Since April this year, the ITER Organization has been exhibiting at the World EXPO in Osaka, Japan—and with great success, as reflected by the tens of thousands of visitors received at the stand. (Organizers have recorded an average of 100,000 daily visitors to the EXPO.) On Sunday 13 July the ITER project took centre stage by inviting representatives from the Japanese government, Japanese fusion institutions, Japanese industry, EXPO organizers, ITER Members, and the general public to join in for a celebration of “Fusion Energy Day.” The day devoted to the energy of the Sun and stars began with an emotional moment: the hoisting of the Japanese flag next to the ITER flag, accompanied by the national anthem of Japan and—something brand new—the anthem of the ITER project that had been created especially for the occasion by well-known Japanese composer Shigeaki Saegusa. “If ITER is put to practical use, it will be one of the greatest inventions in human history,” he later stated at a reception where he handed over the musical score to ITER Director-General Pietro Barabaschi. ITER Director-General Pietro Barabaschi informs the audience about the status of ITER and the potential of fusion energy. During the 40-minute presentation that followed the opening ceremony, Director-General Barabaschi explained the principles of fusion and how ITER is aiming to demonstrate that fusion energy can be generated on an industrial scale. The official delegation then continued on to a guided tour of the ITER exhibition—one that included a virtual reality headset that transported delegates to the ITER site—while the Fusion Energy Day lectures continued on stage with a line-up of speakers who presented ITER career opportunities, the principles of fusion in Japanese, and the status of the largest currently operating tokamak—the Europe/Japan tokamak JT-60SA. Representatives of the private Japanese fusion association J-Fusion and the European consortium EUROfusion also made presentations to the audience.Fusion Energy Day concluded with a live show that interpreted fusion and the power of the elements through light and sound. And as the brutally hot Sun was finally setting over Osaka, the delegation had one more opportunity to listen to the composer’s words in the anthem created for the ITER project. “ITER is our Sun, created by humanity for the first time in history by gathering our collective wisdom and power.” The ITER Organization would like to thank the Japanese Government and the National Institutes for Quantum Science and Technology (QST) for their generous financial and logistical assistance.View other images from Fusion Energy Day in the gallery below. (Thanks to Tamás Szabolics from EUROfusion for his contribution.)  

The cryogenics group at ITER has achieved a significant milestone with the successful integration of the five massive auxiliary cold boxes in the Tokamak Building. Each one, weighing approximately 28 tonnes, has been positioned with exceptional precision to ensure the necessary alignment with the cryoline system. Located on Level 3 of the Tokamak Building, the auxiliary cold boxes are central to ITER’s cryodistribution system. They receive cryogenic helium from the cryoplant and distribute it to core tokamak components such as the superconducting magnets and the cryopumps to maintain the ultra-cold conditions needed for fusion experiments. Procured by India and manufactured by Linde Kryotechnik AG in Switzerland, the ACBs began arriving in the Tokamak Building in December 2023. The connection process started in the summer of 2024 and the integration with the cryoline network was completed this month. The five auxiliary cold boxes have been connected to the cryolines and testing is underway. “The process required accurate metrology so we could position everything as per design and line up perfectly with the network cryolines that carry liquid helium in from the cryoplant,” said Lahcène Benkheira, ITER’s cryogenic systems responsible officer. “With all the connections now completed, we have been able to start testing activities.” From design to reality: a view of the integrated auxiliary cold boxes vs the 3D model for the final installation. The 28-tonne components act like dispatchers, receiving the different fluids from the cryogenic termination cold box located inside the cryoplant and redistributing them throughout the ITER machine. Verification and initial testing of the cryolines is underway; the next step will be to install large maintenance platforms around the auxiliary cold boxes and to complete cryoline interconnections on the plant bridge linking the Tokamak Building to the cryoplant.

All lectures from the 2025 ITER International School on Integrated Modelling of Magnetic Fusion Plasmas, which concluded on 4 July in France, are now available on the ITER website. The lectures were delivered by 17 prominent specialists in the integrated modelling of magnetic fusion devices and covered a wide range of topics—from whole-fusion-device integrated modelling with a wide range of sophistication and computational cost, to specific modelling of interlinked physics and control processes. The application of artificial intelligence to integrated modelling was a recurring theme during the week-long International School, presented as a promising development for the field.Download the presentations from the 2025 ITER International School (and all other editions) on this ITER webpage.