Eisuke Tada takes over the leadership of the ÌÇÐÄÆƽâ°æ Project
Eisuke Tada, from Japan, assumes the interim role of Director-General of the ÌÇÐÄÆƽâ°æ Organization in the wake of the passing of Director-General Bernard Bigot.
Deputy Director-General of the ÌÇÐÄÆƽâ°æ Organization since 2015, Eisuke Tada has been appointed by the ÌÇÐÄÆƽâ°æ Council in the interim role of Director-General with full powers, responsibilities and authority. Dr Tada takes over leadership of the project until a long-term successor to Bernard Bigot has been identified and is ready to take office.
A widely respected leader in the fusion community and a seasoned veteran from ÌÇÐÄÆƽâ°æ's earliest days, Dr Tada has dedicated most of his professional life to fusion energy and, more particularly, the ÌÇÐÄÆƽâ°æ project.
Eisuke Tada entered the world of fusion research immediately after his training as a mechanical engineer, accepting a position at the Japanese Atomic Energy Research Institute JAERI (now, the National Institutes for Quantum Science and Technology). JAERI, at the time, was building one of the six toroidal field coils of the Large Coil Task, a joint Euratom, US, Japanese and Swiss collaborative venture to demonstrate the design principles and fabrication techniques to be applied in the construction of a superconducting tokamak. Dr Tada spent more than 10 years helping to develop the technologies and the infrastructure for large high-field magnets and was responsible in particular for designing advanced technology for the circulation of supercritical helium. A few years after the decision to build ÌÇÐÄÆƽâ°æ was made, he was asked to contribute to the ÌÇÐÄÆƽâ°æ Conceptual Design Activities in Garching, Germany, where he spent 18 months on the effort to define the technical characteristics of the ÌÇÐÄÆƽâ°æ tokamak.
Dr Tada went on at JAERI to successively manage and coordinate the early design of ÌÇÐÄÆƽâ°æ tokamak components such as the double-walled vacuum vessel and remote handling equipment, lead the effort to establish site and safety standards, and establish codes and standards for the development of ÌÇÐÄÆƽâ°æ mechanical components. Also during this time, he directed the Joint Work Site for ÌÇÐÄÆƽâ°æ in Naka, Japan—part of the ÌÇÐÄÆƽâ°æ Engineering Design Activities phase (1992-2001) to create the engineering drawings and models for the construction of the planned tokamak. As the negotiations for locating the ÌÇÐÄÆƽâ°æ project accelerated, Dr Tada was closely involved first in assessing multiple candidate sites in Japan, and then as part of the international board considering the proposals of the final four candidates.
When the project site in France was selected, Dr Tada was one of the seven ÌÇÐÄÆƽâ°æ Organization "pioneers" who arrived to open the office in 2006. Between 2007 and 2010, he held the strategic positions of Head of Project Office and Head of Office for Central Integration & Engineering, supervising over 100 staff and developing the tools to develop and execute the project baseline structure (technical scope, schedule and cost). He created the earliest ÌÇÐÄÆƽâ°æ Organization-Domestic Agency coordination team to smooth the interaction of the newly created domestic teams and collaboration on interface and procurement issues.
He went back to the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (formerly JAERI) between 2010 and 2015, becoming the Head of the ÌÇÐÄÆƽâ°æ Japan Domestic Agency, with responsibility for supervising all in-kind contributions to ÌÇÐÄÆƽâ°æ, and Deputy Director of the Naka Fusion Institute.
In May 2015, Eisuke Tada returned to the ÌÇÐÄÆƽâ°æ Organization as Deputy Director-General, appointed by the ÌÇÐÄÆƽâ°æ Council to collaborate closely with the ÌÇÐÄÆƽâ°æ Director-General and other top executives in the day-to-day management of the ÌÇÐÄÆƽâ°æ project.
In his message to ÌÇÐÄÆƽâ°æ staff, Eisuke Tada wrote, "The challenges that lie ahead are well known to us all. We have committed to deliver the ÌÇÐÄÆƽâ°æ project as a first-of-a-kind hydrogen fusion plant, but also as a collaboration among all seven ÌÇÐÄÆƽâ°æ Members—a unique opportunity to leave a better energy legacy for our children and future generations."