-05-17 - The first Open Doors Day of 2025 was well-timed ... only one month before the first of nine vacuum vessel sectors had been lowered into the tokamak pit.

2025-05-17 - The size of the overhead crane hooks must have surprised more than one visitor on 17 May 2025 during the semi-annual ITER Open Doors Day. The combined lift capacity of the largest overhead bridge cranes is 1,400 tonnes.

2025-05-17 - Approximately 700 members of the public attend the ITER Open Doors Day organized on Saturday 17 May. With 75 volunteers on hand to present the project and answer questions, every visitor left with a better understanding of the scale and scope of the project and the advantages of fusion energy.

2025-05-15 - Vacuum vessel sector #5 is lowered in the tool that was vacated earlier this month by completed sector module #7. The association of sector #5 with its thermal shield and a pair of toroidal field coils will take approximately six months.

2025-05-15 - The overhead cranes winch the 440-tonne sector right up to the ceiling so that it will be able to pass over the front crossbar of the SSAT sub-assembly tool. The radial beam will be supported in the tool; the suspended sector will also be propped from below.

2025-05-15 - The radial beam (directly above the component) plays an important role. The sector remains attached to it all through the sub-assembly process... as it is extracted from the upending tool, as it is received into the sector sub-assembly tool, as it is transferred into the pit, and during in-pit vacuum vessel welding.

2025-05-15 - On Thursday 15 May, vacuum vessel sector #5 is extracted from the upending tool (right) and transferred across the Assembly Hall to the standing tool where it will associated with other key machine components to become sector module #5.

2025-05-14 - At its 32nd meeting in May, the ITER Council Science and Technology Advisory Committee (STAC) endorses the fully detailed version of the ITER Research Plan as well as associated blueprints for magnet coil testing and the development of ITER’s neutral beam injection heating system. A full report will now be made to the ITER Council, which meets next month on 18 and 19 June.

2025-05-14 - Photo: ITER Organization/EJF Riche