Chinese President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory letter to the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, or ITER, for its major engineering staring ceremony, held on July 28th at its headquarter in France. The employees of Tisco who have been engaging in researching and producing stainless steel material special for ITER plan for more than a decade were inspired by the letter. They said that they would learn and follow the spirit of Xi’s congratulatory letter and bear in mind Xi’s calls to surmount more hills in R&D work and contribute more to Chinese wisdom and strength.

ITER plan, aimed at simulating the nuclear fusion process--- which generates light and heat --- of the sun and exploring the feasibility of nuclear fusion commercialization, is among the world’s largest and most far-reaching international collaboration projects so far. Tisco set foot in ITER plan since 2006 and is a supplier of austenitic stainless steel and extrusion products passing ITER certification. The products have been highly recognized by experts from ITER international organization, CERN, China’s Academy of Science. By now, Tisco has supplied in total more than 3000 tons of products.

“There is no border for science and end to innovation.” “Open communication is a crucial path to exploring scientific frontier.” What President Xi pointed out in the letter strikes a chord with Li Zhibin, the director of nuclear power business division of Tisco. “Good open communications need us to embrace the mentality of “there is no border for science” and be fully dedicated.” Facing a new-round of changes in technologies and industries, Tisco will continue to fulfill its core value of “opening-up and innovation”. It will continue to enhance scientific innovations open-minded and participate in major international scientific plans and projects. And it will further share information, experiences and useful practices to improve its innovative strengthen and try to achieve breakthrough in the field of stainless steel.   

Xi also pointed out in the letter:” China has been honoring its international commitments since the implementation of the Plan. Chinese companies and researchers have always been responsible and working with their international counterparts. They have contributed Chinese wisdom and strengthen to the progress of the Plan.” Zhang Wei was very excited when he read these. “There is no end to innovation, and we are always on the way. Behind every scientific achievement is enormous efforts and persistence.” For years, faced with rigorous requirements on material, Tisco’s R&D teams have gone through difficulties and experienced the joy of success and the confusion of failure. In doing this, they have been committed to solve difficulties one by one. The success of R&D in the material for ITER suggests, once again, that scientific research need courage and persistence.

As early as 2010, Steel Pipe Mill of Tisco, with its technological strengthens, have developed independently square-outside and round-inside pipes, square tubes, rectangular tubes and U-shape steel. Moreover, it cooperated with domestic first-class institutes to develop for the first time important structural parts for the nuclear fusion experimental unit---T-shape and rectangular sections special for nuclear power. “It is our pleasures to be capable of supplying stainless steel profile for the project. And multiple new products have been developed thanks to the plan’s implementation. We are so proud of that,” said Kang Xitang, the chief engineer with the plant, “we will follow the requirements in Xi’s letter to strengthen cooperation with our international counterparts. And we will try to develop new technologies and products in an innovative manner to help contribute to scientific innovation worldwide.”

“ITER project put extremely high requirements for the stainless steel material used for it in terms of not only structure and prosperities but also dimension accuracy and surface quality. The products have been with most difficult process controls, most tests and most rigorous construction requirements so far we have met,” said Chen Ruize, the responsible person for hot-rolling procedure for the product. “Faced with challenges, we will continue to uphold the craftsmanship spirit to stay committed to our original mission. We will control our product quality to the best and make the brand of Tisco better-known,” he added.