Since taking the helm as the new ITER Director-General, Osamu Motojima has established several management initiatives and visited all seven ITER international partners and their Domestic Agencies.

A special Task Force and a Working Group have been charged with exploring possible cost savings and cost containment measures, aiming at a reduction of approximately 10% of the total cost. Two possibilities that are being evaluated are the possibility of eliminating the need for ELM Control Coils or the need to perform "cold tests" on the superconducting magnets. Another new group, also reporting directly to the Director-General, aims to strengthen coordination between the ITER Organization and the Domestic Agencies. Motojima is also looking into ways to simplify certain processes within the Organization and into ways to improve staffing selection and distribution among the seven Parties. To this end, he has established a Project Board, which he chairs, to oversee and advise on the ITER project.

During the first week of November, Motojima and ITER Organization staff met with the ITER Science and Technology Advisory Committee (STAC) and the ITER Management Advisory Committee (MAC). The STAC reviewed 22 possible ways to reduce costs. Recommendations of the ITER Organization, the STAC and the MAC will be reviewed by the ITER Council at their meeting November 17-18 in Cadarache.

Superconducting Strand Production

More than 100 tons of niobium-tin superconducting wire, representing about half the total required for the ITER Toroidal Field Coils, have now been produced by six of the seven ITER Domestic Agencies (China, EU, Japan, South Korea, Russia and US). About half the total was produced in Japan. Before ITER, the world production is estimated to have been about 15 tons per year. The production of niobium-titanium wire for the ITER Poloidal Field Coils is now also beginning.

Vacuum Vessel

The ITER European Domestic Agency (F4E) has signed a contract with a European consortium of companies for the supply of seven sectors of the ITER Vacuum Vessel. The contract will run for 6 years and is values at almost 300 million EUR. It is the biggest single package of Europe’s contribution to ITER and is the largest component of the ITER device. The other two sectors of the vacuum vessel will be supplied by Korea. The weight of the entire vacuum vessel, about 5000 tons, is equivalent to the weight of the Eiffel Tower.

Neutral Beam Test Facility

ITER will be equipped with two neutral beam heating and current drive injectors, each delivering 16.5 MW with particle energies of 1 MeV, far beyond what is used in today’s experiments. To test this new technology, a Neutral Beam Test facility is being built in Padua, Italy, with contributions from Europe, India and Japan. The official name of the facility is Padua Research on ITER Megavolt Accelerator, or PRIMA. It will have two test stands: SPIDER, which stands for "Source for the Production of Ions of Deuterium Extracted from an RF plasma" and MITICA, which stands for "Megavolt ITER Injector and Concept Advancement" which is the actual prototype of the ITER Heating Neutral Beam.

Export Controls

The ITER Council Working Group on Export Control, Peaceful Uses and Non-proliferation (ECWG), chaired by Mike Roberts of the U.S., met for its fifth meeting on 6-7 October in Japan. The meeting addressed the finalization of the lists of items that might be subject to Export Control. The lists will be presented to the ITER Organization, which will then start work on harmonization of the lists.