Once a year, the ITER Local Commission for Information (CLI)—the independent body that acts as an interface between the ITER Organization and the local population on questions of nuclear safety, radioprotection and the installation's impact on personnel and the environment—organizes a public meeting. The annual meeting offers the public a unique opportunity to question all the players involved in the ITER Project, either directly or indirectly: the ITER Organization, the European Domestic Agency Fusion for Energy, Agence Iter France, but also the government agencies that "accompany" the implementation of ITER in France. On Tuesday 1 July, close to one hundred local residents, trade union representatives and community activists gathered in the Vinon-sur-Verdon village hall, 3 kilometers distant from the ITER site, to receive the latest news on construction and manufacturing, projections of the number of site workers required in the years to come and plans for accommodating them. Following a general presentation by Carlos Alejaldre, ITER Deputy Director-General for Safety, Quality & Security, the Fusion for Energy site project manager, Laurent Schmieder, provided some key figures on ongoing and planned construction works. Since building construction began in the summer of 2010, 2,500 labourers from 97 companies have worked on the ITER site (an average of 250 to 300 workers are present on any given day). But things are about to change: as construction ramps up a peak of close to 2,000 workers will be required in 2016-2017—all in all, the construction of the installation (2010-2020) will require 18 million man hours. Beginning in the third quarter of 2015, machine assembly operations will follow a similar pattern and a peak of 1,500 workers is expected in 2018-2020. These figures bring the total of worksite employees to more than 3,000 between mid-2017 and late 2018. The annual meeting offers the public a unique opportunity to question all the players involved in the ITER Project. This planned increase in activity has created great expectations in the towns and villages surrounding ITER where unemployment is high. Working "upstream," government agencies are setting up training programs to ensure that local habitants, and especially the unemployed, have a chance to benefit from ITER worksite activity. "Everyone is mobilized," explained Gilles Barsacq, the Secretary General for Regional Affairs. "According to estimations, as much as half of the ITER worksite needs could be filled by local companies and local recruitment—that is, provided we can match the needs and available skills." While the prospective employment opportunities have raised high hopes for the local population, the expected influx of workers has created some concern. Will the local infrastructure be sufficient to guarantee decent accommodation to the workers? How will transportation be organized to and from the worksite? From left to right: Jérôme Pamela, director of Agence Iter France; Gilles Barsacq, Secretary General for Regional Affairs; Laurent Schmieder, Fusion for Energy Project Manager for site, buildings and power supplies, Carlos Alejaldre, ITER Deputy Director-General for Safety, Quality & Security, and Michel Claessens, ITER head of Communication. Three years ago, Agence Iter France began working on these issues in close cooperation with local institutions. Jerôme Pamela, the Agency's director, explained that solutions have been found for the first wave of 250 workers who are due on the worksite at the end of this year/beginning of next and that the ongoing projects in the neighbouring towns and villages "will cover the anticipated needs." As for transportation, the creation of two large parking areas located in villages north and south of the ITER site, plus a shuttle system, should largely contribute to limiting the increase in traffic on the local roads. And finally, on the recurrent questions about working conditions on the ITER site, it was once again emphasized that—despite the international status of the ITER Organization—French and European labour regulations will apply to each and every worker, as is the rule on any worksite in France.

A multimillion-euro contract has been concluded for the last stages of toroidal field coil production between the European Domestic Agency and SIMIC S.p.A, an Italian company specialized in high-tech engineering and manufacturing. The five-year, 100 million euro contract, which covers the cold testing of ten toroidal field winding packs and the insertion of the winding packs into coil cases, effectively concludes European tendering for the production of toroidal field coils. SIMIC has established a collaboration with the German company Babcock Noell GmbH (BNG), which will act as exclusive subcontractor for certain tooling and technologies. Eighteen D-shaped toroidal field coils—responsible for confining the ITER plasma—will represent over one-fourth of the Tokamak's total weight. Formed of a winding pack and stainless steel coil case, each toroidal field coil will measure 15 metres in height and 9 metres in width and weigh approximately 300 tonnes. Europe has the responsibility for 10 coils (including one spare); Japan is producing another 9. The 19 stainless steel coil cases will be procured by Japan. "The last and most decisive chapter of toroidal field coil manufacturing is about to be written," exclaimed Henrik Bindslev, director of Fusion for Energy, the European Domestic Agency for ITER. "We will produce magnets of unprecedented size and power following extremely complex techniques. This final procurement is a clear demonstration of Europe's commitment to the project and its capacity to be competitive and meet high technical standards." Under the contract, the winding packs will be cold tested at -200 degrees Celsius (80 K) using a combined cycle of nitrogen and helium. Next, they will be inserted into the toroidal field coil cases, which will require sophisticated laser dimensional controlled technology and complex tooling in order to move and fit hundreds of tons with millimetre-level precision. Finally the cases will be welded in compliance with stringent standards. Two characteristics will add complexity to the process—the thickness of the weld (up to 130mm) and the fact that welding will have to be carried out only from one side. Ultrasonic technology will be employed to inspect the quality of the welds. More information and an interview of SIMIC's Marianna Ginola, commercial manager, is available on the European Domestic Agency website.

They have a lot in common: they are huge, they are powerful and they are superconducting. The blue dipoles that drive CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and the magnets under construction for ITER share many superlatives.   For this reason, the two international organizations signed a Cooperation Agreement in March 2008 that provides for cooperation in the design and manufacturing of superconducting magnets and associated technologies. CERN has also become the reference laboratory for the testing of ITER's superconducting strands.   Since its implementation in 2009 the collaboration has proven to be an outstanding example of high technology problem solving, with major inputs to the ITER magnets in the areas of superconductors, HTS current leads and high voltage testing.   On 24 June, the CERN-ITER collaboration steering committee came together at ITER Headquarters for its annual meeting, with CERN physicist Lucio Rossi presiding for the last time. He'll be handing the baton to colleague Miguel Jimenez, head of the Technology Department at CERN, in order to concentrate on his new assignment: the LHC High Luminosity Upgrade.   Professor Rossi presented the LHC upgrade project to the ITER community in a seminar titled "LHC: From construction to upgrade."   Download the presentation here.

The procurement of ITER's poloidal field converters took a step forward in May, with the successful testing of the AC/DC converter unit prototype at the Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ASIPP). China is responsible for procuring all 14 poloidal field converters that will provide controllable current/voltage to ITER's six poloidal field coils.   The integrated test was completed on 9 May with technical staff from the ASIPP, the ITER Organization, the Chinese Domestic Agency and manufacturers present. As expected, the poloidal field AC/DC converter unit (PFCU) prototype demonstrated good performance throughout the entire stringent test.   The PFCU prototype is composed of an AC disconnector, rectifier transformers, a converter module, an external bypass, DC disconnectors, DC reactors, and a local controller with a rated capacity of 80MVA and a rated current of 55 kA. By the end of last year, ASIPP had completed all the component tests, including 31 routine items as well as special tests.   The purpose of the integrated test carried out in May was to verify whether all of the components, as well as installation and assembly procedures, met the system requirements. It also put the unit to the test under different operating modes, with an input voltage of AC 66 kV and variable output current and voltage according to the requirements of ITER operation. The test combination included the circulating current test, the parallel operation test, the rated current test, the voltage response test, and the 4-quadrant operation test.   The success of the integrated tests will now provide data for the final design review as well as experience for future batch production.

Three toroidal field conductor lengths left the Kurchatov Institute near Moscow, Russia for the ASG Superconductor plant in La Spezia, Italy on Friday 4 July. This delivery marks the halfway point in the shipment of Russian toroidal field conductor production lengths to the European winding facility.Following this latest shipment (two 760-metre unit lengths and one 415-metre unit length), 14 unit lengths of toroidal field conductor remain to be delivered under the terms of the Procurement Arrangement signed between the ITER Organization and ITER Russia.

The ITER Business Forum opened on 2 July in Seoul attended by 220 representatives of 122 companies from the seven member states of the ITER project. In his video address (pictured) ITER Director-General Osamu Motojima stressed the "essential part" that industry plays in the ITER Project. "And by 'industry' I mean all industry," he said, "not only the large international companies that are familiar with big projects, but also the small and medium-sized firms that drive economic growth and technological innovation in most countries today." The ITER Business Forum continues until 4 July, with thematic sessions on the different ITER components and plant systems and presentations from industry.  

​A number of building projects will be kicking off on the ITER site in the months to come.  In this video, Laurent Schmieder, Site, Buildings and Power Supplies Project Manager for the European Domestic Agency, explains the different types of works that are planned, and how the construction of the Tokamak Complex and a number of surrounding buildings will get underway simultaneously, and the challenge of organizing such a busy worksite. ¶¶Watch the video here ​on the F4E website. 

After 60 years of fusion research, are we any closer? This was the question asked during a 90-minute episode of the US science series "NEXT: People | Science | Tomorrow" (KPCC Southern California Public Radio) that aired on 30 June. Guests William W. Heidbrink, professor of physics and astronomy in the School of Physical Sciences at the University of California, Irvine; John Parmentola, senior vice president of General Atomics' Energy and Advanced Concepts Group; and Ned R. Sauthoff, director of the US ITER Project Office, Oak Ridge National Laboratory joined host Mat Kaplan for a tour of fusion science, the ITER Project and the outlook for fusion energy.   You can watch the live stream here.