Some 17,000 people visit the ITER site every year but only a few are given the opportunity to enter the Tokamak Pit and stand on the floor of the Tokamak Complex—the Holy of Holies of the ITER Project. On Saturday 30 May, as ITER's doors were opened wide to the public, some 800 people experienced first-hand the construction of the largest and certainly most ambitious science venture of all times—the quest to mimic the energy of the Sun and stars.   The majority had come as neighbours; some had driven all the way from Spain, Italy, or Switzerland... All wanted to see up close what they only glimpsed from afar or read about in newspapers and magazines. And all sought to understand how, by fusing hydrogen atoms in a giant furnace, mankind was on the way to opening a new chapter in its history.   Standing on the floor of the Tokamak Complex amid a forest of steel rebar was like standing on the launch pad of a Mars-bound space rocket. The launch pad may not yet be complete—and the rocket not yet assembled—but the feeling of awe was already there.   Of course, everything required explanations. What is a plasma? How can it be heated to temperatures in excess of 150 million degrees? What "container" holds it in? Are you certain it's going to work?   The ITER Communication team, supported by volunteers from the technical and scientific departments of the ITER Organization and by specialists from the European Domestic Agency Fusion for Energy, did its best to explain the hows and whys of fusion energy and ITER in understandable terms. Representatives of Agence Iter France—the agency that acts as an interface with the host country—introduced the youngest visitors to the challenges of preserving the site's biodiversity.   In the buses that drove visitors across the ITER worksite, in front of the tokamak mockup in the Visitors Building, and in the cordoned-off area of the Tokamak Complex, a clearer picture progressively emerged—that of a project which, despite its complexity and challenges, holds a potential key to a better future: access, for the benefit of all mankind, to an unlimited, safe and clean source of energy.   View the slideshow below.

Another milestone has been recorded in the Russian development program for the ITER gyrotrons—the 24 energy-generating units that will inject powerful microwave beams into the vacuum vessel to heat the plasma and drive plasma current.   At the industrial complex of Gycom Ltd in Nizhny Novgorod, the Russian gyrotron prototype successfully passed factory acceptance tests in the presence of ITER Organization representatives. The promising results will open the way to series production once the final design review will be successfully closed. The Russian Domestic Agency will supply 8 of ITER's 24 gyrotrons.   The tests, which took place from 11 to 15 May, are a key element in the procurement of the Russian gyrotron that will allow Russian industry to begin the fabrication of this important ITER system. The official factory acceptance tests have to verify key parameters of the prototype, including output beam characteristics, power parameters (>0.95 MW), efficiency (exceeding 50 percent), modulation regimes (1-5 kHz), and durability parameters (>95 percent); test control and parameter registration; and confirm the main technical solutions for the system. Most of these parameters were successfully monitored during these tests, aiming to consolidate the series gyrotron factory acceptance test program and allowing the preparation of the Final Design Review with full confidence.   According to the ITER schedule, Russian-fabricated gyrotrons will be the first to be delivered to ITER. The first gyrotron was developed at the Russian Applied Physics Institute (Nizhny Novgorod) in 1964. For ITER, gyrotron technology will be pushed to the limit, with output beams of 1 MW (for 1000 sec) at the required 170 GHz. Four ITER Members—Europe, Japan, Russia and India—are involved in gyrotron procurement. According to the ITER schedule, Russian-fabricated gyrotrons will be the first to be delivered to ITER.    The development of the Russian gyrotron has been carried out with the cooperation of the Russian Domestic Agency for ITER, the Institute of Applied Physics (Russian Academy of Sciences), Gycom Ltd., the Kurchatov Institute, and CJSC RTSoft.   News from the Japanese and European gyrotron development programs was recently reported in Newsline.  

For the past few years, most of the work in the Tokamak Complex area has been carried out below ground. From afar, not much was visible—ITER hadn't yet made a mark on its immediate environment.   But things are changing fast. The high cranes of the worksite and the white pillars of the Assembly Building have added new elements to the landscape of the Durance River Valley — one that motorists on the A51 thruway cannot miss.   The steel structure of the Assembly Building is only half complete but already spectacular: pillars made from four vertical segments rise close to 50 metres on the east side and half that height on the west; the roof support structure is being assembled on the floor below.   Less than three months from now, the metallic structure will have been built up to 60 metres on both sides of the basemat and the roof will be ready to be put into place.   Lifting this 700-tonne structure to such considerable height will be a long and delicate computer-monitored operation. "The roof will be 'pulled from above' by way of 22 hydraulic jacks connected through temporary cables to the top of the pillars," explains Miguel Curtido, from the European Domestic Agency which is in charge of construction works on the platform.   However rigid and sturdy the pillars—each individual segment measures 12 metres in length and weighs up to 23 tonnes—the structure is still flexible; wind and temperature can cause a 15-centimetre deflection at the top of the pillars.   "A structure design allowing flexibility during assembly is essential to maintaining the required tolerances," explains Miguel, "especially when we will install the overhead crane rails."   Following one month of preparation, roof lifting and assembly operations should take one full week and be completed in August. The rails for the double 750-tonne gantry cranes will be installed in October. At that point, workers will proceed with the installation of heating and ventilation systems (HVAC), electrical systems, etc.   By then, motorists on the A51 thruway and residents of the neighbouring villages will definitely have something to look at in awe.

​Another key step in the building of the MAST-Upgrade fusion device was taken last week with the joining of the first two main segments of the new machine.  MAST-Upgrade was designed to be divided into seven modules to maximize the amount of assembly work that could be carried out at the same time. On Thursday 28 May, a day ahead of schedule, two modules were brought together for the first time. The 30-tonne MAST-Upgrade vacuum vessel (known as the outer cylinder module) was lifted onto the lower cassette module, a key part of the Super-X divertor — the innovative plasma exhaust system that is a key feature of the new device. This was the culmination of a huge amount of design, procurement and assembly effort by the MAST-Upgrade team over the past 12 months. It means the project remains on track to hit its major build milestones over the coming months and deliver a machine ready for pump-down by October 2016. Read the full story on the website of the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy (CCFE).

​On Wednesday 27 May, ITER received the Chinese ambassador to France, Mr Zhai Jun, who visited the project with a delegation of 12 as part of a diplomatic tour of southern France. Ambassador Zhai met with ITER Director-General Bernard Bigot, toured the construction site, and met Chinese staff members. To all, he expressed his interest in the project that "may change the future course for all humanity." Ambassador Zhai was accompanied by his wife, Mme Wang Xinxia (second from left); the Chinese Consul-General in Marseille, Mme Yu Jinsong (second from right); and members of the embassy and consular staff. Also pictured: Management Advisory Committee member Peng Yiqi (far right) and head of the Chinese Domestic Agency Luo Delong (far right).

The Wendelstein 7-X fusion project at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP) in Greifswald, Germany is slated to begin operation later this year. The US, through the Department of Energy, contributed financing to the construction of the device; now, US scientists will have the opportunity to be involved in the research conducted on the machine from 2015 to 2017 with a contribution of about $4 million annually. The renewed funding enables US universities to take an active role in the research program during the next three years. Scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) will measure the turbulence in the plasma by various methods; scientists from the universities at Wisconsin and Auburn will be concerned with the properties of the plasma edge. Finally, studies on a probe for measuring electric fields in the plasma will be conducted by a private research company, Xantho Technologies, in Madison, Wisconsin.   Three national research centres (Princeton, Oak Ridge and Los Alamos) will also be involved in projects on Wendelstein 7-X, including the construction and operation of an X-ray spectrometer, development of a pellet injector that injects tiny frozen hydrogen pellets to refuel the plasma, and operation of the five large auxiliary coils supplied by the US.   Read the full article on the IPP website. (image credit: RST Rostock/EADS)

​Since February 2012, and the signature of a major framework contract with the ITER Organization, the group DAHER is the Logistics Service Provider for the project's global transport, logistics and insurance needs. Through implementation agreements concluded with each ITER Domestic Agency, DAHER (or DAHER partners nominated locally) will manage the complex logistics related to the transport of ITER components from suppliers all over the globe to the ITER site.   In May 2015, as part of a three-day training session held by DAHER for its logistics partners from China (Sinotrans) and India (Deugro India), a site visited was organized at ITER.   "Our main objective is to offer an equal level of services to all the Members of the global ITER Project," said François Genevey, Daher director for ITER logistics. "Our partners located in each Member are recognized specialists who offer a regional point of contact and expertise. DAHER ensures that each partner is provided with all IT tools and processes that allow for the delivery of the best services to the Domestic Agencies."   In addition to the site visit, the training program also included a visit of facilities at the Mediterranean arrival point for all ITER components arriving by sea (Fos-sur-Mer); the discovery of the 104-kilometre itinerary to ITER; an introduction to DAHER logistics tools for ITER; and a session on the management of Protection Important Components (PIC) and, more generally, on the specific demands of a basic nuclear installation like ITER in France.   A similar kick-off meeting was held in September 2014 for DAHER partners from Japan, Korea and the US.   Daher partners for ITER are : Cosco and Sinotrans (China), Deugro (India), Hitachi (Japan), Shin Jo (Korea), and Transproject (US).