ITER ("The Way" in Latin) is one of the most ambitious energy projects in the world today. In southern France, 35 nations are collaborating to build the world's largest tokamak, a magnetic fusion device that has been designed to prove the feasibility of fusion as a large-scale and carbon-free source of energy based on the same principle that powers our Sun and stars. The experimental campaign that will be carried out at ITER is crucial to advancing fusion science and preparing the way for the fusion power plants of tomorrow. ITER will be the first fusion device to produce net energy. ITER will be the first fusion device to maintain fusion for long periods of time. And ITER will be the first fusion device to test the integrated technologies, materials, and physics regimes necessary for the commercial production of fusion-based electricity.

Thousands of engineers and scientists have contributed to the design of ITER since the idea for an international joint experiment in fusion was first launched in 1985. The ITER Members—China, the European Union, India, Japan, Korea, Russia and the United States—are now engaged in a 35-year collaboration to build and operate the ITER experimental device, and together bring fusion to the point where a demonstration fusion reactor can be designed." (ITER)

"One million components, ten million parts ... the ITER Tokamak will be the largest and most powerful fusion device in the world. Designed to produce 500 MW of fusion power for 50 MW of input heating power (a power amplification ratio of 10), it will take its place in history as the first fusion device to create net energy." (ITER)

"The origins of the ambitious project go back to the Reagan-Gorbachev negotiations of the 1980s that envisioned equal participation by the Soviet Union, the United States, Japan and Europe. After decades of delays, the International Thermal Experimental Reactor was born. ITER began in earnest in 2010 and is now celebrating the commencement of the “assembly phase” wherein the reactor’s components can now start being put into place. With millions of components manufactured from around the world, weighing in at 23,000 tons, and standing several stories high, ITER may be the most complicated engineering project in human history. The reactor will contain some 3,000 tons of superconducting magnets which will be linked by 160 miles of superconducting cables, all kept at -269C by the largest cryogenic plant in the world". (Forbes 2020)

Links: https://www.iter.org/proj/inafewlines
https://www.iter.org/
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITER
https://www.forbes.com/sites/arielcohen/2020/08/07/iter-the-worlds-largest-nuclear-fusion-project-a-big-step-forward/
https://www.fusion.qst.go.jp/ITER/english/iter.html (ITER JAPAN)
https://www.forschung-und-wissen.de/nachrichten/technik/japan-will-bis-2050-kernfusionsreaktor-bauen-13375748

"We seek proposals for a conference on the history of nuclear research in medicine. The conference will be held at the Medical University of Vienna and the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna from the 20th to 21st of March 2023. Deadline for submissions is the 15th of November 2022.

Nuclear Research in Medicine after the Second World War
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Johannes Mattes (Austrian Academy of Sciences), Cécile Philippe (Medical University of Vienna), Maria Rentetzi (Chair of Science Technology and Gender Studies, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg), 1010 Vienna (Austria)             20.03.2023 - 21.03.2023 (Bewerbungsschluss: 15.11.2022)

Nuclear research in medicine relies on a high degree of interaction. While the production of radioisotopes and the development of medical devices are carried out by physicists and engineers, chemists and pharmacists take over the syntheses of radiopharmaceuticals, while physicians focus on their application. In the absence of handbooks, industrially available devices, and radioisotopes, early specialists were also dependent on multilateral exchanges. These were fostered by post-war agreements for the peaceful use of atomic energy and international organizations such as the IAEA and WHO. Thus, the formation of nuclear medicine as discipline was the result of a global balancing and standardization process during the Cold War era. Its origins are traced in the first broad clinical applications of radioisotopes primarily in the United States and the United Kingdom just before the Second World War and continued with the worldwide dissemination of relevant knowledge and techniques that were mainly triggered by the United Nations international organizations. Nevertheless, in many countries, nuclear medicine did not get recognized as a medical specialty with separate residency training until the 1990s.
This symposium focuses on the emergence of nuclear medicine as an outcome of scientific collaboration and competition, boundary and interdisciplinary work, and encounters between various (inter)national stakeholders, as well as political, diplomatic, and scientific institutions. We welcome contributions that address the scientific, political, diplomatic, and social dimensions of these interactions, the knowledge, resources, and policies involved.

Potential topics include:
- Transnational cooperation and competition among researchers, clinical practitioners, institutions and disciplines
- Sharing of nuclear medicine knowledge, methods, materials, and spaces within Europe and around the globe
- Development of standards, rules, manuals, and measuring/imaging devices
- Political, social, and gendered aspects of scientific interaction, licensing, and regulatory governance of the field
- Safety, security, and disposal of radioactive waste produced by nuclear medical practices
- Hierarchies and networks of exchange

To apply, please send an abstract (no longer than 250 words), a brief bio, and contact information (all in one word file) to Johannes Mattes, johannes.mattes@oeaw.ac.at, by 15 November 2022. We will let you know about our decision by mid-December. Part of our plan is to publish a collective peer-reviewed special journal issue based on the final submissions of the participants."

Das für den weiteren Betrieb vorgesehene AKW (das zu den drei verbliebenen Atomkraftwerken Deutschlands gehört) muss aufgrund einer Ventilleckage stillgelegt werden: "Eine Beeinträchtigung der Sicherheit bestehe nicht. Jedoch müsse der Meiler repariert werden, um über das Jahresende hinaus für einen Leistungsbetrieb zur Verfügung zu stehen. Das Ministerium kündigte an, aufgrund der neuen Sachlage zu prüfen, ob Isar 2 weiterhin bis Mitte April als Notreserve für die deutsche Energieproduktion genutzt werden könne. Die Reparatur sei nach Auskunft des Betreibers nicht notwendig, sollte das AKW wie durch den beschlossenen Atomausstieg zum Jahresende den Leistungsbetrieb beenden." (Handelsblatt, 19. September 2022)

Link: https://www.handelsblatt.com/dpa/atomkraftwerk-isar-2-muesste-fuer-laengere-laufzeit-repariert-werden/28690944.html

"Presenting his latest documentary, “Nuclear,” at the Venice Film Festival, director Oliver Stone reflected on the climate crisis with an uncommon tone – optimism. '[We need to] get away from that mentality of fear,” Stone said from a press conference just before his film’s world premiere. “Like everyone else, I saw ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ in 2006, and it was scary. I kept reading the news, and it kept getting worse.´ (...)

"The filmmaker looked to address the issue by focusing on action, and by offering scalable and effective solutions. He found them in nuclear energy, and in a 2019 book, “A Bright Future: How Some Countries Have Solved Climate Change and the Rest Can Follow,” written by American University professor Joshua S. Goldstein." (Variety, 9. September 2022)

Links: https://variety.com/2022/film/news/oliver-stone-nuclear-venice-1235366150/ (September 2022)

https://www.wienerzeitung.at/nachrichten/kultur/film/2161190-Oliver-Stone-Ein-Plaedoyer-fuer-die-Atomkraft.html  = "Im Film behauptet der amerikanische Regisseur, dass die Welt die schreckliche Erinnerung an die Bomben von Hiroshima und Nagasaki oder die Explosion Tschernobyls bewahrt. Stone ist hingegen überzeugt, dass Wissenschaft heute so weit ist, um Atomkraft sauber, ziemlich sicher und effizient zu nutzen." (Wiener Zeitung, 9. September 2022)

"Nordkorea hat ein neues Atomwaffengesetz verabschiedet, das das Recht auf einen nuklearen Erstschlag zur Selbstverteidigung vorsieht.

Auch der Status als Atommacht wird darin als unumkehrbar verankert, wie die staatlichen Medien des Landes am Freitag meldeten. „Hiermit wird eine unwiderrufliche Linie gezogen, damit es keinerlei Verhandlungen über unsere Atomwaffen geben kann", erklärte Machthaber Kim Jong Un. Er werde die Waffen niemals aufgeben, selbst wenn sein Land 100 Jahre lang Sanktionen ausgesetzt sei." (Stuttgarter Zeitung)

Links: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHOb7GxWszI (Stuttgarter Zeitung, 9. September 2022)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJHrjcENYTw (北朝鮮 核使用の条件定めた法令採択 金氏「絶対に核を放棄できない」/ Beschluss zu Atomwaffen im nordkoreanischen Parlament) 「テレ東BIZ」 （2022年9月9日）=「絶対に核を放棄できない」と発言しました。北朝鮮の朝鮮中央通信によりますと、北朝鮮の国会に当たる最高人民会議は８日、核兵器の使用条件などを定めた法令を採択しました。金正恩朝鮮労働党総書記は演説で、「法制化によって、核保有国としての地位が不可逆的になった」と述べたうえで、「絶対に核を放棄できない」として、非核化の交渉を拒否する姿勢を強調しました。