A full agreement was achieved by the European Council, the European Parliament and the European Commission on the funding of ITER for the next two years. "I am relieved that the extra financial needs of ITER are now covered," stated EU Budget Commissioner Janusz Lewandowski. "The EU could not afford to lose credibility vis-a-vis its international partners involved in the project. Furthermore, I am pleased that this budgetary deal was made possible thanks to the positive spirit shown by the representatives of both the Council and the Parliament."
The "ad referendum" agreement will now have to be formally adopted by the two institutions according to their internal procedures. The agreement foresees the following breakdown of funds:
ITER Council Meeting in November
In November, during its ninth meeting in Cadarache (France), the Council noted "a highly productive period of project execution under the ITER Organization’s leadership, including the successful efforts to advance ITER design and construction, contain costs and minimize delays, especially in the face of the Great East Japan earthquake." This ITER Council meeting was chaired by Academician Evgeny Velikhov. Dr. Hideyuki Takatsu of Japan will succeed him as Chairman of the ITER Council on 1 January, 2012.
After the meeting, the Council issued the following press release:
CADARACHE, France (18 November 2011).
On 17 and 18 November 2011, the ITER Council, the Governing Body of the ITER Organization, convened for its ninth meeting, which brought together representatives from the seven ITER Members: China, the European Union, India, Japan, Korea, Russia and the United States under the chairmanship of Academician Evgeny Velikhov (Russia).
Council members recognized that under the leadership of the new management since the previous ITER Council held in June 2011, the ITER Organization has taken a number of positive steps in improving management, gaining control of costs and making technical decisions that will enable continued effective project construction. Council members were also informed on the positive outcome of the public inquiry, which allowed citizens to express their opinions and to ask questions about the project. On 19 September, the public inquiry commission, on the basis of these contributions, issued a 'favourable' opinion on the ITER project. This is a key step towards the full licensing of ITER.
The Council commended the development of a strategic management plan to minimize potential delays due, in part, to the earthquake in Japan. In particular, the Council confirmed that the project is within the schedule and cost decided at its extraordinary meeting in July 2010. The ITER Council noted that 60 Procurement Arrangements have been signed, representing 71.5 percent of the total procurement value of ITER construction. Council endorsed the cost strategy proposed by the ITER Organization to stay within the capped budget.
The Council noted the high quality of the report of the Management Assessor that recognizes the positive impact of the new leadership while giving detailed recommendations to promote further improvements. A report on the implementation of these recommendations by the ITER Organization’s Director-General will be made at the next ITER Council meeting in June 2012 (IC-10).
Following the completion of the term of Academician Evgeny Velikhov as the ITER Council Chair, Dr. Gyung-Su Lee as the MAC (Management Advisory Committee) Chair and Prof. Wan Yuanxi as the STAC (Science and Technology Advisory Committee) Chair at the end of this calendar year, the Council elected Dr Hideyuki Takatsu, Dr. Ranjay Sharan and Prof. Joaquin Sanchez as their respective successors. Council members thanked the outgoing Chairs for their contribution and welcomed the new Chairs.
ITER Power Supplies Progress
The Procurement Arrangement with the Korean Domestic Agency for the AC/DC Converters (signed in March) had led to the selection and award of a contract in August to a consortium led by Dawonsys Co. Ltd. who will design and build the converters, and Hyosung Co. Ltd. who will design and build the converter transformers.
Since the contract kick-off meeting in September, the consortium has performed an enormous amount of preliminary design work, fault analysis, simulations, and configuration checks; the full status report was made during a three-day meeting at Cadarache with the Coil Power Supply Section (Electrical Engineering Division, EED). They presented a 3D-model showing the latest configuration based on the R&D result of a prototype converter unit. The objectives of the face-to-face meeting were to ensure an efficient start of contract activities and follow up work to be performed by the ITER Organization, to identify any issues to be resolved and, of course, to begin the best working relationship between ITER and the Domestic Agency's industrial partners.
Toroidal Field Coil Conductor Progress
In Russia, the qualification of the manufacturing process for the Toroidal Field (TF) conductor was successfully concluded. Following the manufacture of 760 metres of toroidal field copper dummy conductor in August the full-scale dummy was tested successfully on 20-21 September at the NRC Kurchatov Institute.
In the presence of a representative from the European Domestic Agency, the full-scale copper dummy successfully passed the global leak test, the hydrostatic pressure test, and the pressure drop test. The dummy conductor was then extracted from the vacuum vessel and prepared for transportation to Italy, where it will be tested and qualified.
These positive results show the readiness of the Russian industry (manufacturers JSC TVEL and JSC VNIIKP) to produce the conductors on industrial basis.
Diagnostic Neutral Beam Progress
Work begun in 2009 on the civil construction works of the Indian Test Facility in Ahmedabad is now completed: here, the Indian Domestic Agency will install a full-scale test bed for the qualification of all diagnostic neutral beam parameters before installation and operation in ITER.
ITER's neutral beam system will consist of two heating neutral beams (HNB) and a diagnostic neutral beam (DNB) that share the same negative ion source technology. The purpose of the diagnostic neutral beam is to determine the level of impurities (helium ash) and a variety of performance parameters such as ion temperature, particle density and velocity by sending a 100 keV probe beam into the ITER plasma.
Extensive R&D is underway to resolve the numerous technical challenges of these systems: for the heating neutral beams that are under European and Japanese procurement, the PRIMA test facility in Padua, Italy will house a full-scale prototype of ITER's heating neutral beam injector (MITICA). Here, too, the development of the ITER ion source will be advanced in the SPIDER facility with Indian participation.
"A similar need for research and development applies to the diagnostic neutral beam, however a test facility with DNB-specific objectives was not available," explains Arun Chakraborty, leader and Project Manager for the DNB at the Indian Domestic Agency, which is responsible for procurement. "ITER India assessed the need and agreed, in consultation with the ITER Organization, to the configuration of a facility for the full characterization of the diagnostic neutral beam."
The Indian Test Facility is a voluntary effort on neutral beam R&D. ITER India has committed to providing the 600m² facility (plus 400 m² for the high voltage power supplies), the beam line components (neutralizer, residual ion dump, calorimeter), the vessel and auxiliary systems, while the diagnostic neutral beam source for the test bed—the ion source plus accelerator—will be provided by the ITER Organization. "This additional effort and additional resources allocated to the diagnostic neutral beam by ITER India are greatly appreciated," says Beatrix Schunke, senior technical officer at the ITER Organization and responsible on the ITER side for the DNB. "The specifications for the diagnostic neutral beam are highly demanding. The Indian Test Facility is a voluntary contribution that shows a great commitment to the success of the ITER DNB program."
The Indian Test Facility will replicate all aspects of ITER's diagnostic neutral beam except remote handling. The civil construction for the facility was completed in August 2011 and the foundations are now in place to receive the beam line. The Indian Domestic Agency is in the process of reviewing the technical specifications of the DNB components before turning to industry for the procurement of the diagnostic neutral beam components
Industry Roles
About 600 industrialists from more than 20 met in Manosque to participate in the ITER Business Forum. Organized for the second time since the inauguration of project, the two-day event was a useful platform for representatives of industry to meet ITER management and technical responsible officers and to discuss issues such as the design status of ITER components and the strategy for their procurement.
"The Business Forum is a necessary event in order to inform and involve industry at an early stage," stated the Director of Agence ITER France Jérôme Paméla in his opening address. "Without industry, there would be no ITER project." In his status report on the project, ITER Deputy Director-General Rich Hawryluk, head of the Department for Administration, also highlighted the importance of exchange with industry: "It is great to have an idea on paper, but only industry can make it become reality."
Procurement Arrangement Signings
During the month of December, six Procurement Arrangements (PAs) were signed, bringing the total for calendar year 2011 to 19. Since 2007, the ITER Organization has signed 66 PAs, representing more than 75 percent of the project's in-kind value. Another sixty are in the pipeline: the total number of PAs for the ITER project is currently forecast to be 126.
On 12 December the PA for the Port Plug Test Facility was signed with the Russian Domestic Agency. This Facility will enable the testing of the upper and equatorial port plugs before their installation in the machine. The following day, the European Domestic Agency countersigned the contract for the R&D and preparatory design of the magnetic electronics and software needed for ITER's diagnostic systems.
On 21 December, Russia signed a second PA, this time for the High Field Side Reflectometer, part of the diagnostic system. Also on 21 December, the PA for the Blanket Remote Handling System—necessary for the remote replacement of blanket modules inside of the ITER vacuum vessel during machine maintenance operations—was signed with the Japanese Domestic Agency.
A further two PAs were signed by the ITER Organization: Power Supply for the Heating Neutral Beam and the High Voltage Bushing for MITICA which is part of the Neutral Beam Test Facility. These two PAs, signed by ITER Director-General Osamu Motojima, are currently with the Japanese Domestic Agency which has committed to sign them before the end of the year.
"Preparing Procurement Arrangements in 2011 involved all the Domestic Agencies and all the technical departments within the Organization," says In-Kind Management Section Leader Mark Robinson. "The PAs span the whole range of design types from functional specifications to build-to-print. On behalf of the in-kind team I would like to take the opportunity to thank all the supporting staff in the ITER Organization and the Domestic Agencies for their contribution and expertise provided throughout another busy year."
Other News
The ITER Organization and the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding "to promote cooperation and exchange in all academic and scientific fields of mutual interest and to advance the training of young fusion researchers." As one of the top-ranking universities in China, USTC encompasses an extensive range of disciplines and experts in various fields of relevance to the development of fusion power.
The parties agreed on establishing an ITER Training Forum at the School of Nuclear Science and Technology (SNST) which forms part of the USTC. The ITER Organization is expected to send five to ten experts each year to SNST to provide a series of lectures which will be presented over a period of one week. Each lecture series is intended to be in line with the domestic education programs. Young scientists, engineers and project managers from the international fusion program will be encouraged to participate.
The first ITER Training Forum will provide an overview of the ITER project and will, in addition, focus on various technical and physical topics ranging from ITER operation, to the deuterium-tritium fuel cycle system design, to IDM.
In addition, the ITER Organization may accept up to ten senior doctoral students or postdoctoral researchers chosen by SNST and approved by the ITER Organization each academic year in compliance with the ITER Internship Program Policy. The students and postdoctoral researchers will gain experience through working with the ITER Organization experts and participating in the daily activities of the host unit. They also will receive practical training in exploiting their skills by analyzing and solving specific problems under the guidance of ITER Organization supervisors.
The initial duration of the internship at the ITER Organization will be 12 months with a possibility of extension for a further period of up to 12 months.