They have worked together for years in close proximity, but as distinct teams following different procedures. They now form one entity — the Buildings Infrastructure and Power Supplies (BIPS) Project Team, in charge of delivering the buildings of the ITER installation. Composed of 38 staff members from the European Domestic Agency (Fusion for Energy) and 27 from the ITER Organization Central Team, the BIPS Project Team celebrated its creation on Friday 5 June.Project Teams are not just about gathering the skills needed for the execution of one area of the project—they aim to create a context of synergy so that the result is more than the sum of the parts. All the players, within their areas of competence, are integrated into a cohesive decision-making body that is invested with the authority to take all the necessary technical decisions. "I have great expectations," said ITER Director-General Bernard Bigot as he addressed the assembled members of the BIPS team. "Without buildings, there can be no ITER; but your responsibility extends well beyond construction. Like all of us, whatever your position or job description, you must feel responsible for the whole project." The creation of Project Teams, 20- to 60-people strong, stems from the necessity to render the management of critical technical issues more efficient. Within the teams there should be improved communication, reduced paperwork, and swift decision-making, as well as an end to the duplication of certain procedures. The BIPS Project Team is headed by Laurent Schmieder (Fusion for Energy) with deputies Romaric Darbour (Fusion for Energy), Simon Sweeney (ITER Central Team) and Laurent Patisson (ITER Central Team). Please also see a report on the new Project Team from the perspective of the European Domestic Agency here.

On 20 April 2015, the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) welcomed 200 guests for a celebration of progress-to-date in the JT-60SA development program in Naka, Japan. JT-60SA is a fusion experiment designed to support the operation of ITER and to investigate how best to optimize the operation of fusion power plants that are built after ITER. It is a joint international research and development project involving Japan and Europe, using infrastructure of the existing JT-60 Upgrade experiment. SA stands for "super, advanced", since the experiment will have superconducting coils and study advanced modes of plasma operation. This satellite tokamak program was established in 1997 as one of three joint projects between Europe and Japan within the Broader Approach Agreement. Since the JT-60SA construction started on 28 January 2013 with the installation of the cryostat base, fabricated in Spain, the project has been making steady progress toward the start of fusion plasma experiments in 2019. In September 2014, quench protection circuits, a power supply system made in Italy, were delivered to the JAEA Naka site and their on-site installation and commissioning by European workers continues to the present. In April 2015, the refrigerator cold box and the auxiliary cold box for cryogenic system—two components fabricated in France—were also delivered and their installation is ongoing. The first pair of high temperature superconductor current leads for the toroidal field coils made in Germany has also reached Naka. In the torus hall, since May 2014, the vacuum vessel sectors manufactured in Japan have been mounted on the cryostat base and are now being welded together to form the 340° of the torus. The day-long ceremony, which celebrated the delivery of main components, the start of their on-site installation by Europe, and the completion of the initial assembly of the vacuum vessel, was also the occasion to promote further partnership among the governments, organizations, institutes, universities and companies concerned in both Europe and Japan as well as local governments, which strongly support and contribute to the JT-60SA project. For more information and the latest news, please visit the JT-60SA website.

On 20-22 May, the committee charged with the governance of the Test Blanket Module (TBM) Program convened at ITER Headquarters for its 13th meeting. The TBM Program Committee meets twice a year to review the various aspects of the ITER TBM Program and to advise the ITER Council on the implementation of this program to test tritium breeding modules in ITER—a key step in demonstrating tritium breeding self-sufficiency.   The three-day meeting kicked off with a presentation by ITER Director-General Bernard Bigot on the action plan that has been underway since his appointment and the ITER Central Team's involvement in the TBM program, including increased cooperation with the ITER Members and Domestic Agencies.   The Program Committee noted with satisfaction that all six TBM Arrangements (TBMAs) have now been signed. This is a major achievement, since the documents represent the commitment of the ITER Central Team and the ITER Members to the implementation of the TBM Program. The set of six Arrangements covers the period up to the on-site delivery of six Test Blanket Systems and common elements—in total, over 600 components.   Conceptual design review meetings have already taken place for three Test Blanket Systems: the Helium-Cooled Ceramic Breeder (China), the Water-Cooled Ceramic Breeder (Japan) and the Helium-Cooled Ceramic Reflector (Korea). A presentation on the main design issues identified during the reviews—and their proposed resolution—was made to the TBM Program Committee. The conceptual design reviews for the three remaining Test Blanket Systems will be performed between June and September 2015, with the full review process completed by the end of the year.   Good progress has also been recorded in the R&D activities carried out by all seven ITER Members for the TBM program and the main milestones in relation to the activities planned for 2015 and 2016 were verified and confirmed.   In an important step towards the implementation of a framework for managing the intellectual property related to Test Blanket System activities, the ITER Central Team submitted a preliminary proposal concerning the management of Member restricted-access documentation and data that will be delivered to the Organization. Discussion ensued and the proposal will be finalized on time for the 14th Program Committee meeting in October.   On 20-22 May, the committee charged with the governance of the Test Blanket Module (TBM) Program convened in the ITER Council Chambers for its 13th meeting. Work is also underway to develop a strategy to implement European regulations on nuclear pressure vessels (ESP/ESPN) in the TBM designs. Specific design rules are under development for the recently developed low-activation ferritic/martensitic steels used as TBM structural materials.   The 13th Program Committee also noted the impact of several ITER project change requests on the Test Blanket System design activities and the redesign effort required.   The Program Committee took note of a proposed list of contents for a future trilateral agreement on Test Blanket System radwaste that will need to be signed between the Host State, the Members and the ITER Organization before the start of Test Blanket System manufacturing. The Committee also noted progress in the activities of Agence Iter France (AIF). In particular, it was noted that ANDRA (the French agency for the management of radioactive waste) has completed the preliminary report on the acceptance of the Test Blanket System radwaste in its repositories and that no showstoppers have been identified.   Finally, the Program Committee nominated ITER Organization's Jaap van der Laan as the new chairman of the Test Blanket System radwaste management working group.

The Japanese Domestic Agency for ITER has completed the construction of a dedicated diagnostic building that will be used for the testing of diagnostic systems during the preliminary and final design phases, as well as works for the assembly and/or adjustment of diagnostics and diagnostic port systems.   As the new traffic light turned green for the first time on 1 April 2015, and the engineers began working in the Advanced Diagnostics Development Building on the site of the JAEA Naka Fusion Institute, the Japanese Domestic Agency celebrated a major milestone. Within the new building, the ITER diagnostic systems under Japanese procurement will be developed. The main room (80 m long, 25 m wide and 12 m high) size is climate controlled for delicate diagnostic components and is equipped with 20-tonne and 3-tonne capacity overhead cranes for the manipulation of port structures that weigh as much as 10 tonnes.   The space is divided into areas for individual diagnostics—micro fission chambers, the poloidal polarimeter and its upper port integration, edge Thomson scattering measurement, the divertor impurity monitor and its lower port integration, divertor IR thermography—so that development can proceed in parallel. Clean rooms for lasers have also been designed into the facility.   Performance tests and final tests will be carried out here for each system before delivery to the ITER Organization.

​Researchers at the US Department of Energy's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have for the first time simulated the formation of structures called "plasmoids" during Coaxial Helicity Injection (CHI), a process that could simplify the design of fusion facilities known as tokamaks. The findings, reported in the journal Physical Review Letters, involve the formation of plasmoids in the hot, charged plasma gas that fuels fusion reactions. These round structures carry current that could eliminate the need for solenoids — large magnetic coils that wind down the centre of today's tokamaks — to initiate the plasma and complete the magnetic field that confines the hot gas. "Understanding this behavior will help us produce plasmas that undergo fusion reactions indefinitely," said Fatima Ebrahimi, a physicist at both Princeton University and PPPL, and the paper's lead author.  Left: Plasmoid formation in simulation of NSTX plasma during CHI / Right: Fast-camera image of NSTX plasma shows two discrete plasmoid-like bubble structures. (Photo by Left: Fatima Ebrahimi, PPPL / Right: Nishino-san, Hiroshima University) Read the full article on the PPPL website.

​Facilitating the encounter between job opportunities and local jobseekers was the objective of the third "L'Energie pour l'Emploi" (Energy for Employment) job fair held last Thursday 4 June at the Château de Cadarache near ITER. This year's fair, organized by Saint-Paul Emplois (the municipal employment association of Saint-Paul-lez-Durance, France) in collaboration with a number of neighbouring municipalities and the national employment agency Pôle Emploi, had broadened its outreach beyond the ITER construction site and the CEA research centre. To make the fair even more attractive to the 500 job seekers that had come from all over the region, 40 local companies were present as well as the French Army and the Gendarmerie. Long queues formed at each of the stands as jobseekers waited for their turn in this professional speed-dating exercise with human resource specialists from each organization. In total more than 350 jobs were on offer, in a variety of fields such as construction, engineering, nuclear industry, army and services. "Every day, more than 8 000 people come to work in Saint-Paul-lez-Durance at one of the worksites or organizations based on its territory," says Roger Pizot, Mayor of Saint Paul, "and this also creates considerable indirect employment.  This Forum helps to ensure that the first ones to benefit from these job creations are the local jobseekers." The ITER stand. From left to right, Sophie Gourod, Sophie Flechel and Emilia Fullmer-Bourree from the Human Resources Department.

​Before it can become operational, the main body of an electrical transformer must be equipped with several additional elements such as oil radiators, an oil conservator, and insulators called "bushings" — long ceramic devices that deliver the current to the transformer and stick out like horns on the head of a beast. In order to prevent electrical discharge in the air, the length of the bushings must be proportional to the voltage: at 400 kV, no less than 6 metres of conductor, filled with oil and encased in a ceramic structure, are necessary. Installing each one-ton component is a long and delicate operation that must be replicated three times for each transformer (one per electrical phase). When all accessories are installed, the transformer will be filled with oil (an operation that will take three days straight). More than 60,000 litres of oil are necessary per transformer.