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​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."

Physicist Luis Delgado-Aparicio, of the US Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), has won a highly competitive Early Career Research award sponsored by the DOE's Office of Science. The five-year grant of some $2.6 million will fund Delgado-Aparicio's research aimed at eliminating a key barrier to developing fusion power as a safe, clean and abundant source of electric energy.   Delgado-Aparicio's research focuses on the impurities that migrate from the interior walls and plasma-facing components of a fusion facility—or tokamak—into the plasma. These impurities are tiny particles that can cool the plasma and halt or slow the fusion reaction. Delgado-Aparicio is developing a process to enable researchers to pinpoint and analyze the impurities and quickly flush them out of the plasma.   Ridding plasmas of these impurities is becoming increasingly vital as experiments utilize longer pulses to produce more sustained fusion energy.   Read the full story on the PPPL website.

Applications for the 3rd edition of the doctoral program in plasma science and engineering APPLAuSE (Portugal) are now open for the course starting in February 2016.

The aim of the four-year program is to provide each student with broad knowledge in the field of plasma science and engineering by promoting close interaction with renowned specialists. It consists in a student-centred and highly modular PhD program designed to enhance each student's capabilities and maximize his/her potential in a chosen area of specialization.

The course language is English. Find out more on the host institution website: IPFN (Instituto de Plasmas e Fusão Nuclear) or at APPLAuSE. 

Applications close on Sunday 7 June.

Three high voltage transformers for ITER's steady state electrical system have been loaded onto transport trailers in the Mediterranean port of Fos-sur-Mer and are ready for delivery to ITER.

Procured by the US Domestic Agency for ITER, the 87-ton transformers and their transport vehicles will cross the inland sea Etang de Berre by barge before travelling the 104 kilometres of the ITER Itinerary in one night, for arrival on 21 May.   Four identical transformer units (one was delivered to ITER in January) will serve to connect the ITER site's 400kV Prionnet substation, operated by the French operator RTE, to the ITER steady state electrical system AC distribution system.    Before the end of the month, two of the four units will be installed in their definitive location on the ITER construction site.