Subscribe options

Select your newsletters:

Please enter your email address:

@

Your email address will only be used for the purpose of sending you the ITER Organization publication(s) that you have requested. ITER Organization will not transfer your email address or other personal data to any other party or use it for commercial purposes.

If you change your mind, you can easily unsubscribe by clicking the unsubscribe option at the bottom of an email you've received from ITER Organization.

For more information, see our Privacy policy.

News & Media

Latest ITER Newsline

  • Busbar installation | Navigating an obstacle course

    What is simple and commonplace in the ordinary world, like connecting an electrical device to a power source, often takes on extraordinary dimension at ITER. Wh [...]

    Read more

  • Vacuum vessel assembly | Back in the starting blocks

    Close to two years have passed since vacuum vessel assembly was halted when defects were identified in the ITER tokamak's vacuum vessel sectors and thermal shie [...]

    Read more

  • Ride 4 Fusion | Scientific outreach on two wheels

    A group of fusion researchers has left Padua, Italy, for an 800-kilometre bike trip to the ITER site. Their goal? To share information about fusion energy resea [...]

    Read more

  • 11th ITER Games | Good fun under the Provencal sun

    A yearly tradition in the ITER community for more than a decade now, the ITER Games offer a pleasant way to reconnect among colleagues and neighbours after the [...]

    Read more

  • Manufacturing | Recent milestones in Russia

    Russia continues to deliver in-kind components to the ITER project according to procurement arrangements signed with the ITER Organization. Some recent manufact [...]

    Read more

Of Interest

See archived entries

ITER NEWSLINE -

On site

Distinguished visitors from Korea

Participants to the Europe-Korea Conference on Science and Technology (EKC) in Marseille took an afternoon off, last week, to pay a visit to the ITER site. The 120-person-strong group was headed by Korea's Vice-Minister of Science and ICT, Tae-Seog Oh, accompanied by former Secretary-General of the United Nations (2007-2016) Ban Ki Moon, now Chairman of the Foundation for a Better Future.

In the absence of Eisuke Tada, ITER Director-General interim, the distinguished visitors were welcomed at ITER Headquarters by two Domain Heads: Alain Bécoulet (Engineering, right) and Tim Luce (Science & Operation, left). (Click to view larger version...)
In the absence of Eisuke Tada, ITER Director-General interim, the distinguished visitors were welcomed at ITER Headquarters by two Domain Heads: Alain Bécoulet (Engineering, right) and Tim Luce (Science & Operation, left).
Whereas Vice-Minister Oh receives regular reports on ITER, former Secretary-General Ban was new to the project's progress and challenges. As Kijung Jung, the head of the Korean Domestic Agency, guided the group through site landmarks such as the Poloidal field Coil Winding Facility, the Assembly Hall, and the Tokamak pit, Ban discovered something that was familiar to him: nations working together for a common goal. The ITER collaboration, which brings together 35 nations, is smaller that the United Nations, which comprises 193 Member States. "But what I sense here is a similar spirit," said the former Secretary-General.

Standing at the foot of the giant, Korean-built sector sub-assembly tools where ITER vacuum vessel sector "modules" are assembled, both men felt an intense pride for their country. "Of course there are issues, delays and unpredictable challenges," said Vice-Minister Oh. "This is inevitable with such a complex, multinational, one-of-a-kind venture."

Senior advisor for construction Kim Keun-Kyeong (left) provides explanations to former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon (centre), while Vice-Minister Tae-Seog Oh sizes up the massive Korean-made sub-assembly tools. (Click to view larger version...)
Senior advisor for construction Kim Keun-Kyeong (left) provides explanations to former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon (centre), while Vice-Minister Tae-Seog Oh sizes up the massive Korean-made sub-assembly tools.
Korea—which passed a "Fusion Energy Development Act" as early as 2006—is determined, in the Vice-Minister's words, "to make it happen and find ways to speed up its availability." As for Ban Ki Moon, whose most significant contribution during his tenure as the 8th Secretary-General of the United Nations was the adoption of the 2015 Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, he sees in ITER and fusion a key element in the global fight against climate change. "I believe in the power of science," he said at the close of the visit, asking Kijung Jung to provide him with more information, documents and illustrations for a deeper understanding of the promise of ITER—this "most ambitious project" for the future of humankind.

return to the latest published articles