The ITER project is on good tracks, concludes the Eleventh ITER Councils on the 29^th November 2012. The project’s plan for 2013 has been validated and the teams all around the world are getting started for new intense and innovative year.

Seismic Pit basemat completed – JANUARY: Since August 2011, some 18,000 m3 of concrete have been set into place over a dense array of steel rebar and stirrups—some 3,400 tons of metal for a 1.5 metre-thick foundation slab. In order to ensure the close-to-perfect homogeneity of the basemat, each slab was poured in one continuous operation lasting no more than an extended workday. The basemat (11,500 m2) was separated into 21 sections, filled successively with 800 m3 of concrete.

During a two days intensive discussion between the senior representatives from all the ITER Members, the ITER Council concludes that the areas of on-site construction, licensing, and component manufacturing activities have shown significant advancement (the last meeting was in June 2012). In parallel, the Council decided to support the proposition to reinforce the collaboration between ITER Organization and the Domestic Agencies, called the Unique Team. The same day, the decree authorizing the creation of the ITER facility in France was signed. Concerning the 2013 plans, the ITER Director-General Osamu Motojima, a week before opened the key meeting where 56 participants from the ITER Members joined 12 from the ITER Organization. The Joint Meeting of the International Tokamak Physics Activity (ITPA) Coordinating Committee and the International Energy Agency Implementing Agreement (IEA IA) on Co-operation on Tokamak Programms (CTP), is an annual gathering of senior representatives of the ITER Member fusion communities, the ITPA Topical Group leadership and program leaders from the major fusion facilities. During this meeting, the key priorities of the Unique ITER Team were outlined after an overview of the advancements and situation on construction and R&D. The main priorities that were underlined are the understanding and control of Edge Localized Modes (ELMs); disruptions and runaway electrons (and their mitigation); H-mode accessibility; use of all-metal plasma-facing components; the behavior of tungsten impurities; tritium retention; dust; and power scrape-off layer (SOL) thickness. Finally, the chairs of the seven ITPA Topical Groups reviewed the progress made in 2012 and proposed an experiment plan for 2013, focusing on the urgent issues for ITER.

While Europe is trying to get out of its economic crisis, at least our great, promising projects do not stop and promise much more in 2013. Constructions are progressing, fact that the following remarkable photo shows:

SFR technician Sylvain Couturier took this spectacular panoramic shot as he surveyed possible locations for a permanent cellular radio tower to relay cell phone signals throughout the ITER site. Taken from a height of 40 metres, the panorama stretches from the worksite guard post on the left all the way to the twin 81 and 82 buildings (formerly JWS 2 and 3) to the right. The ongoing work on the drainage networks is clearly visible at the centre of the image, as are the reinforcement activities for the modular building foundations (offices, canteen and infirmary) that should be completed by March 2013 (centre right). © Sylvain Couturier. http://www.iter.org/newsline/250/1423

See more detailed information on the project and scope on: http://www.iter.org/proj/itermission

Sources:

ITER Project official website: http://www.iter.org/

ITER Newsline 21/12/2012 http://www.iter.org/newsline/250/1432 -Michiya Shimada, Chief Scientific Officer, Divertor and Plasma Wall Interactions

 ITER Newsline 21/12/2012