In 2015, ITER looked to its past and celebrated three important events in its history: the 30th anniversary of the Reagan-Gorbachev summit meeting in Geneva, in November 1985, when the decision was taken to launch "the widest practical international cooperation" on fusion energy; the 10th anniversary of the unanimous vote in June 2005 in favour of the European site for ITER in Saint-Paul-lez-Durance, France; and the 5th anniversary of the beginning of construction on the ITER site. In 2015, ITER also looked to its future by establishing a new way of working, based on a more efficient integration of all the project players—the ITER Organization Central Team, the seven Domestic Agencies, laboratories and institutions—under the stewardship of the new Director-General of the ITER Organization, Bernard Bigot, who took up the reins of the project in March. Eight months of hard work produced the detailed schedule that was submitted to the ITER Council in November—the ultimate Baseline that will lead to First Plasma.Visible from afar, a spectacular feature was added to the ITER worksite: the steel structure of the Assembly Hall, soon to be clad with mirror-like stainless steel, now stands as a landmark in the Durance River valley.Below ground level work on the Tokamak Complex progressed steadily throughout the year. Thick walls and sturdy columns have risen at the lowest basement level (B2) and working is starting on the next floor (B1).In workshops and factories throughout the world, the ITER Members are engaged in manufacturing machine components and plant systems. A steady flow of deliveries is now reaching the ITER site.The first Highly Exceptional Load reached ITER in January 2015, in the shape a 90-tonne electrical transformer procured by the US. Twelve months later, the first actual machine components—segments of the ITER cryostat procured by India—travelled the ITER Itinerary and are now waiting in the Cryostat Workshop to be welded together.Thirty years after its inception and five since construction began in earnest, the ITER Project has acquired a tangible and spectacular reality. The "paper project" has turned into an industrial venture that strongly interacts with its economic environment; to this day, more than EUR 7 billion in contracts are ongoing in both construction and manufacturing.

In December, a ceremony took place at the PRIMA neutral beam test facility in Padua, Italy to celebrate the arrival of the first Japanese components to this ITER-relevant research facility.   The PRIMA facility will test the neutral injection system for ITER plasma heating in advance of ITER operation. PRIMA will host two independent test beds: SPIDER, where the first full-scale ITER ion source will be tested and developed with an acceleration voltage up to 100 kV; and MITICA, which will be the first 1:1 full ITER injector aiming at operating up to the full acceleration voltage of 1 MV and a full power (16.5 MW).   Japan has successfully delivered elements of the power supply system of the MITICA test bed: a transmission line that will be filled with SF6 at 0.6 MPa and the first three 200 kV step-up transformers that are part of the DC generator.   Europe, Japan and India are all contributing components to PRIMA according to the specifications of Procurement Arrangements signed with the ITER Organization. Italy has built the facility as a voluntary contribution to the neutral beam development program; the PRIMA facility is hosted by Consorzio RFX, an Italian research laboratory for plasma physics and controlled nuclear fusion.   Neutral beam injection relies on beams of high-speed, high-energy atoms that penetrate deep into the plasma, initiating collisions and transferring their energy. Each injector is composed of a source of negative ions (deuterium), an electrostatic accelerator, a neutralizer, a separator of residual ions and finally a calorimeter. The accelerator will be working to 1 MV with a current at the grids up to 40 A with pulses lasting up to an hour. A 100-metre transmission line will deliver the electrical power to the 1MeV beam source.   The outer tank pressure vessel, part of the 100-metre transmission line that will deliver electrical power to the 1MeV beam source. ITER Director-General Bernard Bigot, who was present for the event, took the occasion to thank all the parties involved in the effort to build PRIMA—the Italian government for funding for the site and the buildings; Consorzio RFX as the host organization responsible for design execution and integration with a large team of dedicated scientists and engineers; the European, Japanese and Indian Domestic Agencies for procuring the components for the facility; and the ITER Organization Neutral Beam Section. He also recognized the important role played by European labs in providing the needed expertise towards the development of this facility: the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission, CEA; the Max Planck Institute of Plasma Physics, IPP; the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, KIT; and the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy, CCFE.    "The work that will be carried out at this facility is of prime importance to ITER. It is the first time that an ion source of ITER's dimensions—the largest ion sources ever to be built—will operate and perform to produce the beams relevant to ITER. This involves not only optimizing the source performance, but also the performance of the beam line components—for which the design and size will match the ones to be used on the heating injectors at ITER."   In 2016, three additional convoys of components from Japan will reach PRIMA.

In December, the first 12 segments of the massive ITER cryostat were delivered to the ITER site in Saint-Paul-lez-Durance, France.  The 3,850-tonne cryostat, the vacuum-tight container that will surround the main plasma chamber and superconducting magnets, is under the procurement responsibility of the ITER-India Domestic Agency and manufactured by the Indian industrial giant Larsen & Toubro Ltd.   The arrival of the cryostat segments represents a double milestone for the ITER Project—the arrival of the first elements that will be integrated into the ITER machine, and the ahead-of-schedule achievement of the first project milestone validated by the ITER Council in November for the years 2016-2017.   Read the press release in English and in French.  

From 8 to 11 February, the Monaco-ITER International Fusion Energy Days (MIIFED) will combine with the ITER Business Forum (IBF) to create a single event dedicated to ITER progress and upcoming business opportunities. An updated program has been posted to the conference website. Close to 200 participants from 65 companies have already registered for MIIFED-IBF 2016, which will be the sole event dedicated to industrial opportunities at ITER in 2016. The three-day event will also feature an industrial and R&D exhibition. For more information on taking part in the exhibition, and stand fees, please visit the sponsors and exhibition pages of the conference website. Starting on 4 January 2016 it will be possible to schedule one-to-one meetings (B2B and B2C). These networking opportunities facilitate the exploration of partnership opportunities in the context of the technological challenges that lie ahead for ITER. To schedule a one-to-one meeting or to ask for business appointments (based on company profiles), please consult the pages dedicated to registered participants here. In combining ITER Business Forum with the MIIFED international event, the MIIFED-IBF2016 Conference is specifically designed to support enhanced communication with industry and ensure that ITER procurement practices will be efficient and supportive of its industrial partners. It also aims to facilitate productive interaction between industry and fusion laboratories from the seven ITER Members and to foster collaboration between those actors, especially in technical areas where strong cooperation is required.Registration for MIIFED-IBF2016 is open now. See the conference website for more information.

A newcomer has joined the traditional figures of the Provençal nativity scene (the crèche) that families, churches and municipalities set up in the weeks before Christmas. The newcomer wears a white lab coat and ponders complex equations on a blackboard — he's a scientist working for ITER, as evidenced by the badge hanging from his neck. For the moment, the clay figure (santon) of the ITER scientist is only visible in the lobby of ITER Headquarters. Just like in the tree-lighting ceremony that was held on 9 December, he is standing next to the village mayor. (The mayor of Saint-Paul-Lez-Durance gifts a large Christmas tree every year to the ITER Organization.) But as ITER roots dig deeper and deeper into the soil of Provence, the clay figure of the ITER scientist will become as familiar — and as legitimate — as the fisherman, the miller, the scissor grinder and all the figures that reflect daily life in the towns and villages of Provence.

The European Domestic Agency is collaborating with German supplier Via Electronic on sensors for measuring magnetic field. Installed in the heart of the ITER machine, more than 200 of these instruments will be relied on to provide vital information in the control of the ITER plasma.  Via Electronic is producing a series of 40 prototypes, working closely with the European agency to optimize design parameters. Each prototype consists of 34 ceramic layers, 30 of which contain a screen-printed spiral coil circuit made out of pure silver. The individual spirals, which have a width of 400 µm and a height of 12 µm, are connected together with inter-layer "vias," so that the whole assembly forms a single pick-up coil. Low-temperature co-fired ceramic manufacturing (LTCC) produces a very robust product that is fully encapsulated in ceramic. "It's important for these sensors to be particularly robust as they will be located in a very harsh environment close to the plasma, with extremely limited access once ITER operation begins," says Shakeib Arshad, Europe's technical officer for this equipment. "Although this type of technology has been used extensively in other applications, for example in medical equipment, it is unconventional in fusion because simpler technology was adequate in the smaller tokamaks built up until now." Following the fabrication of a first batch of prototypes in 2014, several refinements were made to the original design. Eight variants are being produced with different wiring schemes and electrical screen thicknesses.  The European Domestic Agency is also preparing two additional contracts for the fabrication of similar prototypes by other suppliers. "As the next step, these prototypes will be irradiation tested in a fission reactor, in order to establish their performance in an ITER-like environment," says Sandra Julià Torres, Europe's officer for the prototyping contracts. "Irradiation testing is costly and the results can depend on subtle manufacturing details. Prototypes from several manufacturers are desirable for this reason." Irradiation testing will be carried out by NRG in The Netherlands and CVR in the Czech Republic. Additionally, a computer model is being developed by the Belgian Nuclear Research Centre SCK-CEN in order to help with interpretation of the irradiation tests. Read the original article on the European Domestic Agency website.

The 2015 roundup of news from the US ITER Project Office is now available online. US ITER achieved a number of project "firsts" for delivery and fabrication over the last year. Deliveries to the ITER site included the first nuclear grade hardware (drain tanks) and the first highly exceptional load shipment to ITER (a 90-ton electrical transformer). The US also supplied the first plant components installed at the ITER site (a total of four transformers). On the fabrication side, US ITER shipped its first production toroidal field conductor to the coil manufacturer in Europe and has begun fabrication of the first central solenoid module. Read all the news here.

Fusion in Europe is a regular magazine on the progress of fusion research published by the EUROfusion consortium. In the December 2015 issue, the magazine takes a look at ongoing preparations for the deuterium-tritium campaign at JET, at the research planned on the upgraded spherical tokamaks MAST (UK) and NSTX (US), and at topical program news from fusion laboratories all over Europe. Read the latest Fusion in Europe here.

For the close of the year, EUROfusion—the European Consortium for the Development of Fusion Energy—is highlighting 24 cutting-edge technologies that have either benefited from, or are the by-products of, fusion research. Superconducting magnets, low-activation heat-resistant materials, high-tech filters, sophisticated computer codes ... work being carried out around the world on fusion science and technology is pushing known technologies to new levels or breaking new ground for the benefit of many other sectors and, ultimately, society at large. Follow the Spinoff Advent Calendar on EUROfusion's website.

Members of MIT's Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC) community are cheering the start of a long-anticipated physics experiment at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in Greifswald, Germany. Two teams of PSFC researchers are collaborating on the Wendelstein 7-X device, the world's largest fusion experiment designed in the stellarator line of magnetic confinement fusion devices. The PSFC has significant experience with a different configuration of magnetic confinement, having spent decades designing and running the Alcator series of high-magnetic-field tokamak experiments — the Alcator C-Mod device, located on campus, is the latest in that series. There are many similarities between the two designs, however.  Both the tokamak and the stellarator seek to harness the energy released from the fusion of hydrogen isotopes to provide clean and safe electrical power. Both use helical (spiraling) magnetic fields to contain the hot plasma fuel in a donut-shaped chamber. In a tokamak, this field is generated both by external electromagnets and a large electrical current that is driven in the plasma itself. Driving and sustaining this plasma current, and its impact on stability and transport of energy and particles, is a major focus of the research at MIT. The stellarator concept takes a different approach. First invented by the noted astrophysicist and fusion pioneer Lyman Spitzer of Princeton University in 1950, the stellarator provides the entire helical field through external electromagnets formed in highly complex and twisted shapes.  Future experiments at W7-X will address the role that plasma turbulence plays in limiting overall performance, and PSFC researchers are working with the W7-X group to investigate this. One PSFC team — principal research scientist Jim Terry and postdoctoral researcher Seung-Gyou Baek — will develop a fast camera system for viewing light emitted from the plasma, and will make important measurements of turbulence near the edge of the plasma. The other team — physics professor Miklos Porkolab and staff scientist Eric Edlund — will develop a specialized interferometer for imaging density fluctuations deep in the hot plasma core. The issues surrounding turbulence are important in stellarators, as they are in tokamaks, since turbulence moves heat and particles across the confining magnetic field faster than would otherwise occur. Both teams expect to have first measurements during the 2017 experimental campaign. Read the original article on PSFC's website here.