The European Domestic Agency has announced the realization of an important procurement milestone for ITER: the completion of Europe's share of the niobium-tin (Nb3Sn) superconducting strand required for the fabrication of ITER's powerful toroidal field coils.   Approximately 380 tonnes of Nb3Sn superconducting strand, or "wire," is required for ITER's toroidal field magnets. The wire is the key component that will allow the toroidal field magnets to reach 12 T and contribute to the confinement of the plasma. Each strand is less than 1 mm in diameter, and yet can sustain very high current when cooled down to "superconducting" temperatures (-269 degrees Celsius).   The European share of toroidal field strand procurement amounts to 97 tonnes (20.2 percent of toroidal field strands). Two suppliers—Bruker European Advanced Superconductors and Oxford Superconducting Technology—carried out the fabrication. The superconducting wire was produced, tested, approved by the European Domestic Agency, Fusion for Energy, and finally cleared by the ITER Organization.   Europe is the third ITER Domestic Agency, after Korea and Japan, to complete toroidal field strand production and all related ITER Organization control points.   The more than 1,500 production units produced by the two manufacturers will be used to fabricate the cables for the European toroidal field coil cable-in-conduit conductor (CICC) lengths.   Fifty percent of conductor unit lengths have already been produced and delivered to ASG Superconductors SpA, the Italian facility in charge of manufacturing the toroidal field coil winding packs. The remaining conductor lengths will be finalized in 2015.

On 6-7 October, the committee charged with the governance of the Test Blanket Module (TBM) program convened at ITER Headquarters for its 12th meeting. The TBM Program Committee meets twice a year to manage the various aspects of the ITER TBM program and to review the implementation of tritium breeding modules, which must be tested in ITER to demonstrate the capability of achieving tritium breeding self-sufficiency in a future fusion DEMO plant. The committee's findings are reported each time to the ITER Council. Significant progress was reported at the 12th meeting. In line with the TBM program schedule, four TBM Arrangements (TBMAs) have already been signed this year (with China in February, Korea in May, and two with Europe in September); the remaining two are planned for signature in the next few months. TBMAs are the documents that govern the activities related to construction, delivery and acceptance testing of the Test Blanket Systems. The successful signatures now open the way to the next phase of the TBM program: conceptual design reviews for the six Test Blanket Systems and the associated ITER Organization activities on integration and maintenance. The outcomes of conceptual design reviews performed in July (for China's Helium-Cooled Ceramic Breeder Test Blanket System and associated ITER Organization activities) and in September (for the Test Blanket System connection pipes) were reported and the Committee noted that the corresponding conceptual design approval is expected before the end of the year. A presentation and assessment of the main outcomes of all conceptual design reviews is planned for the spring meeting of the TBM Program Committee. Good progress was also noted in the R&D activities carried out by all the seven ITER Members, as the Committee verified and confirmed the main activity milestones planned for 2014 and 2015. Progress was also reported on the activities required for the preparation of Radwaste Management Agreements, which will define how the radwaste related to the Test Blanket Systems will be dealt with during ITER operation and decommissioning. The Test Blanket Program Working Group on Radwaste Management* reported on the technical work accomplished for the preparation of harmonized data and, in particular, convergence on a common approach for tritium inventory estimates was noted. Agence Iter France detailed the progress made in the assessment of data received from the ITER Members and on the related interaction with ANDRA (Agence nationale pour la gestion des déchets radioactifs), the French agency for radioactive waste management. Agence Iter France also proposed a draft roadmap towards the establishment of the tripartite agreements involving the Host State, ITER Members and the ITER Organization, which will establish an agreed framework for the management of the radwaste associated with each Test Blanket System. The proposal was noted by the 12th Test Blanket Module Program Committee and will be further discussed at the next meeting. *The Test Blanket Program Working Group on Radwaste Management comprises ITER Members' Test Blanket Module representatives; ITER Organization representatives for the TBM Program, radwaste management and safety; legal experts from all the contributing Members; and representatives from Agence Iter France (as the interface between ITER and the Host country, France).

The Final Design Review for the poloidal field AC/DC converter was successfully held in Beijing, China on 23-25 September. In advance of the meeting—in addition to the routine duties of reviewing design documentation submitted by the Chinese Domestic Agency and its suppliers—the review panel headed by chair Ivone Benfatto of ITER's Electrical Engineering Division faced the difficult challenge of finding flights to China in the context of a major Air France strike. Fortunately, all participants were able to arrive on time and the meeting was completed according to schedule.   According to a Procurement Arrangement signed with the ITER Organization in 2011, the Chinese Domestic Agency is responsible for the procurement of the 14 poloidal field AC/DC converter units that will provide reliable, controlled DC power to the ITER poloidal field magnetic coils and dummy load for site testing.   During the meeting, the Chinese Domestic Agency and its suppliers presented their work on the final design and testing of the poloidal field AC/DC converter system and its main components such as converter transformer and converter modules. Interface requirements, key electrical and mechanical design, and Factory Acceptance Test (FAT) and Site Acceptance Test (SAT) procedures were carefully examined by the review panel members and experts.   The main supplier ASIPP (the Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences) showcased their one-of-a-kind test platform which was designed and constructed to test the ITER poloidal field converter system at various rated operation and fault conditions to verify their design. Test results of the full-scale prototype using the test platform were essential in the validation of the ASIPP final design.   The ITER Organization and Chinese Domestic Agency participants concluded the Final Design Review with a debriefing session to discuss the results of chit categorization and future actions. There were no critical chits and the review panel was confident that procurement can now advance to the next manufacturing review stage on schedule.   The meeting ended in a cooperative spirit with a remark by Peng Fu, chief engineer and ITER Project manager at ASIPP, who said, "For us chits are not just issues to be resolved, they are good proposals to improve the product and prototype design."

​Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory is organizing a colloquium on TFTR  record fusion power shot of December 1993.More information here.

​Research by an international team led by SLAC and Stanford scientists has uncovered a new, unpredicted behavior in a copper oxide material that becomes superconducting — conducting electricity without any loss — at relatively high temperatures. This new phenomenon — an unforeseen collective motion of electric charges coursing through the material — presents a challenge to scientists seeking to understand its origin and connection with high-temperature superconductivity. Their ultimate goal is to design a superconducting material that works at room temperature.   "Making a room-temperature superconductor would save the world enormous amounts of energy," said Thomas Devereaux, leader of the research team and director of the Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences (SIMES), which is jointly run with SLAC. "But to do that we must understand what's happening inside the materials as they become superconducting. This result adds a new piece to this long-standing puzzle."   The results were published 19 October in Nature Physics.   Read the full article on the SLAC website.