The US Domestic Agency is supplying the transmission lines that will provide efficient power transfer between the 170 GHz gyrotron sources of the electron cyclotron heating system and launchers situated in tokamak port plugs. Following years of design and prototyping, the first elements have left the production line and are on their way to ITER. The technology that the United States is delivering is part of the broader electron cyclotron resonance heating system, which helps both initiate and control the plasma by delivering high-intensity beams of microwave radiation using a unique range of power, pulse length, and microwave frequency.Electron cyclotron transmission lines—built from 10 main components including waveguides, switches, bends, couplings and bellows—will carry the high-intensity beams hundreds of metres between the radiofrequency sources and vacuum vessel port plugs. A major challenge of designing and procuring the system is to ensure that minimal power losses, or microwave mode changes, occur along the length of the transmission lines.With the shipping of two of the system’s components this month to the ITER site—miter bends and expansion units fabricated by ARMEC Corp. in Oak Ridge, Tennessee—the US ITER electron cyclotron team has reached a milestone.  This 90-degree miter bend is made of a copper alloy that was machined to state-of-the-art precision by Access Restricted Manufacturing Engineering and Certification (ARMEC) Corp. in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The purpose of the miter bend is to redirect the microwave energy travelling within the electron cyclotron heating transmission system at key points where the lines change direction. Each line will transmit over 1 MW of power to the ITER tokamak. Credit: US ITER/ORNL “After completing design and prototyping, we are finally at the point where we have proven the United States’ manufacturing capability for ITER’s electron cyclotron system,” said Ben Hardy, team manager of the US ITER Plasma Heating Systems group. “It is a realization of all our team’s efforts to date. We have built our relationships with private industry, overcome technical challenges, and now are shipping our first components to the ITER site.”The impact on the private fusion industry in the United States has been significant, Hardy said.“Our US ITER team’s contributions and industry partnerships have led to the development of world-leading, precision manufacturing capability that is laying the groundwork for the burgeoning fusion ecosystem in the United States. The impact on the private fusion industry can be significant because integrated fusion systems need readily made, high-performing heating technology solutions to remain competitive in the race to commercial fusion energy.”Industry contributors from around the United States have fabricated prototypes, provided specialized materials, or are now manufacturing components. “The manufacturers we’ve worked with have gained experience fabricating first-of-a-kind fusion-energy components, often with challenging tolerances and unique materials,” said Greg Hanson, a senior physicist who has been a part of the US ITER project for 14 years.One example is the engineering of evacuated aluminum waveguides with internal corrugations that can transmit 1.2 megawatts per line, while minimizing power transfer losses to 10% or less over an average of 140 meters per line.  Other engineering challenges have included qualifications of the mirrors needed in the miter bends and precision welding for unique materials such as copper chromium zirconium.  Besides the wave guides and miter bend assemblies, system components provided by the United States include pumpouts, expansion units, direct current breaks, switches, and other specialized elements. Smaller parts number in the thousands – including the 20,000 coupling bolts needed for assembly. The pumpout component connects the electron cyclotron transmission lines to the vacuum system to provide ultra-high vacuum conditions in the lines. This maximizes efficiency by preventing air molecules from interrupting the microwave energy travelling through the lines to the plasma. Designed by US ITER, the pumpouts were precision-machined by ARMEC Corp. in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Photo: US ITER/ORNL Fusion technology is also being advanced by the team’s efforts in the modelling, simulations, and analysis needed for an electron cyclotron system at an industrial scale, which is documented in published papers.“Our design calculations are for a 20-year operating run with reliability, operability, and maintenance considerations—something that had never been done before for electron cyclotron heating for fusion at industrial scale,” said Hanson, who has authored several dozen journal articles and research papers on the team’s work.As deliveries from ARMEC continue, the team’s next steps include fabricating and delivering fully assembled direct-current breaks, switches, and adapters that ensure vacuum-tight connections between matching optics units and transmission lines. Additional ongoing work involves completing the final assembly of the waveguide first article and the testing and fabrication of the tenth and final major prototype component—the polarizer miter bend.Electron cyclotron technology is one of 12 hardware systems that the United States is providing to ITER.

On Friday morning, 24 October, the ITER amphitheatre shone a bit brighter as the annual ITER Star Awards winners were celebrated during a simple yet upbeat event that has rapidly become an ITER tradition. The Star Awards, launched in the spring of 2023, were created to recognize individuals who exemplify the ITER CARE values: Collaboration, Accountability, Respect, and Excellence. Employees are nominated by the very colleagues who know them the best, who work with them on projects and assignments under pressure and time constraints—as it is in those very moments that the ability to “live” your values is tested. The Star Awards recognize behaviours rather than results—not a common occurrence in a project that measures every action against our challenging baseline. The 49 winners for 2025 represent the entire ITER team, including staff from the ITER Organization, the Domestic Agencies, ITER Project Associates and interim staff.Each Star Winner received an engraved glass trophy from Director-General Pietro Barabaschi during the celebratory event. After a handshake and photo, they joined their other winning colleagues on the stage for a photo capturing a moment of joy and community. 

Because of the blistering heat flux faced by the plasma-facing targets of the ITER divertor—equivalent to ten times the heat load of a spacecraft re-entering Earth's atmosphere—they tend to eclipse the more prosaic divertor cassette body. But this structural element is critical—hosting the targets, locking down onto the vacuum vessel, sheltering cooling channels, and providing neutron shielding for the steel vacuum vessel and the magnetic coils. Years of R&D in Europe are coming to fruition as a first set of cassette bodies has completed testing. The strangeness of their shape, the challenges of fabrication, the stringent tolerances ... the ITER divertor cassettes are one-of-a-kind components that have been the object of at least 15 years of R&D in Europe. The European Domestic Agency, Fusion for Energy, carried out a competitive prototyping campaign before selecting three suppliers to manufacture the 54 divertor cassettes needed for the ITER tokamak plus 4 spares.Four units manufactured by the SIMIC–CNIM consortium have undergone testing this year, first completing hydraulic pressure tests in April, and more recently undergoing hot helium leak tests to ensure that the components are leak-tight and ready for final dimensional checks).“The successful completion of the tests is a big milestone that confirms the robustness of our manufacturing processes and the dedication of our teams to meet the most demanding standards. It is the fruit of the excellent collaboration with Fusion for Energy, built on mutual trust and a shared commitment to excellence,” states Ermano Franchello, SIMIC-CNIM Project Manager.The first deliveries to ITER are expected in early 2026.See the full report on the Fusion for Energy website. Experts from Fusion for Energy, SIMIC, Criotec and the ITER Organization gathered at Criotec (Italy) for the divertor cassette hot helium leak tests in June 2025. ©SIMIC-CNIM

It is not common to see a machine gracing the cover of the magazine National Geographic. Over its 137 years of existence, the monthly publication has featured spectacular landscapes and striking portraits, wildlife, monuments, and cosmic vistas. But a machine? With the exception of an occasional spacecraft or a Moon or Mars rover … almost never.  The cover of the magazine’s November 2025 issue is not exactly a machine but a machine-in-the-making. It features a photograph of the ITER tokamak assembly pit, with the central column at its centre, looking like a rocket on its launchpad, ready to ascend to the stars. (The picture was taken before sector modules #6 and #7—representing two-ninths of the plasma chamber—were installed.)Under the headline “Inside the long-shot megaproject that aims to solve our energy worries forever,” the magazine devotes no fewer than 30 pages to the ITER project—how it was born, how it is being implemented and the challenges it faces. ITER scientists, present and past, are quoted (Alberto Loarte, current head of science: “We are playing with Mother Nature’s forces…”; Tim Luce, former head of science: “The time scale is not compatible with our immediacy culture…”) but also historical opponents, such as the three Nobel Prize winners who considered in 2010 that building ITER was a waste of time and money.  Despite the complexity of the subject, the author’s prose is highly readable: simple without being simplistic, supported by drawings when things get technically complicated. Some of the images the author paints are striking and to the point: calling plasma “a fiendish substance,” he compares containing it to “wrapping jelly in rubber bands.” Some of his reflections are at once lucid and provocative. “Fusion energy currently sits at the maddening intersection of conceptual simplicity and technological perplexity” … “The more you know about the machine, the less it may appear to make sense” … “The idea [of harnessing fusion energy] is undeniably a long shot, possibly a wild-goose chase, that might in fact exceed human capacity.”From ITER Director-General Pietro Barabaschi, whose daily routine is shared in detail (“first meeting of the morning, usually at 6 o’clock” and “six minutes for lunch”), to the unnamed assembly worker marvelling at the D-shaped magnets while thinking that “in order to create this […] you have to be a little crazy”, the story that National Geographic narrates is one of long-term commitment and dedication. Despite the magnitude of the task, the setbacks, the “surprises around every corner” and the remaining obstacles, ITER, writes the author, “could shape the planet’s destiny.” So long, he adds … “as nothing goes wrong.”Read the article here.Order the full issue in English or German.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Japan's National Institutes for Quantum Science and Technology (QST) have completed the manufacturing of the first outer vertical target of the ITER divertor. Three types of plasma-facing targets (outer vertical target, inner vertical target and dome) mounted on divertor cassette bodies form the "cassette assemblies" that will be installed in a ring at the bottom of the ITER plasma chamber. In a tokamak, the divertor plays an important role in the removal and expelling of unburned fuel and impurities in the core plasma to sustain the fusion reaction in a stable manner.Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is responsible for the manufacturing of 38 outer vertical target units. Series production is now underway.Read the full press release in English or Japanese.

From 4 to 6 November, Paris will host the World Nuclear Exhibition (WNE)—the world's largest civil nuclear exhibition, expected to welcome more than 25,000 participants.The ITER Organization will be present at WNE 2025. Here’s how you can meet and engage with us during the event:Stand L123: for the duration of the conferenceTuesday 4 November, 17:00-17:50, Workshop Room 3: "ITER procurement procedures and opportunities" with ITER Procurement Section Leader Takakazu Kimura and Fusion for Energy Market Analyst Benjamin Perier.Wednesday 5 November, 11:15-12:30, Main Stage: "From Breakthroughs to Industry: Delivering Fusion Energy at Global Scale," a panel discussion with ITER Director-General Pietro Barabaschi and representatives from RWE Nuclear GmbH, Ansaldo Nucleare, Westinghouse Electric Company, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and the European Commission Directorate-General for Energy.See you there!

If you are a European company or organization with fusion technology or fusion know-how that is used or planned for use in a non-fusion application, you can apply by 5 December 2025 for Fusion for Energy's 2025 Fusion Technology Transfer Award.Europe’s contribution to ITER and other fusion projects such as JT-60SA, IFMIF/EVEDA, IFERC, IFMIF-DONES, and DEMO is pushing suppliers to develop cutting-edge technologies. These range from robotic tools to engineering software, superconductors or novel metal joining techniques. Besides their value in a fusion environment, these solutions can find their place in other high-tech sectors. Fusion for Energy’s Technology Transfer Programme helps companies and researchers think broader and tap into the commercial potential of fusion breakthroughs; discover some of the success stories here.The prize (EUR 10,000) will be awarded during the first quarter of 2026. See all information on the 2025 Fusion Technology Transfer Award website.