The journalists who covered the launch of central solenoid winding operations at the General Atomics Poway plant in California on Friday, 10 April, had a field day looking for comparisons to convey the sheer power of the 1,000-tonne magnet. Enough energy to lift an aircraft carrier out of the water (The Engineer) ... powerful enough to lift three Washington Monuments (Times of San Diego) ... equivalent to 1,000 cars racing 100 MPH (see press release below). The central solenoid, which forms the backbone of the ITER Tokamak, will be one of the most powerful electromagnets ever built. "The central solenoid represents the heartbeat of ITER, because it pulses the magnets that drive electric current through the Tokamak plasma," said Ned Sauthoff, director of the US ITER Project Office. Standing 18 metres high, with a diameter of 4.13 metres, the central solenoid will be wound from some 42 kilometres of superconducting niobium-tin (Nb3Sn) conductor. "Nothing gives us more confidence, here at the ITER Central Team, than witnessing the progress in the manufacturing of Tokamak components," said ITER Director-General Bernard Bigot in a video address that was broadcast during the inauguration ceremony. The event was hosted by Neal Blue, General Atomics Chairman and CEO, John Parmentola, General Atomics Senior Vice President and John Smith, General Atomics Program Manager Central Solenoid magnet project. In attendance were US Department of Energy representatives Michael Knotek, Deputy Undersecretary for Science & Energy, and Edmund Synakowski, Associate Director Office of Science, Fusion Energy Sciences; and Ned Sauthoff, US ITER Project Office Director. "The central solenoid is a strong symbol of what the ITER international collaboration is about [...] Japan has provided the conductors; the US will be transforming the conductors into the finished coil; the coil will then be shipped to the ITER site and assembled into the machine ..."The inauguration took place in a vast hall equipped with ten manufacturing stations, massive precision machinery, a 200-tonne-capacity air-driven transport cart, a two-storey 600 °C convection oven, and a two-story insulating machine to apply 200 km of fiberglass tape. General Atomics expects to be winding conductor for the central solenoid modules until 2017. Due to its size, the central solenoid will delivered to ITER in segments for assembly on site. Delivery is expected in 2019. Click here to view a video produced by the local TV channel KPBS. Read the press release from General Atomics.

The European Domestic Agency for ITER has selected the Spanish company Ferrovial Agroman to design and build the high voltage power grid complex needed to supply power to ITER plant systems such as heating, cryogenics and cooling. The six-year, EUR 30 million contract covers the design, installation, commissioning and maintenance of the high voltage complex as well as the construction of the buildings necessary to host the electrical equipment."This contract sets the foundations of the power supply that ITER will require in order to demonstrate the viability of fusion energy at this scale," commented Pietro Barabaschi, the acting director of the European agency for ITER, after the signature. In ITER, a total power of 1200 MVA (megavolt ampere) will be made available to plant systems through two networks—the pulsed power electrical network (PPEN) and the steady state electrical network (SSEN). The contract signed with Ferrovial Agroman includes the supply of two new substations containing transformers, circuit breakers, lines, disconnectors, and medium and low voltage load centres (and the buildings to house them). For Ferrovial Agroman, it's the fourth successful tender for ITER. The company already participates in the construction of the Tokamak Complex (in consortium with Vinci and Razel-Bec); it won the contract for the magnetic power conversion and reactive power compensation buildings; and it will be designing and building the ITER cooling towers and hot/cold basins (more information here). Visit the F4E website for the full article and press release.

Preparations for the operation of the Wendelstein 7-X fusion device in Greifswald, Germany are in full swing. In advance of the decisive magnet cooling stage many preparatory steps have been carried out, including the cleaning and flushing of the numerous helium cooling pipes and the start-up of the cryoplant (which had undergone thorough testing at an earlier date).    On 13 February the gradual cooling of the cryoplant got off to a start. All systems were carefully monitored during the step-by-step process, with particular attention to checking for leaks in the piping or cooling systems.   Four weeks later, on 10 March, the target temperature of 4 K was attained—an essential milestone, as well as a prerequisite, for superconductivity in the magnets. Verifications will still take some time yet; presumably in May the magnets will be tested for the first time under power.   On 12 March the last ports in the plasma vessel were sealed vacuum-tight and evacuation of the vessel could begin. In addition to readying diagnostic equipment and working on switchgear and cabling, the verification of leak-tightness in the numerous connections and seals is proceeding.    A "first plasma" in Wendelstein 7-X is expected by the end of 2015, at the latest.   Read the original article on the IPP website.

A strong collaboration between the Physics Department of the University of Basel (UniBasel)*, Denmark's Technical University (DTU) and the ITER Diagnostics team has led to important experimental results in the investigation of cleaning techniques for inaccessible diagnostic mirrors inside the ITER Tokamak.   Known as metallic first mirrors, these components are part of optical diagnostic systems that are in place to ensure plasma control and analysis. Their role is to guide the light coming from the plasma or from probing light sources through the neutron shielding towards detectors.     Due to their proximity to the plasma, first mirrors will be exposed to charge exchange neutral fluxes and ultraviolet, x-ray and gamma radiation, which can lead to surface erosion and/or deposition of particles such as beryllium or tungsten from the blanket first wall. To avoid reflectivity losses in the optical diagnostic systems, a cleaning technique known as "plasma sputtering" is foreseen to remove deposits from the mirror surfaces.   The team conducted several experiments at the University of Basel to evaluate mirror cleaning scenarios under different experimental conditions. In a two-stage operation, the team first analyzed the deposition of a particle film on the mirrors (using aluminium instead of beryllium to avoid toxicity), and then the success in removing the film through the application of a direct radio frequency plasma on the mirror. The experiments replicated earlier successful experiments performed on mirrors with a diameter of 25 mm, but were more challenging due to the size of the ITER mirrors (200 x 300 mm).    The effect of magnetic field during the plasma cleaning process was also investigated. At EPFL-CRPP* Lausanne, the cleaning process was evaluated both in the presence of magnetic field up to 3.5 T, and without it, leading to new conclusions that will contribute to further validating the cleaning procedure in the high magnetic fields that will be present in the ITER Tokamak.   For their collaboration in evaluating the efficiency and performance reflectivity measurements in the plasma cleaning process, the UniBasel/DTU/ITER Diagnostics team received a commendation during the ITER Recognition Ceremony held in December 2014.   The team members are Laurent Marot, Ernst Meyer, Lucas Moser and Roland Steiner from the Department of Physics at the University of Basel; Frank Leipold from Denmark's Technical University; and Roger Reichle from the ITER Diagnostics Division. * In this collaboration, the University of Basel acts as the link to the Swiss partner of the EUROfusion Consortium, the EPFL (Lausanne), where the cleaning process was also evaluated.

Lawrence Livermore Lab physicist Richard "Dick" Post, the "father of the modern flywheel" who worked at the lab for 63 years, died Tuesday night following a short illness, lab officials said. He was 96.   Post joined the Livermore lab in 1952, just months after it opened. He researched magnetic fusion energy alongside luminaries such as physicists Herb York, the lab's first director, and Edward Teller, "the father of the hydrogen bomb."   Post retired in 1994, but continued to work, driving himself to the lab four days a week to research various projects, including his flywheel battery. He worked until the last week of his life.   Read more here​.

​In its April issue, the newsletter from the Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ASIPP) focuses on KTX, the reverse pinch machine that came into existence on 30 March. The mission of KTX is to explore the plasma profiles of future commercial fusion reactors. "KTX will produce its first plasma in June," says Pr. Liu Wandong, chief engineering director and dean of the Modern Physics Department at University of Science and Technology of China. Read more in the _Do_KTX.pdf_DoX_April issue _Dx_of the ASIPP Newsletter.

​The 12th Workshop on Beryllium Technology will be held from 10 to 12 September 2015 on Jeju Island, South Korea. The objective of this workshop is to disseminate results of research and technology development in areas relevant to beryllium utilization in nuclear power systems, both fission and fusion.   Click _Do_BeWS-12.pdf_DoX_ here_Dx_ for more information on the program.