ITER ITA NEWSLETTER
No. 5, JUNE 2003

INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY, VIENNA, AUSTRIAISSN 1727–9852

WORDS OF GRATITUDE TO DR. MICHEL HUGUETby Dr. Masaji Yoshikawa, former ITER Council Co-Chair
It is impossible for the Japanese fusion community, in particular for those associated with the ITER Project,to hear about the retirement of Dr. Michel Huguet without a great amount of gratitude, recollections, warm
feelings, and the inevitable sadness.
He was a first-generation ITER EDA person. Three months after the signing of the ITER EDA Agreement inJuly 1992, he arrived at the Naka Joint Work Site as Deputy Director of the ITER Central Team and Head ofthe site and he stayed for more than ten years.
The Naka site was for design and technical co-ordination in the areas of magnets, plasma control and heating,plant systems, buildings, etc. Dr. Huguet was considered a highly qualified person to fill the position, since hehad been successful as Deputy Director in similar areas in the JET Joint Undertaking. During the ITER EDA
he co-ordinated the R&D activities in areas for which the Naka Joint Work Site was responsible. These R&Dresults permitted the completion of the ITER design in the above areas under his supervision.
Before the ITER EDA started, concern was expressed about how to progress with such a large international
project, having a team consisting of members of many nationalities. This is why participation in ITER activities,
in particular on the leadership level, of people who had a broad background in large international projects anda calm nature, a patient character, a communicative mind, and a warm heart was welcome. In this respect,
we indeed very much appreciate the great contribution made by Dr. Huguet to establishing very good humanrelationships through the entire period of his years in Naka.
On this occasion, speaking for the township of Naka and the JAERI Naka Research Establishment, I would
like to tell Dr. Huguet’s wife Madeleine that we all want to thank her and will miss her. She developed afriendship with people in Naka, and through her gracious hospitality and friendliness gave many of us theprecious opportunity of learning the French language. They say that the Huguet family enjoyed very much
climbing and walking over the mountains and hills around Ibaraki, thus becoming more familiar with the area
than are some of the local people.
We thank Dr. Huguet for his achievements and contributions to ITER. He played a crucial role in establishing
the convincing scientific and technical basis for ITER implementation. This was only made possible by his
broad abilities and his dedication to the cause of fusion in general and ITER in particular.

Guests at the Farewell Party2

10.5 YEARS AT THE ITER NAKA JOINT WORK SITEby Dr. Michel Huguet
This is a brief recollection of people and events, rather than technical achievements which are extensively
described in ITER reports, during my 10.5 years as Head of the Joint Work Site at Naka.
When my wife and I arrived at Naka in October 1992, we were the first ITER persons and for about one month,
I was the only member of the Joint Central Team (JCT). The first Division Head, R.Thome, arrived in earlyNovember and the team grew rapidly throughout 1993 with new Japanese, US and EU staff. The long-awaited
first wave of Russian staff came in May 1994. Two years after the start of ITER EDA, the Naka team included
already about 40 professionals. The peak of the team strength was reached by mid-1997 with a total staff onsite in excess of 90, including 59 team members, 25 support staff and 5 to 10 visiting researchers. At the endof the initial EDA phase in July 1998, the team shrank dramatically when the US withdrew from the projectand US staff left. However, early 1999 saw the arrival at Naka of the San Diego site “displaced persons” andthe Naka team grew again to a total of about 50 professionals. At the end of the EDA extension in July 2001,a significant number of Russian and Japanese staff were recalled to their parent organizations. At about thesame time, there were also EU staff who departed for personal and family reasons. At present, in June 2003,
the Naka team includes about 30 members and 10 support staff.
From its inception at the start of EDA, the Naka JWS, was given the responsibility of the so-called Ex-Vesselsystems, which covered most components and systems outside the Vacuum Vessel of the Tokamak, except
the buildings and the site services and layout. The Naka Team structure reflected these responsibilities withthree divisions: the Superconducting Coils and Structures division under R. Thome until the end of 1998, thePlasma and Field Control division under P. L. Mondino and the Nuclear Technology division under R. Haange.
An important figure in the organization was that of B. Green who, as assistant to the Head of Site, assumed
multiple technical and administrative functions. B. Green’s positive attitude played a key role in establishing astrong, cohesive and successful team at Naka.
The production of engineering drawings and models was, and still is, one of the main work deliverables of theteam and, throughout the EDA, Naka was provided with a strong CAD office with up to 15 CAD designers
working under G. Dalle Carbonare. The need for such a strong CAD office had been the subject of intense
negotiations at the beginning of the EDA but once an agreement was reached, JAERI remained firm in theirsupport of these CAD office resources. At the end of the EDA, however, budgetary constraints led to a strong
reduction of CAD resources at Naka and work sharing with the Garching Design Office had to be organized.
For the ITER team and home teams with a worldwide distribution, electronic communication is essential. In
these 10.5 years at Naka, I am not able to recall a single crisis in relation to communication and information
technology equipment. Given the complexity of the systems and the need to upgrade them frequently, this isa true “ITER feat” to be credited to the Naka information technology wizard, Sato-san.
The Naka JWS has also been well provided with support staff including secretaries, computer staff and social
support personnel. It must be stressed that support staff at Naka have been fully integrated in the team andhave played an important part in the team achievements. Special tribute must be paid to the Naka secretaries.
Their loyalty and efficiency have been, and still are, exemplary and their full availability and kindness in all
circumstances are appreciated by all, including visitors. As a matter of fact, long lasting friendly relationships
have continued well after the departures of staff members and some of the secretaries.
In early 1999, the site organization changed when staff from San Diego were transferred to Naka.
Y. Shimomura, the Deputy to the Director, came with the Physics Group under M. Shimada, and thediagnostics group under A. Costley. Furthermore, some of the former San Diego design integration activities
and staff were incorporated into the Naka divisions. In this way, the machine assembly, the hot cell, thebuilding design, the site services and layout became part of to the Nuclear Technology division
responsibilities, stretching further the wide scope of this division.
At the end of the EDA extension in July 2001, staff resources declined in all areas. The Plasma and Field
Control division lost all but one of its staff members and disappeared. It was no longer possible to continue
design activities on a broad front and the scope of work was curtailed to focus on the most urgent activities
for the preparation of ITER construction.

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During EDA, CTA and the present ITA, the Naka JWS has successfully fulfilled its technical mission of developing designs and providing, in time, the required documentation for technical meetings and reports. The
other main task, the initiation and coordination of R&D activities to be implemented by the home teams, hasalso been very successful and demonstrated a remarkable cooperative spirit even if the split responsibilities
and management between the international team and home teams made it difficult at times. All these activities were coordinated with the other ITER sites, at Garching and San Diego until 1998, through joint meetings and visits from the Director, P. H. Rebut until 1994 and R. Aymar thereafter. The Naka site has also
played its part in conveying to the outside world a positive and appealing image of the project and more generally of fusion research. Many senior politicians and leading personalities from industry and research organizations in Japan, Europe and the USA visited the site, especially during the EDA phase, and expressed theirappreciation of the work of the international team.
All in all, Naka has enjoyed an excellent team spirit and benefited from a strong staff commitment driven by
the feeling of participation in a large project with an important mission for the future of mankind. Importantly,division heads, group leaders and team members understood that their loyalty was to the team and the teammanagement, and their loyalty to their home institutions had to come second. This is essential for theeffectiveness and credibility of an international team. The working relationship between team members of somany different nationalities has been exceptionally good and helped produce a work environment that has
been both pleasant and stimulating.
Establishing an international team in Japan was a challenge for those responsible for its organization. Coming
to work in Japan for 6 or more years was also a challenge for the non-Japanese team members and theirfamilies. Looking back over those 10.5 years, I can state that these challenges have been successfully met.
The main concerns of expatriates are well known: education for the children is the top priority, but housing,jobs for spouses, medical care, cultural and leisure activities are also important. In Japan, the language
barrier, especially regarding reading and writing, is another major difficulty. These issues had been well

The ITER Team at Naka in summer 1994 during a visit of Director R. Aymar

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anticipated by JAERI who had offered, together with the Naka site for the design team, a social package
including a local “international” school, houses specially built or non-Japanese and staff dedicated to social
support. Although the social package included the right basic ingredients, the implementation details
remained to be worked out and were the subject of countless discussions between JAERI and theinternational team represented by B. Green. Thanks to a remarkable cooperative spirit on both sides, issues
have been solved satisfactorily and amicably.
The local international school was operated, under contract with JAERI, as a local branch of an establishedinternational school in Tokyo. It used a specially built building on the JAERI site. The school remained rathersmall with up to three teachers and a peak number of pupils of less than 20. Although tuition was exclusively
in English and for pupils up to the age of about 13, the school fulfilled its purpose and did allow families withyoung children to come at Naka. For older children, the only possibility was to use one of the Tokyo
international school, a solution adopted by a few colleagues although inconvenient, because of the need tofind accommodation in Tokyo, and onerous and therefore not available to all team members. The Naka
international school ran until 2001 when the number of pupils declined so much that it could no longer bemaintained.
The houses for non-Japanese staff have been built by JAERI in an area of Naka called Minouchi. There is atotal of 46 detached and semi-detached houses, grouped in 4 blocks. The houses were satisfactory for mostfamilies although probably too small for those with more than 2 children. The close proximity of workcolleagues as neighbours was generally not felt as a burden. There were, of course, the inevitable local“neighbourly differences”, but in general, the ITER Minouchi community enjoyed an active and harmonious
social life. The sense of isolation, at least in the early days, the sharing of common difficulties and experiences
and the need to help each other promoted a strong community feeling. The most visible aspect of the Minouchi
community life was the Minouchi parties, held outdoors on some evenings. These parties attracted non-ITER
friends and some Japanese neighbours who contributed with sake and Japanese songs. The life and soul ofthese parties was Dotty Koonce, the wife of a US colleague. Sadly, after the departure of the US contingent,
the number of parties declined and some of the Minouchi spirit was lost.
The social support staff, the so-called “local coordinators”, have played an essential part in the life of the nonJapanese team members. As illiterate adults, the non-Japanese needed the local coordinator’s help not only
for administrative matters but for many aspects of their personal and family life. As a result, the local
coordinators found themselves involved in sometimes rather personal matters but they gained everybody’s
respect and trust in dealing with all problems with kindness and tact. It is therefore no surprise that friendly
relationship have been established and maintained long after some of the local coordinators left their job.
Osaki-san and Kawagami-san, to cite but two, are still regular participants to Minouchi social events and ITER
Parties.
The description of the Minouchi community would not be complete without mentioning Seki-san, theJapanese language teacher provided by JAERI. Seki-san was able to provide effective and entertainingclasses, but unfortunately, many of her students did not rise to the challenge. Most students, including myself,followed the same pattern. After an enthusiastic start and some serious learning for a couple of years, theITER heavy workload and the many trips outside Japan proved to be strong impediments to learning
Japanese. The opportunities to use whatever was learned being rather limited, most team members resigned
themselves to remaining illiterate. The wives, instead, did in general much better and quite a few achieved areasonable level of fluency of the spoken language. The written language, however, remained largely
unreachable.
The Naka experience is certainly very similar to the Garching experience and can be used as an indicator ofwhat can be achieved and what is needed for the forthcoming ITER construction. An international team, with
an effective technical control of the Project and with clearly specified technical responsibilities and authority
at working and management levels, can and will operate efficiently. The interactions between the internationalteam and the domestic organizations, including, in particular, the definition of the respective responsibilities
and authority, must be well defined from the outset, as objectives and priorities may not always coincide
throughout the long life of the project. The quality of the team depends on the quality and stability of the teammembers. The social package of the ITER site, as a means to attract and retain competent staff, is therefore
a key element of the ultimate success of the project. During construction, long term staff secondments areessential to secure stability and continuity of technical responsibilities.

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At the time of leaving this project, I wish to thank all Naka colleagues, past and present, for their dedicationand excellent contributions. I also wish to express my appreciation of the support received from Garchingcolleagues and management, and from my colleagues in the Participant Teams. I wish to thank JAERI for theirsupport to the international team at Naka. ITER is in a good technical state and I am confident that a positive
decision to build will be taken soon. I wish all the best to my younger colleagues who will have the immense
privilege to take part in this extraordinary project.
Special thanks go to my secretary, Tomoko Ito, for her loyalty, dedication and patience with me over these
10.5 years. Finally, I wish to thank my wife, Mady, whose presence and support have made my ITER
adventure possible.

Printed by the IAEA in Austria
August 200303-01567

Items to be considered for inclusion in the ITER CTA Newsletter should be submitted to C. Basaldella, ITER Office, IAEA,Wagramer Strasse 5, P.O. Box 100, A-1400 Vienna, Austria, or Facsimile: +43 1 2633832, or e-mail: c.basaldella@iaea.org(phone +43 1 260026392).