Green light for ITER

After a year in limbo, big machines are back at work at the ITER site in Cadarache, France. On 28 July the seven member countries finally signed off on a schedule and committed to funding the fusion test reactor. The cost is hard to pin down because of the inkind contributions, but the European Commission has approved €6.6 billion ($8.7 billion) for its 45% share, which puts the full cost at close to €15 billion. First plasma is slated for November 2019, with the start of deuterium-tritium fusion experiments planned for March 2027 (see Physics Today, April 2010, page 20 ). Russia’s Evgeny Velikhov, who chairs the ITER council, said the agreement ensures “not only the success of ITER but also the success of fusion.”

The same day the schedule was approved, fusion scientist Osamu Motojima replaced Kaname Ikeda, a former ambassador, at ITER’s helm. Motojima oversaw construction of the Large Helical Device, a superconducting stellarator, and formerly headed Japan’s National Institute for Fusion Science. Per an agreement dating to when Japan was edged out by Europe to host the project, the director general must come from Japan.

Motojima’s plans for restructuring the ITER organization have been approved by the council. They include streamlining the management to three departments — construction; administration; and safety, security, and quality control. “It’s a task-oriented structure that will make decision making faster and simplify testing procedures,” says Motojima. One job was cut in the restructuring, that of principal deputy director general Norbert Holtkamp.