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Latest ITER Newsline
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The physics behind the transition to H-mode
H‐mode—or thesudden improvement of plasma confinement in the magnetic field of tokamaksby approximatelya factor of two—is thehigh confinement regime that all mo [...]
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In search of the green plasma
Sébastien König's core competence is in planning and scheduling; his passion is in understanding the workings of the Universe. In his previous life, before join [...]
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An outing into the future
Open Doors days occur with scientific regularity at ITER (spring and autumn) and yet—due to the rapid evolution of work on site—each event offers something new. [...]
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Fusion "grandfather" tells family story
Grandfathers like to tell stories. And Robert Aymar, the 'grandfather' of the French fusion community, is no exception. 'Being so old,' he quipped at last week' [...]
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An AC/DC adapter ... ITER size
Like flashlight and smartphones, the ITER magnets—all 10,000 tonnes of them—will run on direct current (DC). And like flashlight and smartphones they will need [...]
ITER NEWSLINE -
The FAB Seven
The auditing process consists of sifting through documents, comparing sources, and requesting external evidence to ''make sure that Council can rely on the numbers that are provided.''
The mission of the seven-person Board (one per ITER Member) is to examine the ITER Organization's financial statements every year and to "make sure that Council can rely on the numbers that are provided."
For one and a half weeks, the FAB and their assistants have taken up their quarters in Room 22, on the ground floor of ITER Headquarters. The auditing process consists of sifting through documents, conducting interviews, comparing sources, and requesting external evidence such as exchange tables, vendor invoices, and bank documents to confirm revenue, expenditures and other financial data.
Auditors, however, are not mere accountants. "We're here to protect the ITER assets ... from furniture to money in the bank," says Alice. "We want to make sure that the public is paying for something that will or has occurred and that the governments' investments in ITER are properly used."
The FAB Seven: Francois Colling (EU), Tamara Vorobieva (Russia), Katsumi Nakajima (Japan), Alice Peterson (US), Ayyanan Ramaiah (India), Xiaoyun Sun (China), Hyuck Jong Kim (South Korea).
Three years after it was established, how does the ITER Organization look to an auditor? "I've been in this business for 30 years," says Alice, "and I have never found the perfect organization. ITER is unique and has come a long way. Today, the most critical controls have been developed which brings the organization under control. The ITER Organization was never given the luxury of growing slowly. I must say it's done pretty well with what it was given ..."
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