The 32^nd Project Committee (PC#32) of the IFMIF/EVEDA project was held on October 24-25, 2023 at the QST Rokkasho Fusion Institute and remotely for the newly appointed EU PC members.

During the first day, the presentations gave the status and outlook of the project to the PC members as well as to about 20 experts present in person, and remotely, from Japan and Europe.

The following achievements were highlighted by the PC#32:

• The start of the beam operation phase B+ stage 2 on August 1, 2023 after the installation of the repaired circulator and the modified RFQ couplers;
• The implementation of the experimental programme reaching so far 113 mA current transported up to the Beam Dump at 0.1% duty cycle with good stability.
• The repairs made to fix the manufacturing quality issues with some of the SRF Linac components;
• The sound progress of the enhancement activities specially the start of the prototyping of the RFQ RFPS based on solid-state technology;
• The significant progress of the Fusion Neutron Source Design activities both on the Lithium Facility and on the Engineering Design, in particular taking advantage of the LIPAc operation to test new diagnostics.

On the second day, the PC members drew up and approved the Record of Conclusions, making recommendations, and acknowledging the accomplished work.

The first Fusion Neutron Source (FNS) technical coordination meeting was held on September 28-29 via videoconference. This meeting follows the EU-JA Workshop on Neutron Source Status and Technologies held under the bilateral agreement in Rokkasho on August 2019.

The objective of this virtual meeting is to further identify areas of collaboration between EU and JA for the neutron source development, and to develop the contents of the future IFMIF/EVEDA activities to be performed in the frame of the BA. In order to progress in the technical content, the FNS activities carried out or planned in EU and in JA were reviewed.

• Workplans were jointly prepared by the EU and JA contact persons for each topic, providing technical descriptions;
• Each workplan includes schedule and required budget;
• Some topics may benefit from LIPAc operation, but LIPAc can only provide limited support as a test bench, and its focus remains the technical feasibility of the neutron source.
• The strategy is under discussion for sharing the tasks and optimizing the project resources

Actions were agreed:

• Technical description of workplans are to be further detailed for clarifying the proposed sharing and collaboration activities;
• Expected EU and JA resources and budget will be refined and balanced, before an agreed proposal is presented to the IFMIF/EVEDA Project Leader.

A 2^nd FNS technical coordination meeting is scheduled for November 2021 in Granada (Spain).

A joint IFERC/REC and IFMIF/EVEDA Technical Coordination Meeting was held on July 28-30 via videoconference. The purpose was the following:

• To take stock of the activities and developments performed in both IFMIF-EVEDA and IFERC projects for remote participation for LIPAc accelerator;
• To clarify the high-level requirements for remote participation;
• To discuss the detailed technical issues on various aspects of remote participation, and translate them into practical requirements;
• To identify preferred solutions, agree on the hardware and software needed in data sharing, and on a distribution of tasks and responsibilities.

The plan of collaboration between REC and LIPAc will be part of a Procurement Arrangement of REC project. The expertise of IFERC team will allow LIPAc team to improve operation and maintenance. The Covid-19 outbreak has highlighted the importance to enhance the Information Technology remote system to allow support from Europe, and also to complete and improve the tools to operate and to manage efficiently the LIPAc accelerator.

In the Technical Coordination Meeting various visions, expectations and needs have been expressed. More discussion and work will be needed to share a common understanding of the high-level requirements, technical tools and preferred solutions to be developed.

This Joint coordination is the beginning of new phase which will enable us to exchange intensively to bring our projects and the Broader Approach site at the cutting edge of technology.  Remote participation systems are not just tools that can improve LIPAc operation. They are research subjects, proposing innovating concepts which will become the future standards.

20, 21 & 22 November 2019

During stop for the scheduled maintenance, a long-planned LIPAc Commissioning and Beam Operation workshop was organized at the Broader Approach Rokkasho site on Nov. 20-22. The workshop gathered again the LIPAc collaboration after the completion of the commissioning Phase B (5 MeV, 125 mA, D⁺, 0.1% DC, including the commissioning of the RFQ and buncher cavities, as well as a large part of the beam instrumentation).

The LIPAc team has been pleased to welcome Dr. M. Munoz (ESS), Prof. E. Kako (KEK) and Dr. Y. Kondo (J-PARC) to share valuable experience. During 3 days, the accelerator scientists and experts from Japan and Europe exchanged about the operational aspects of the LIPAc:

• Status, results, outcome and achievements of the phase B
• Difficulties and lessons learned from commissioning and operation
• Organization of the LIPAc Unit for operation and maintenance
• Coordination and tools for efficient operation
• Coordination and tools for efficient maintenance

Furthermore, the steps ahead for LIPAc were addressed, including:

• On-going preparation of the beam transport lines for Phase B+ (5 MeV, 125 mA, D⁺, high duty cycle)
• Detailed definition of the phase B+ Commissioning Plan
• Preparation of the SRF Linac cryomodule assembly

The goal of the workshop is also to strengthen the communication and team spirit among IFMIF/EVEDA collaborators who are geographically distant in Europe and Japan. The conclusions and actions identified by the chairman in each session will be gathered into an action plan.