150 participants at Industrial Info Day
It was a successful test launch.
The Industrial Info Day that took place on Tuesday 7 October attracted more than 150 participants from 87 companies. Most attended the event at ITER Headquarters in person; others joined via the ITER Domestic Agencies or livestream. All were interested by the comprehensive presentation of ITER's Tokamak Cooling Water System and corresponding procurement strategies.
The aim of this first Info Day was to involve industry at a very early stage in the procurement and the manufacturing of ITER's Tokamak Cooling Water System as well as auxiliary systems and piping. Information was also provide on the centralized approach for the piping needs of other systems such as vacuum, test blanket modules, atmosphere detritiation systems and others.
"As this is a very complex procurement program, we wanted to give as much information to the interested industries as possible and also receive their feedback," explained Françoise Flament, head of ITER's Procurement & Contracts Division.
From the feedback received immediately after the event, the ITER Organization procurement and technical teams were able to declare the event a success.
"We have the impression that, thanks to this initiative, the company representatives now have a better understanding of the scope of work and the needs of the ITER Organization and the US Domestic Agency, which has the global responsibility for the procurement of this system," said Françoise. "Participants were keen to give us their feedback on the overall strategy and their preliminary views on the procurement approach, and this will help us to improve our approach. The event is also likely to trigger industry competition, thus helping us to secure the cost and the schedule of the ITER Project."
Other Industrial Info Day events will be organized in the coming months for assembly contracts and the procurement of atmosphere detritiation systems procurement.