The four US-procured transformers that will be needed to distribute power to the ITER installation have all reached the ITER site. The first one had been the first Highly Exceptional Load to travel along the ITER Itinerary in January; three more were delivered on 21 May in a single transport operation.   A mere two hours after arrival, one of the four transformers was readied for installation on the platform in the vicinity of the the 400 kV switchyard. A powerful crane was used to position the 87-ton component on its dedicated pad; the same operation was duplicated the following day. Two transformers are now place—the first installed components of the ITER plant.   The pad onto which each transformer is solidly anchored covers a 1.5-metre-deep, gravel-covered pit that has been dimensioned to receive the 44 cubic metres of oil the component contains (oil is used as an insulator) in case of a leak. Eight-metre walls stand between the pads to prevent a possible fire in one transformer from spreading to the others.   The four transformers will bring down the voltage from 400 kV to the standard 20 kV of industrial installations. "ITER could operate with only three transformers but for reasons of flexibility and redundancy, we have opted for four," explains ITER Electrical Power Distribution section leader Joël Hourtoule.   The second pair of transformers will be installed in the coming weeks.   View a slide show of the convoy and transformer installation below.

They had left early—some of them very early—from different points of the Aix-Marseille region to be on time for the finals of the fourth ITER Robots competition. Organized by Agence Iter France and ITER Organization, in collaboration with the local representation of the French Ministry of National Education (Académie d'Aix-Marseille) and the CEA's magnetic fusion research institute (IRFM), the competition took place at the Lycée des Iscles in Manosque on Wednesday 20 May. Months of preparation, imagination, trial-and-error, and hard work had forged their team spirit and the ten teams that had made it to the finals—five from junior high school and five from high school—were ready to compete.The challenge, as in previous years, was based on the simulation of a real-life situation that will occur over the 20-year course of ITER operation: the removal by remote handling of selected blanket modules from the inner wall of the vacuum vessel, followed by transport of the modules to the nearby Hot Cell Facility. Each team had customized and programmed its Lego kit, passed preselection tests, and was now ready to face the jury and their peers.Throughout the morning the teams were asked to perform trials of increasing complexity to demonstrate their capability to improvise and work under pressure.  "Just like in real life they learn to work toward an end result within a given deadline," said Alain Becoulet, director of IRFM. To showcase how the different members of a team can work together for a single goal, each team had also prepared a small stand to "market" its robot to the world. "Creativity is not only how you engineer the final product but also how you sell it, just like in industry," as a member one of the teams says. "Our job is getting more and more difficult every year because the teams are performing better each time," commented ITER remote handling engineer and member of the jury Jean-Pierre Friconneau as he proclaimed the winners in the high school (Lycée Antonin Artaud from Marseille) and junior high school (Collège Roger Carcassonne from Pélisanne) categories. "Don't give up, persevere, and work, work, work, is my advice for next year's participants," said the leader of one of the winning teams, "But in the end, it's the teamwork that makes the difference." 

The ITER Assembly and Installation Information Day held at ITER Headquarters on 21 May marked the entry into a new era for the ITER Project.   As the name suggests, the project is about to set the course for the assembly of the ITER machine. More than one million pieces—some huge and very heavy, some fragile and tiny—will have to be assembled with millimetre accuracy during the assembly of the ITER Tokamak and plant systems. Special tools will have to be developed to lift, turn and attach the components.   "ITER assembly is a terrific challenge—a challenge that we are ready to take, with your help," said ITER Director-General Bernard Bigot in his opening remarks. Over 200 representatives of 140 international companies were gathered in the ITER amphitheatre for the full-day program. The large amount of interest displayed by the participants in learning more about the project's assembly procurement strategy and the contracts that will be launched was "exciting," Director-General Bigot stated. "We will need to work very closely together. You are more than suppliers, you are partners in one of the most ambitious scientific and engineering projects ever undertaken!"

It's not an easy proposition, to write a 700-word article on one of the largest international science collaborations in the history of mankind. Each aspect of ITER—the working of its international collaboration, its science, its technology, and its construction status—would easily fill pages.   Once a year, the ITER Organization invites representatives of the international media for a two-day on site program in order to lift the curtain and provide access to construction underway, top ITER specialists, and first-hand information on project status.   Asked about his strategy ITER Director-General Bernard Bigot replied that it was his personal goal "to improve the decision-making processes within this organization and to make it more efficient." On 18-19 May, 60 international science journalists from 19 countries, including Canada, China, Europe, Japan, Korea, Russia, and the US, accepted this year's invitation. During the two-day event they had opportunities, both formal and informal, to meet with representatives from the ITER Organization and its Domestic Agencies, they toured the construction site, saw ITER in 3D and visited the Tore-Supra tokamak at the neighbouring CEA research facility.At the end of the first day they were addressed by the ITER Director-General Bernard Bigot. "The project is funded by public money and this is why we are in the public interest." Asked about his strategy now that he is at the helm of the ITER Project, Bigot replied that it was his personal goal "to improve the decision-making processes within this organization and to make it more efficient. We are working now to make timely decisions and to better integrate the scientific and industrial capacities of the seven ITER Members. All together, we have a unique opportunity—and there will be only one—to carry out this important scientific demonstration." View scenes from the press trip below.

The Port Plugs & Diagnostic Integration Division held its annual three-day meeting in March with all the Domestic Agencies in attendance. It was the fifth edition for this forum, which was created to facilitate the constructive, project-wide exchange of ideas, to promote problem-solving and to share new developments. All seven ITER Domestic Agencies are procuring diagnostic systems for ITER as part of their in-kind contributions to the project.   A large range of topics were covered and, if anything, there was too little time available. The Domestic Agencies each reported on their 2014 diagnostic development highlights and participants discussed common concerns such as the integration and coordination of diagnostic systems, safety requirements, work plans and instrumentation and control. A visit to the new ITER virtual reality room and a bus tour of the site were appreciated by all.   This annual diagnostic event continues to expand its scope as the project progresses. Because the diagnostic systems have interfaces with the buildings and many other systems, cooperation with other areas of the Organization is intensifying. After last year's meeting, a number of cross-functional task teams emerged to work on specific problems; this year proved no different, with new task forces created to target such areas as port integration, shutters, and glow discharge cleaning (GDC).   It is becoming apparent there are many synergies in the diagnostic development programs of the Domestic Agencies. Areas of common interest will be actively pursued, with resultant positive repercussions in cost and time.   As in previous years, each session was chaired by one of the Domestic Agency heads of diagnostics; this rotating chair format has proved popular and helps to enliven the debates. "A number of technical issues and developments were discussed this year, including welding, remote handling, safety, the investigation of alternative materials, safety-important valves and mirror cleaning," said Michael Walsh, who leads the Port Plugs & Diagnostic Integration Division at ITER. "It's very nice to see progress on so many different fronts."

​By Raphael Rosen Scientists from General Atomics and the US Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have discovered a phenomenon that helps them to improve fusion plasmas, a finding that may quicken the development of fusion energy. Together with a team of researchers from across the United States, the scientists found that when they injected tiny grains of lithium into a plasma undergoing a particular kind of turbulence then, under the right conditions, the temperature and pressure rose dramatically. High heat and pressure are crucial to fusion, a process in which atomic nuclei — or ions — smash together and release energy — making even a brief rise in pressure of great importance for the development of fusion energy. "These findings might be a step towards creating our ultimate goal of steady-state fusion, which would last not just for milliseconds, but indefinitely," said Tom Osborne, a physicist at General Atomics and lead author of the paper. This work was supported by the DOE Office of Science.  Left: DIII-D tokamak. Right: Cross-section of plasma in which lithium has turned the emitted light green. (Credits: Left, General Atomics / Right, Steve Allen, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory) Read the whole article on the PPPL website.

​The ITER Commission locale d'information (the citizen watchdog group that monitors ITER activities in accordance with the French 2006 Transparency and Nuclear Safety Act) held its plenary session in the ITER Council chamber on 18 May. The session provided ITER Director-General Bernard Bigot with an opportunity to present his Action Plan and develop his vision for the future of the project. "You are a very important body because you are conveying to us the preoccupations of the local populations regarding the ITER Project," he said to the assembled CLI members. "We need to have a confident relationship and I am open to any question and debate."