There was no slowing down for the Vacuum team at the end of last year as two major design reviews for the ITER vacuum system were held over an intense four days. The first was for the vacuum vessel and auxiliaries leak detection and leak localization system. Liam Worth, responsible for the leak detection and localization system for ITER explains: "Modern tokamaks can be brought down by a mere pinhole in their vacuum system or piping networks. Whether microscopic or visible, holes, cracks and faults cause leaks, which in turn allow air, water or helium to diffuse into areas that are forbidden to them. At best, a leak can seriously degrade the machine's performance; at worst, it can stop operations." The review came after an intense R&D program. "Passing the review," says Liam, "successfully puts ITER's main vacuums in a strong position to support reliable operations." The second review was for the cryopump cryogenic supply system, which effectively controls the heating and cooling of ITER's 18 cryo-pumps. The largest cryo-pumping systems in the world require the largest cryo-pump cryogen distribution system. At the core of the system are the 12 cold valve boxes that distribute cryogen and gas supplies to each pump.  Liam Worth, Chair Mike Wykes, Wolfgang Obert and Robert Pearce award Stamos Papastergiou (centre) with a block of the ITER vacuum vessel and an ITER-coloured plastic duck in appreciation for his long-term support in the efforts to minimize the effects of water leaks on tokamaks. Review chair Wolfgang Obert, the Cryogenic Group Leader at JET and the person responsible for the cutting-edge design and operation of JET cryogenics system, commented: "The meeting was well prepared by the ITER Organization and a considerable amount of work had gone into the design. The system can now go forward to Procurement Arrangement, final design and manufacturing milestones.""The two reviews involved around 100 presentations, even more drawings and documents, and many man years of design preparations," concluded Robert Pearce, ITER Vacuum Section leader. "The panels of experts at each review helped the vacuum team to make absolutely sure that everything is going in the right direction. The positive outcome of both of these reviews is a credit to the ITER Organization and the European Domestic Agency vacuum teams and another large and successful step towards ITER construction."

In December 2014, Russian specialists at the Efremov Institute of Electrophysical Apparatus successfully tested a prototype of the fast discharge resistor module, designed to rapidly discharge energy stored in the coils of the ITER magnetic system. Tests results demonstrated full conformance with ITER Organization technical requirements. The series of tests were conducted at the Efremov Institute within the framework of the Procurement Arrangement signed in 2011 for the Fast Discharge Units, Switching Networks, and the High-Current, Water-Cooled Busbars. Representatives of the ITER Organization and the Russian Domestic Agency were present. The 4.5-tonne prototype resistor module is one of the key elements of the ITER magnet system, designed to protect the superconducting coils in the case of a sudden loss of superconductivity (a quench). Fast discharge resistors are made as a set of sections consisting of a resistive element enclosed in a steel casing. All in all, the Efremov Institute specialists will manufacture and deliver 1,030 sections (weighing 1,200 tonnes), capable of discharging 55 GJ of energy.

With the recent conclusion of three new Procurement Arrangements, the number of Procurement Arrangements signed with the ITER Domestic Agencies since 2007 has reached 104, representing 90.53 percent of the in-kind value of the project.   On 15 December 2014, ITER Director-General Osamu Motojima signed the Electron Cyclotron Plant Controller and the Subsystem Control Unit Procurement Arrangement. The plant controller is the master control system that will oversee the configuration and operation of the entire electron cyclotron plant, protecting the system against potentially damaging events such as loss of vacuum or arcs in the transmission lines or in the diamond windows. The plant controller is also in charge of managing the stop requests sent by ITER's central interlock system. The subsystem control unit oversees the operation and monitoring of the electron cyclotron upper launchers, implements local protection functions and interfaces with the electron cyclotron plant control system. This system will be procured by the European Domestic Agency.   The In-Vessel Viewing System Procurement Arrangement, also concluded with Europe, covers the system that will be deployed between plasma pulses (or during the shutdown of the machine) to perform visual examination and metrology of the plasma-facing components. It will be able to visualize, on demand, the whole interior surface of the vacuum vessel with a lateral resolution in the range of 1 to 3 mm and create a 3D map with a depth resolution of 0.1 to 0.5 mm. The in-vessel viewing system will allow operators to assess the effect of transient events such as disruptions or vertical displacement events; in the latter case, the system will perform the long-term assessment of the overall erosion of the blanket first wall. The in-vessel viewing system is based on the principle of laser-scanning.   The Blanket Module Connector Procurement Arrangement, signed at ITER and countersigned in Russia, covers the set of connections between the blanket modules and the vacuum vessel that will accommodate for the large electromagnetic loads and keep blanket modules from moving. The final Procurement Arrangement, signed with Russia, covers a set of connections between the blanket modules and the vacuum vessel (Blanket Module Connectors) that will accommodate for the large electromagnetic loads expected during off-normal plasma events and keep blanket modules from moving in radial, poloidal and toroidal directions. The 1,760 connectors will be produced in Russia out of extra high tensile steel.   A complementary diagnostic arrangement (CDP) was also signed with Russia for the Vertical Neutron Camera, a diagnostic system that will enable—through the direct measurement of neutrons during operation—to demonstrate the achievement of fusion on a reactor scale.   All Procurement Arrangements have been countersigned by the respective Domestic Agencies.

The maritime leg of the first Highly Exceptionnal Load (HEL) destined to the ITER site was completed on 12 January as the special barge carrying the high-voltage transformer reached the northern shore of the inland sea Etang de Berre on the southern coast of France. Procured by the US Domestic Agency and manufactured in Korea, the 87-tonne transformer is part of ITER's steady state electrical network and will connect, along with three identical components, the AC electrical distribution system to the 400kV switchyard.   The land leg of the journey will begin on Tuesday 13 January at approximately 9:00 p.m. As the load is relatively "light" compared to those that were tested in September 2013 and April 2014, the convoy will cover the 104 kilometres to the ITER site in one night instead of over three.   The convoy is expected at ITER at 4:00 a.m. on Wednesday 14 January.

In order to successfully pre-assemble and manoeuver hundreds of large components, a very precise, made-to-order set of tools will be required for ITER assembly.   The design and fabrication of 128 tools—including all of the purpose-built tools required up to First Plasma—falls to the responsibility of the Korean Domestic Agency on the basis of a Procurement Arrangement signed with the ITER Organization in August 2009.   The design of the tools is challenging. Not only must the tools meet the load and handling specifications of the components and achieve the required alignment resolutions, but they must also be designed with the full lifecycle of ITER assembly in mind and all of the different ways the components will be handled, including their transfer from tool to tool.   Since 2010, ITER Korea has been working with industrial supplier SFA Engineering for the preliminary design of a first batch of 71 tools. Of these tools, a subgroup of 21 tools has been the object of particular focus—these are the tools that are most critical with regard to the schedule. Meetings are held regularly to review design maturity and a 1:5-scale mockup of the largest tool in the subgroup—the Sector Sub Assembly Tool—has been built and tested.   For four days in December, a Final Design Review was held at ITER Headquarters for the subgroup of 21 assembly tools, called the Group A tools.   Korea has built and tested this 5:1-scale mockup of the largest tool in the subgroup—the Vacuum Vessel Sector Sub Assembly Tool. Under the chairmanship of external expert Ian Williamson (Jacobs Engineering), 35 people—representatives of the Korean Domestic Agency, the manufacturer, ITER technical responsible officers for each of the components or systems interfacing with the tools, and experts—carefully reviewed the design of each tool and examined reports on structural analysis, interface status, and load cases.   "One of the major challenges of assembly tooling is determining the exact interaction between the component and the specific tool or tools," says Robert Shaw, head of the Machine Assembly & Integration Section and technical responsible officer for the Assembly Tooling Procurement Arrangement. "These interactions need to be identified in an exhaustive way over the entire handling and assembly period so that they can be provided for in the respective designs (tool and component)."   The review panel concluded by acknowledging the considerable effort that was made by the Korean Domestic Agency and its design contractor in preparing design documentation for the review. Designs were considered generally sound, with some small adjustments necessary. Following the resolution of chits from the Final Design Review, the next phase will be to produce all the manufacturing plans and drawings leading up to the Manufacturing Readiness Review for the Group A subset of tools.   "The timeliness of machine assembly depends on the preparation of the assembly team and on having all the required tools in place," commented ITER Chief Engineer Joo-Shik Bak on the last day of the review. "For this reason, the Final Design Review for the first group of schedule-important tools is an important milestone and a very important demonstration of project progress."

​Take one stainless steel tokamak component, bake in the oven for seven hours at 980 degrees C till it's just right...et voilà — it's ready to go into the fusion device. Not quite that simple, but this is the procedure to eliminate unwanted magnetism from materials that will be installed in the vessel of MAST-Upgrade, the new UK fusion experiment that is being built at the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy (CCFE, UK). Stainless steel is used because it is strong, cheap and can be non-magnetic. For MAST-Upgrade, the latter property is particularly important. In a tokamak, hot plasma fuel is confined using strong magnetic coils. So machine components with low magnetism are necessary to avoid perturbing the magnetic configurations and to achieve accurate measurement of the tokamak's magnetic field. However, stainless steel as supplied can be slightly magnetic. If left untreated this would cause stray magnetic fields when MAST-Upgrade is operated and also make magnetic measurements less accurate. Baking the steel reorders its crystal structure to reduce the extent to which it becomes magnetised without significantly affecting its other properties. Over the past nine months, various parts have been heat-treated in ovens at the Special Techniques Group workshop at the Culham site. "It's an effective method and although it might seem low-tech, there's a hi-tech reason behind it," explains CCFE Work Package Manager James Foster. "There isn't one 'recipe' that fits everything, so each component has a different formula — just like in baking at home." Read the original article on the CCFE website.

​ The ITER Business Forum 2015 (IBF/15) will take place in Marseille, France, from 25 to 27 March 2015 with the participation and support of the ITER Organization and the ITER Domestic Agencies (in particular the European Domestic Agency, Fusion for Energy), the Industrial Liaison Officers (ILO) network, Agence ITER France, and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Marseille-Provence. Just like the events held in 2007, 2011 and 2013, the fourth ITER Business Forum will provide industry with updated information on the ITER Project and on procurement procedures and forthcoming calls for tenders (2015-2016). It also aims to facilitate industrial partnerships—around the ITER project and beyond—inside of Europe and internationally (for example: consortia to answer calls for tender, industrial partnerships, subcontracting, local support). IBF/15 will include: -          an industrial conference with presentations given by the ITER Organization, Domestic Agencies and their main suppliers; -          one-to-one meetings on 26 and 27 March 2015; -          an optional program of technical tours on 25 March, including a visit of the ITER worksite; -          a welcome reception on 25 March in the evening and a gala dinner on 26 March at the venue. Registration for participation in IBF/15 is now open here.