Concrete pouring for the basemat of the Tritium Building began on Wednesday 19 March. Close to 1,000 cubic meters of concrete were employed in filling a 638 square-metre plot in the north-east corner of the Tokamak Pit. As for the Diagnostics Building basemat, the section of the slab that will support the Tritium Building will be poured in three separate segments. The next two, plots 12 and 15, were poured in April. In the central area of the Tokamak Pit, where a combination of orthogonal and orthodradial rebar create a particularly tight and complex pattern, pouring should begin in late July and be completed in early October.

Toroidal Field Conductor Progress in Russia

Two spools of completed toroidal field conductor left the premises of the Kurchatov Institute in Moscow, Russia, in mid March for transport to La Spezia, Italy. The spools each contained 760 metres of niobium-tin superconductor that will be integrated into regular double pancakes for the powerful D-shaped ITER toroidal field coils at a winding line in La Spezia (ASG Superconductor). In addition to the winding stage, the pancakes will be heat treated, electrically insulated and transferred into the grooves of stainless steel radial plates. At the end of the coil manufacturing process, the completed toroidal field coils will be transported to ITER.

Construction Contracts

Construction is accelerating thanks to the signature of two contracts between Fusion for Energy, the EU body that manages Europe's contribution to ITER, and the Spanish consortium Ferrovial Agroman. The contracts, worth approximately EUR 40 million, cover the design and construction of seven buildings, part of the 39 buildings that will make up the ITER infrastructure.

Under the first contract, Ferrovial Agroman will build two buildings for magnetic power conversion, each with an area of 4,900 m2 and a volume of 39,000 m3. They will house components manufactured by China, Russia and Korea that will convert alternating current to direct current for the ITER magnets. The contract also covers the construction of a smaller building for the reactive power compensation system.

Under the second contract, Ferrovial Agroman will design and build the cooling tower and hot/cold basins. The basins - with a total volume of 26,000m3 (or the size of ten Olympic swimming pools) - will store the cooling water that will travel in and out of the ITER machine during operation. Additional buildings will be constructed for cooling water system pumps and pipes, water treatment and heat exchangers.

Ferrovial Agroman is also part of the consortium (with Vinci and Razel-Bec) that is responsible for the construction of the Tokamak Complex and nine ancillary buildings. "These two contracts offer Ferrovial Agroman the opportunity to be further involved in ITER and establish itself as one of the most committed contractors," said company CEO Alejandro de la Joya. "We are extremely proud to be part of the most ambitious international collaboration in the field of energy."

Poloidal Field Progress in China

Qualification activities for the ITER poloidal field converter package are continuing in China where - in the latest round of successful testing - the prototype of the poloidal field rectifier transformer successfully passed the third phase of routing and type tests. From 25-28 February the rectifier transformer prototype fabricated by the Xi'an Transformer Co. Ltd (China XD Group) underwent testing in the presence of representatives from the ITER Organization, the Chinese Domestic Agency, the Institute of Plasma Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (ASIPP), and XD in Xi'an. The positive results of this visual examination, following on the heels of recent successful short circuit tests, confirm the suitability of R&D carried out for the poloidal field rectifier transformer prototype.

The rectifier transformer is one of the key prototype components of the ITER poloidal field converter package. With the assistance of ASIPP, ITER China issued the technical requirements for the fabrication and testing of the prototype according to the Procurement Arrangement signed with the ITER Organization in August 2012, and subsequently awarded the contract to the XD Group in December 2012.

The supplier accomplished two procurement milestones in 2013 - completing the manufacturing design review in April followed by the fabrication of the prototype - before fulfilling all required tests. The capability for the large transformer to withstand short circuit current is essential to guaranteeing reliability under the harsh operating conditions of ITER; short circuit test statistics over the past decade have tended to show a very high failure rate (nearly 30 percent). As a key component of the ITER coil power supply system, the test was carried out in full compliance with the latest IEC standards. Several peak current impulses up to 350kA were applied to the transformer and the evolution of winding parameters measured between each current application.

Port Plug Progress

In early April the Russian company Cryogenmash, located near Moscow, started a series of gasket tests for the facility that will enable the testing of the upper and equatorial port plugs before their installation in the machine - the ITER Port Plug Test Facility.

According to a Procurement Arrangement signed in 2011 with the ITER Organization, the Russian Domestic Agency is responsible for the supply of four test stands (two for the ITER Organization and one each for the European and US Domestic Agencies) for the vacuum, heat and functional testing of the vacuum vessel port plugs, critical components for preventing leaks and maintaining high vacuum within the vessel.

The tests at Cryogenmash were a significant milestone on the way to the final goal. Based on test results, the firm's specialists will make the final selection of the material and the technology of the gaskets. The ITER Organization representatives who were present at the gasket tests expressed their satisfaction both with the process and the results.

For further information on ITER progress, visit http://www.iter.org