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The ITER Business Forum 2015 (IBF/15) will take place in Marseille, France, from 25 to 27 March 2015 with the participation and support of the ITER Organization and the ITER Domestic Agencies (in particular the European Domestic Agency, Fusion for Energy), the Industrial Liaison Officers (ILO) network, Agence ITER France, and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Marseille-Provence. Just like the events held in 2007, 2011 and 2013, the fourth ITER Business Forum will provide industry with updated information on the ITER Project and on procurement procedures and forthcoming calls for tenders (2015-2016). It also aims to facilitate industrial partnerships—around the ITER project and beyond—inside of Europe and internationally (for example: consortia to answer calls for tender, industrial partnerships, subcontracting, local support). IBF/15 will include: -          an industrial conference with presentations given by the ITER Organization, Domestic Agencies and their main suppliers; -          one-to-one meetings on 26 and 27 March 2015; -          an optional program of technical tours on 25 March, including a visit of the ITER worksite; -          a welcome reception on 25 March in the evening and a gala dinner on 26 March at the venue. Registration for participation in IBF/15 is now open here.

Visitors coming to the ITER site will from now on have one more attraction to discover: The mock-up of an ITER absolute valve seal and test rig, used to demonstrate the feasibility of the largest high pressure, all-metal valve, ever to be manufactured.

ITER will rely on two very powerful neutral beam injectors to heat the plasma to fusion temperatures. A third injector will also be installed—the diagnostic neutral beam injector—which is used as a diagnostic for the plasma.

Each injector contains a vacuum vessel which needs to be vented to atmospheric pressure independently from the torus vacuum vessel in case of an incident. An absolute valve has thus been developed by the Swiss company VAT to "absolutely" isolate the vacuum in the torus from the neutral beam vacuum systems.

The valve uses seals made of stainless steel with silver coating to ensure high vacuum tightness up to a pressure differential of 0.1 MPa across the plate while maintaining a leak rate of less than 1·10-8 Pa·m3/s 1, but can withstand up to 0.2 MPa without incurring damage. With a nominal bore dimension of 1600 mm this absolute valve will be the largest ever manufactured, approximately five times bigger than existing products.

​Since the early days of project implementation in Saint-Paul-lez-Durance, France, ITER's closest neighbour and host—the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission, CEA (Cadarache site)—has provided a number of services to the ITER Organization.

These services are provided within the framework of the Site Support Agreement, which was signed in 2009 by the two entities as foreseen in the ITER Agreement and its Annex on Site Support. Regular meetings of the Site Liaison Committee, bringing together representatives from both organizations, are the occasion to discuss pending issues, exchange information and review actions underway.  On 10 December 2014, during the 10th Site Liaison Committee meeting, the ITER Organization and the CEA signed two agreements.   1. Agreement on organizational modalities in the event of emergency situations Agreement which defines the information, support and response modalities between the CEA/Cadarache and the ITER Organization in the event of any emergency liable to trigger, or not, emergency action plans. 2. Agreement related to the management of environmental aspects on the ITER site Agreement which defines the relations between the ITER Organization and Agence Iter France (the CEA agency created to manage the French contribution to the project) related to the environmental commitments undertaken by Agence Iter France, such as the definition of an environmental management plan for the 1,200 hectares on and around the ITER site. This agreement entered into force on 10 December 2014 and is concluded for the duration of implementation of the environmental management plan (31 December 2032). An aerial view of the CEA-Cadarache site.

​The Korean Domestic Agency signed an important contract with Korean supplier Wonil Corp. for the ITER vacuum vessel gravity supports on 11 December 2014. Nine sets of gravity supports will be assembled under the lower ports to allow for the vacuum vessel's thermal expansion and to sustain loads in the radial, toroidal and vertical directions.

The supplier Wonil Corp. is a leading company in the heavy machining industry and has good experience with the ITER quality system through its participation in the procurement of the ITER blanket shield blocks and the assembly tooling. During the signing ceremony, the company strongly expressed its enthusiasm to carry out the mission and meet the demands of the vacuum vessel schedule and quality requirements for ITER.   - Ji-Min Song, ITER Korea

The December 2014 issue of Fusion in Europe focuses on work underway—including novel types of simulations and materials research—to support the early design of DEMO, the machine that will come after ITER. The issue also covers the reorganization of fusion research in Europe under the banner of EUROfusion and brings news from some of the experiments planned in European fusion facilities in support of ITER.

 

You can read the latest Fusion in Europe here.

Assystem, a leading international group in the fields of engineering and innovation consultancy, is part of the ENGAGE consortium (Assystem, France; Atkins, UK; Empresados Agrupados, Spain; and Iosis, France) that was chosen in 2010 as architect/engineer for ITER site construction by the European Domestic Agency, Fusion for Energy (F4E).   The company is also contributing to the project by providing expertise in such domains as design, construction, machine assembly, and the manufacturing of high technology remote handling systems for the ITER divertor.   In December, Assystem released a series of three corporate videos highlighting its contributions to ITER. About 100 people attended a showing organized near the ITER site, including Assystem executives Stéphane Aubarbier (Executive Vice-President), Christian Jeanneau (Engineering and Operation Services Director General) and Bernard Blanc (Nuclear Business Development Manager); the mayor of Vinon-sur-Verdon, Claude Cheilan; Site, Buildings and Power Supplies Project Manager for the European Domestic Agency, Laurent Schmieder; and Michel Claessens, Head of Communication at the ITER Organization.   The three videos can be viewed here.

​The next two years in MIT's Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering (NSE) may see fusion research embark on a landmark period of innovation. In his address to the NSE community in the inaugural Del Favero Doctoral Thesis Prize Lecture, Zach Hartwig PhD '14 not only described his group's research achievements but also explained why, in his view, fusion research should now be at the top of the department's agenda. Hartwig argued that U.S. fusion research, which has been focused on physics for the past two decades, now needs to incorporate more attention to engineering, utility integration, and economics as it transitions to building devices that will produce energy — and that this can be achieved by leveraging the tremendous engineering and systems expertise of NSE.

Read the whole article on the MIT News website.