Welding operations on the ITER cryostat have gotten underway at the Larsen & Toubro Ltd. Heavy Engineering facility in Hazira, India. On Tuesday, 9 January, workers gathered for a picture as the first longitudinal seam of the cryostat base section was readied for "submerged arc welding." The 3,800-tonne, stainless steel cryostat forms the vacuum-tight container surrounding the ITER vacuum vessel and magnets. It will act as a very large refrigerator, keeping the magnets at superconducting temperature (4.2 K or minus 269° C). The ITER cryostat, part of Indian procurement responsibilities, will be dispatched from India in 54 modules to be assembled into four large sections in the on-site Cryostat Workshop. The four sections (base, lower cylinder, upper cylinder and top lid) will then be transported to the Tokamak Pit, where they will be welded together. The base section of the cryostat will be the first large component installed in the Tokamak Pit. The top lid of the cryostat will be the last, set into place after the installation of the vacuum vessel, magnets, thermal shielding and central solenoid. Delivery of the first modules on the ITER site is expected in less than two years. (With Dilshad Sulaiman, ITER India) 

From 12 to 14 February the ITER Diagnostics Division hosted a three-day workshop on erosion, deposition, dust, and tritium diagnostics which was attended by about 30 international experts. The aim of the workshop was to define the relevant suite of diagnostics that will be necessary in the ITER machine. In ITER, the amount of dust and tritium allowed inside the vacuum vessel is limited by the technical prescriptions from the Regulator. Dust is produced either from the gradual erosion of the plasma-facing first wall elements and the re-deposition of this material inside the vacuum vessel, including some tritium, or alternately by transients, like disruptions which can produce dust in a more concentrated way. The decision to use tungsten instead of carbon as divertor target material has reduced the expected dust production by one to two orders of magnitude, so that the dust accumulation is expected to stay significantly below the limits. The workshop included presentations and discussions on the safety limits; newest modelling and experimental results (mainly from JET's ITER-like wall); and the proposed diagnostics, including worldwide experience with similar systems. Thirty international experts participated in the workshop aimed at defining the suite of erosion, deposition, dust, and tritium diagnostics that will be necessary in the ITER machine. Measuring overall erosion, the potential source of dust, is the job attributed to the in-vessel viewing system. Dust on the vacuum vessel floor will be examined by endoscopes. Further information will be gleaned by analyzing sampling bins in which dust accumulates. Infrared viewing will allow the identification of dust and deposits on hot surfaces; laser methods will determine the thickness of deposits. Vacuum cleaning combined with mechanical cleaning using the multi purpose deployer (MPD) is an option being considered to manage the dust.The evaluation of the physics models requires higher resolution from the diagnostics systems than necessary for assuring the conformity with the limits.  For a carbon divertor it had been assumed necessary to measure even during discharges to follow the erosion of the divertor target; with a tungsten divertor, this need has disappeared, which simplifies the diagnostic designs. The main measurement for the tritium amount in the vacuum vessel is provided for by accurate accounting in the Tritium Plant. Supporting in-vessel methods include laser methods and samples. During the workshop recommendations were also made for useful operations in the non-active phase of ITER. These recommendations include the removal of an entire divertor cassette for detailed investigation, the use of the MPD to sample dust and deposits from inside the vacuum-vessel and the conduction of some gas-fuelling experiments with careful accounting of how much of it is retained in the wall.  

It took three generations of physicists to bring fusion research to the point of building ITER. It will take another to bring fusion-produced electricity to the grid and many more to build and operate the fusion plants of the future.   Training the physicists, engineers, lawyers and administrators who will carry out this immense task is one of the major preoccupations of the fusion community.   With this objective in mind, the ITER Organization and Aix-Marseille University signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Wednesday 26 January aimed at promoting cooperation and exchanges between both institutions.   "Aix-Marseille University and the ITER Organization have two essential traits in common. Both are young and turned towards the future," said University president Yvon Berland as both parties were preparing to sign the agreement in the ITER Council Chamber.   Although the academic history of Provence goes back to the 15th century, it is only in 2012 that the region's three public universities were federated into a new entity, the Université d'Aix-Marseille.   With an enrollment of 72,000 students in arts and languages, law and political science, economy and management, science and technology, and health, Aix-Marseille University is presently the largest French-speaking university in the world.   "After more than eight years of presence in Provence, ITER now belongs to this region," said ITER Director-General Osamu Motojima at the signature ceremony. "The partnership that we are engaging in today is of special significance to us."   Building on a collaboration that began in 2007 with the organization of the ITER International Summer School, the agreement signed on Wednesday with provide a legal framework for the exchange of young scientists and engineers and the implementation of joint research projects in a number of areas such as fusion science, law and social and human sciences.   "In reality," added DG Motojima, "we will do much more than that. By collaborating to make fusion energy a feature of everyday life, we will strongly contribute to a more peaceful world. I know of very few tasks that could be more meaningful, more rewarding and more worthy of our dedication."

In the latest video released by the European Domestic Agency for ITER, we tour the area of the ITER worksite—the CA2 (for Contractors Area 2)—that will be host to all of the construction companies or consortiums that have been awarded building or power supply installation contracts.   In this 3,500-square-metre zone on the southwest corner of the platform, individual lots have been allocated to the companies for offices, workshops, equipment storage and comfort facilities. The VFR consortium already occupies a three-storey office building—its "command centre" for managing the construction of the Tokamak Complex plus eight other auxiliary buildings including the Assembly Building, whose walls will begin to rise in May/June of this year. Other companies will be moving in soon to create their office complexes.   The CA2 area is also host to a worksite canteen with a capacity to serve 1,500 meals per day, an onsite infirmary that is open 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., and offices for the Architect/Engineer ENGAGE and health and safety protection firm Apave.   In 2015, with over 2,000 people working to erect the buildings and facilities that make up the scientific installation, ITER will be one of the busiest construction sites in Europe.   Watch the video here.   Editor's Note: All those who knew Nicolas Robic, Apave's Health and Safety Coordinator for European Domestic Agency activities on the ITER worksite, will be particularly moved by his appearance in this video.

​Will particle physicists ever have a new toy that will take them to energies beyond those accessible through the Large Hadron Collider? History suggests it's unlikely. To save costs, the LHC was built in an existing tunnel that had hosted an earlier, less powerful accelerator. The US cancelled the construction of hardware that would have outperformed the LHC (the Superconducting Super Collider, or SSC) due to cost overruns, and it shut down its Tevatron once the LHC started up. Now, decisions on the linear collider that will be used to study the Higgs in detail are being made based on which country is likely to come up with the most money.But physicists are apparently an optimistic bunch. Earlier this year, CERN announced that it was beginning to evaluate an LHC replacement that would require a tunnel so large—100km in circumference—that it would have to pass under Lake Geneva itself. Potentially in response, a team of US-based physicists have come up with an even more audacious plan: don't build the linear collider, resurrect the SSC's now abandoned tunnels, and use them to both host a Higgs factory and as a booster for a truly massive, 270km collider. Read the full article on Ars Technica website. 

In Cadarache, France, the CEA-Euratom tokamak Tore Supra is undergoing a major transformation to be used as a test bench for ITER. This is the WEST project (W - for tungsten - Environment in Steady-state Tokamak).The February issue of the WEST newsletter is now available online.

The February 2014 issue of the US ITER News Update is now available online. The newsletter highlights the recent progress in the ITER systems under US responsibility (pellet injection system,tokamak cooling water system, central solenoid magnet, etc.) and relates the very solid budget situation for fiscal year 2014. You can read the latest news from US ITER here.