Remote participation to fusion experiments will be used in the next years by scientists all over the world. On November 28th, for the first time, the Remote Experimentation Center (REC) in Rokkasho (Japan) took control of the WEST IRFM tokamak in Cadarache, located 9486 km away.

A new infrared thermography system has been installed in the WEST tokamak to observe the thermal scene of the first wall and components in a wide-angle tangential view of the poloidal cross-section. 

On the 18th of December 2017 current was raised in the divertor coils and the very first X-point plasma was obtained in the WEST tokamak.

A first plasma illuminated WEST vacuum  vessel on December 14, 2016 at 18:03.

A crucial milestone was reached with the completion of the divertor coil windings in August 2016, after 6 months of hard work in a restricted space.  

The 2 power supplies for the WEST divertor coils provided by SWIP arrived from China in July.

The two first full-scale PFU (Plasma-Facing Unit) prototypes for the WEST divertor were delivered at IRFM on May 26th, 2016.

A complex system of Langmuir probes was designed and manufactured for the WEST divertor for local measurement of plasma flux to target. The delivery of the probes at IRFM - an in-kind procurement of the IPP-Prague to the WEST project - is the result of a long lasting and a very productive collaboration between the two institutes.  

The two stainless steel rings constituting the housing for the conductor winding are now assembled and positioned inside the vacuum vessel at their nominal position.

Cables for power supplies are the first WEST partner components delivered at Cadarache mid-October. SWIP (SouthWestern Institute of Physics in Chendgu, Sichuan), which joined the WEST project at the very beginning, provides the two power supplies for WEST divertor coils… and cables that connect these power supplies to divertor coils, and transformers to rectifiers.  

WEST international partners have come from China, Europe, India, Japan, Korea and USA to share the progress on the project, joining efforts to achieve the common objective : first plasma in 2016.

On Monday the 6th October, the WEST first component in the Tore Supra vacuum vessel was installed by Gabriele Fioni, Director of the CEA Physical Science Division and Osamu Motojima, Directeur Général of Iter Organization. The WEST project has entered a new stage: the start of installation of new components, built to transform this tokamak in a facility that could test ITER divertor.

From 30 June to 2nd July 2014, the first WEST international workshop gathered 120 participants in Aix en Provence. The purpose was to consolidate the WEST research plan, that will drive WEST during the coming years. The target was reached: a revised version of the WEST research plan will be issued by the end of 2014, enriched by a number of new proposals.

During the first Governing Board, members from world leading fusion institutions have confirmed their interest for the WEST project and discussed a common work plan for the coming years.   The first WEST Governing Board, chaired by G.Fioni, director of the Physical Sciences Division of CEA, took place at Cadarache on the 16th of January 2014.

On the 29th of October 2013, in the presence of Mr. Tada (Head of the Japanese Domestic Agency, JADA) Mr. Mori, Head of the Naka Fusion Research Institute (for the JAEA) and Gabriele Fioni, Head of the CEA Physical Division, signed a Letter of Intent on the foreseen collaboration agreement for the WEST project.