ITER Organization

PDF for printing Archive Search ITER home Subscribe Contact

18 August 2008 - #45

When presenting the promises of fusion, scientists often use this image: the energy potential contained in a bathtub filled with water (45 litres) and in the lithium of one laptop battery is equivalent to 40 tons of coal, and would provide some 200.000 kw/h of electric power. Striking—but how do you get fusion fuel, namely deuterium and tritium, from water and lithium?

"Deuterium accounts for 0.016% of water and is not very difficult to obtain", explains Manfred Glugla, ITER Division Head for Fuel Cycle Engineering. "The industry does it routinely through distillation techniques." Tritium, which is a huydrogen isotope too, is continuously produced in very small quantities in the upper atmosphere, where cosmic rays interact with nitrogen.

"Tritium's total natural inventory is 4 to 7 kilograms, to which one must add some 40 kg, left over from the atmospheric nuclear tests performed during the 60's."As tritium is a fast decaying radioelement, this "artificial" inventory will be empty in a couple of decades. But the upper atmosphere is not where the tritium for ITER will come from.

There is another source of tritium: pressurized heavy water reactors, so called CANDU reactors, who use natural uranium as fuel and heavy water as moderator. In CANDUs, tritium is a by-product of the reaction and its global inventory is presently around 20 kilos. To this safely stored "waste", ITER has opened an unexpected market: "the programme will require15 to 18 kg of tritium. Twenty years of operation will eat up the world inventory", says Manfred Glugla.

When fusion enters the industrial age, the tritium demand will be considerably higher: A fusion plant will typically require 56 kg of tritium per thermal Gigawatt per year. "Considering fusion plants will be 2 to 3 GW, this means we'll need a hell of a lot of tritium!" Where to get it? In the laptop batteries—that is, in lithium, a soft, light metal, more abundant than lead which, when interacting with neutrons, converts into tritium and helium. In ITER, this process will only be tested; in fusion plants, tritium-breeding blanket modules will be among the installation's key components. "This is another of fusion's technical challenges: it will only work if we are able to produce enough tritium inside the reactors."

-Robert Arnoux

ITERfan.org Opens Club Forum!

http://forums.iterfan.org/

ITER on the Radio

If you are interested in the progress of the ITER project, then listen to Radio Verdon on 96.5. The local Radio Station has set up a special 7 minute programme "des Nouvelles d'ITER''. The programme is broadcast every Friday at 17h on Radio Verdon, in French and English. You'll find a weekly summary of news on the construction site and also ITER staff members, news, portraits, features... covering the various aspects of the ITER project.

The programme is repeated every Saturday at 08h30, and all previously broadcast programmes can be found here:

http://www.radio-verdon.com/

-Veronique Marfaing

ITER on Television

The local Television company TLP is producing a series of short documentaries about the ITER project.

To watch the latest programme, visit:

http://www.tlp.fr/

-Veronique Marfaing

1-12 September, 2008
2nd Karlsruhe International Summer School on Fusion Technologies
Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, Germany

1 - 4 September, 2008
13th EU-US TTF Workshop
Copenhagen, Denmark

8 - 12 September, 2008
International Congress on Plasma Physics
Fukuoka, Japan

10 - 12 September, 2008
1st International Conference on Negative Ions, Beams and Sources
Aix-en-Provence, France

15 - 19 September, 2008
Twenty-Fifth Symposium on Fusion Technology (SOFT 2008)
Rostock, Germany

28 September - 2 October, 2008
ANS Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (TOFE2008)
San Francisco, USA

13 - 18 October, 2008
22nd IAEA Fusion Energy Conference, 50th Anniversary of Controlled Nuclear Fusion Research
Geneva, Switzerland

The wild side of Cadarache

Jean Faivre, head of FLS (Local Security Force), and his deputy Thierry Abran, have a lot on their hands. Not only do they have to care for the security of Cadarache's installation and the safety of the Centre's 4000 odd "inhabitants", they are also responsible for another, much wilder, population—boars and their piglets, rare mountain goats known as "mouflons" and herds of Sika deer, the Cervus Nippon which originates in Japan, Taiwan and most of East Asia.

Boars have always been at home in the woods of Cadarache. In 1964, archaeologists digging a Bronze Age necropolis, located near what is now the CEDRA installation, came up with a most exceptional find: a tomb containing the remains of a large wild boar, two copper rings and a serpentine ritual axe-head. Boars were sacred then and in the way, they still are. "You can't dissociate boars from Cadarache, says Jean Faivre. They are the emblem of the Centre and even though they can be something of a nuisance, causing some 10 to 40 minor car accidents a year, we do our best to keep them in good health, feed them when they need it and regulate their population."

Boars are common, but mouflons are quite rare. Cadarache's herd of about 150 individuals is one of the densest in Europe, and one of the very few "genetically pure", stemming from one original group of two males and one female which were introduced to the site in 1934.

Their history is linked to a tragic historical event. These three mouflons, which had been captured in the island of Corsica, were to be offered to King Alexander I of Yugoslavia on the occasion of his State visit in France, in October of 1934. But on his arrival in Marseilles, the King was assassinated, leaving the French government with this question: What to do with the mouflons?

At the time, what is now CEA-Cadarache was under the jurisdiction of the National Forestry Commission ("Eaux et Forets") and hosted a small Game Warden Academy—the Kings' mouflons were entrusted to their care.

As for the Sika deer, no one knows precisely where they come from. "Some individuals were brought to Europe in the 19th century, now they're everywhere", says Faivre. "and in Cadarache, they compete with the mouflons for food and territory... so we have to regulate their population."

This "regulation" is essentially done through hunting. For fifty years, Cadarache's hunting parties have been an important part of the region's social life—4 such "grandes chasses" are organized every year, one of them for the local politicians, mayors, industrialists and CEA business partners, the other three for the Centre's Hunting society.

Cadarache is a unique example of a nuclear research centre doubling as a wildlife preserve—and both are thriving.

-Robert Arnoux

Postdoctoral Research Position in Computational Plasma Physics

The Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Iowa invites applications for a Postdoctoral Research Position in the field of Space, Astrophysical, and Computational Plasma Physics. Research focuses on turbulence in kinetic plasmas, a new and exciting frontier in the study of space and astrophysical plasmas, with a strong emphasis on high performance computing. The successful applicant will learn to perform cutting-edge research on some of the world's fastest supercomputers. Applicants should have a strong background in plasma physics or computational physics. The position is for two years, with potential renewal for a third year.

Contact: Professor Gregory Howes,
ghowes@astro.berkeley.edu

The ITER Newsline is produced by Sabina Griffith. Suggestions for future articles, comments and corrections, as well as items for the calendar are welcome, and can be sent to sabina.griffith@iter.org.

ITERCultural Workshops:
Understanding Russian Culture

Tuesday, August 19
11 am — 12 noon
Building 506, Amphi Rene Gravier

Classe a theme:
Dos & Don'ts at the Doctor's

Friday, August 22
11 am — 12 noon
Building 521, Room 104

Classe a theme:
Speaking on the phone

Friday, August 29
11 am — 12 noon
Building 521, Room 104

Workshop on Value Engineering

On 2 and 3 September, the ITER Civil Construction (CCS) Department is organizing a workshop on Value Engineering. The meeting will take place in the Aquabella Hotel in Aix-en-Provence. Value engineering is a formal process whereby functional requirements and traditional construction methods are challenged in order to come up with overall cost or schedule savings for the project.

Please contact Timothy Watson for further details.

4th International Conference on the Frontiers of Plasma Physics & Technology

From 6-10 April 2009, the 4TH International Conference on the Frontiers of Plasma Physics and Technology will take place in Kathmandu, Nepal. Emphasis of the conference will be on all the Frontier topics of plasma physics and technologies which are classified in three categories but not limited to:

A) Plasma theory and simulations, Advances in plasma diagnostics, Condensed matter physics, Astrophysical, cosmic and space plasmas etc.

B) Advances in ultra-short Laser pulses, Laser-matter interaction, magnetically confined plasmas, Inertial fusion plasmas, Fast ignition etc.

C) Emerging innovative trends in Applications and Technologies: Advances in plasma tools, particle/photon acceleration, Plasma applications in industries, Environmental, Biology, Health, Nanotechnologies, Novel radiation sources, unconventional energy sources, Laboratory planetary events, Astrophysical plasmas etc.

For further inquiry please contact:
Tara Desai, Chair, FPPT-4,
tara.desai@mib.infn.it or fppt-4@libero.it

ITER on Russian TV

The Russian Media "Russia Today" has published a TV programme on the ITER project.

Click here to watch it...

Original soundtrack of ITER Summer Party now available

The original soundtrack of ITER Summer Party is now available and can be downloaded here...


PDF for printing Archive Search ITER home Subscribe Contact 18 August 2008 - #45
Focus On Of bathtubs and laptop batteries When presenting the promises of fusion, scientists often use this image: the energy potential contained in a bathtub filled with water (45 litres) and in the lithium of one laptop battery is equivalent to 40 tons of coal, and would provide some 200.000 kw/h of electric power. Striking—but how do you get fusion fuel, namely deuterium and tritium, from water and lithium? "Deuterium accounts for 0.016% of water and is not very difficult to obtain", explains Manfred Glugla, ITER Division Head for Fuel Cycle Engineering. "The industry does it routinely through distillation techniques." Tritium, which is a huydrogen isotope too, is continuously produced in very small quantities in the upper atmosphere, where cosmic rays interact with nitrogen. "Tritium's total natural inventory is 4 to 7 kilograms, to which one must add some 40 kg, left over from the atmospheric nuclear tests performed during the 60's."As tritium is a fast decaying radioelement, this "artificial" inventory will be empty in a couple of decades. But the upper atmosphere is not where the tritium for ITER will come from. There is another source of tritium: pressurized heavy water reactors, so called CANDU reactors, who use natural uranium as fuel and heavy water as moderator. In CANDUs, tritium is a by-product of the reaction and its global inventory is presently around 20 kilos. To this safely stored "waste", ITER has opened an unexpected market: "the programme will require15 to 18 kg of tritium. Twenty years of operation will eat up the world inventory", says Manfred Glugla. When fusion enters the industrial age, the tritium demand will be considerably higher: A fusion plant will typically require 56 kg of tritium per thermal Gigawatt per year. "Considering fusion plants will be 2 to 3 GW, this means we'll need a hell of a lot of tritium!" Where to get it? In the laptop batteries—that is, in lithium, a soft, light metal, more abundant than lead which, when interacting with neutrons, converts into tritium and helium. In ITER, this process will only be tested; in fusion plants, tritium-breeding blanket modules will be among the installation's key components. "This is another of fusion's technical challenges: it will only work if we are able to produce enough tritium inside the reactors." -Robert Arnoux Links ITERfan.org Opens Club Forum! http://forums.iterfan.org/ ITER on the Radio If you are interested in the progress of the ITER project, then listen to Radio Verdon on 96.5. The local Radio Station has set up a special 7 minute programme "des Nouvelles d'ITER''. The programme is broadcast every Friday at 17h on Radio Verdon, in French and English. You'll find a weekly summary of news on the construction site and also ITER staff members, news, portraits, features... covering the various aspects of the ITER project. The programme is repeated every Saturday at 08h30, and all previously broadcast programmes can be found here: http://www.radio-verdon.com/ -Veronique Marfaing ITER on Television The local Television company TLP is producing a series of short documentaries about the ITER project. To watch the latest programme, visit: http://www.tlp.fr/ -Veronique Marfaing Conferences 1-12 September, 2008 2nd Karlsruhe International Summer School on Fusion Technologies Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, Germany 1 - 4 September, 2008 13th EU-US TTF Workshop Copenhagen, Denmark 8 - 12 September, 2008 International Congress on Plasma Physics Fukuoka, Japan 10 - 12 September, 2008 1st International Conference on Negative Ions, Beams and Sources Aix-en-Provence, France 15 - 19 September, 2008 Twenty-Fifth Symposium on Fusion Technology (SOFT 2008) Rostock, Germany 28 September - 2 October, 2008 ANS Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (TOFE2008) San Francisco, USA 13 - 18 October, 2008 22nd IAEA Fusion Energy Conference, 50th Anniversary of Controlled Nuclear Fusion Research Geneva, Switzerland	On Site The wild side of Cadarache Jean Faivre, head of FLS (Local Security Force), and his deputy Thierry Abran, have a lot on their hands. Not only do they have to care for the security of Cadarache's installation and the safety of the Centre's 4000 odd "inhabitants", they are also responsible for another, much wilder, population—boars and their piglets, rare mountain goats known as "mouflons" and herds of Sika deer, the Cervus Nippon which originates in Japan, Taiwan and most of East Asia. Boars have always been at home in the woods of Cadarache. In 1964, archaeologists digging a Bronze Age necropolis, located near what is now the CEDRA installation, came up with a most exceptional find: a tomb containing the remains of a large wild boar, two copper rings and a serpentine ritual axe-head. Boars were sacred then and in the way, they still are. "You can't dissociate boars from Cadarache, says Jean Faivre. They are the emblem of the Centre and even though they can be something of a nuisance, causing some 10 to 40 minor car accidents a year, we do our best to keep them in good health, feed them when they need it and regulate their population." Boars are common, but mouflons are quite rare. Cadarache's herd of about 150 individuals is one of the densest in Europe, and one of the very few "genetically pure", stemming from one original group of two males and one female which were introduced to the site in 1934. Their history is linked to a tragic historical event. These three mouflons, which had been captured in the island of Corsica, were to be offered to King Alexander I of Yugoslavia on the occasion of his State visit in France, in October of 1934. But on his arrival in Marseilles, the King was assassinated, leaving the French government with this question: What to do with the mouflons? At the time, what is now CEA-Cadarache was under the jurisdiction of the National Forestry Commission ("Eaux et Forets") and hosted a small Game Warden Academy—the Kings' mouflons were entrusted to their care. As for the Sika deer, no one knows precisely where they come from. "Some individuals were brought to Europe in the 19th century, now they're everywhere", says Faivre. "and in Cadarache, they compete with the mouflons for food and territory... so we have to regulate their population." This "regulation" is essentially done through hunting. For fifty years, Cadarache's hunting parties have been an important part of the region's social life—4 such "grandes chasses" are organized every year, one of them for the local politicians, mayors, industrialists and CEA business partners, the other three for the Centre's Hunting society. Cadarache is a unique example of a nuclear research centre doubling as a wildlife preserve—and both are thriving. -Robert Arnoux Announcement Postdoctoral Research Position in Computational Plasma Physics The Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Iowa invites applications for a Postdoctoral Research Position in the field of Space, Astrophysical, and Computational Plasma Physics. Research focuses on turbulence in kinetic plasmas, a new and exciting frontier in the study of space and astrophysical plasmas, with a strong emphasis on high performance computing. The successful applicant will learn to perform cutting-edge research on some of the world's fastest supercomputers. Applicants should have a strong background in plasma physics or computational physics. The position is for two years, with potential renewal for a third year. Contact: Professor Gregory Howes, ghowes@astro.berkeley.edu NewsLine Editor The ITER Newsline is produced by Sabina Griffith. Suggestions for future articles, comments and corrections, as well as items for the calendar are welcome, and can be sent to sabina.griffith@iter.org.	Announcements ITERCultural Workshops: Understanding Russian Culture Tuesday, August 19 11 am — 12 noon Building 506, Amphi Rene Gravier Classe a theme: Dos & Don'ts at the Doctor's Friday, August 22 11 am — 12 noon Building 521, Room 104 Classe a theme: Speaking on the phone Friday, August 29 11 am — 12 noon Building 521, Room 104 Workshop on Value Engineering On 2 and 3 September, the ITER Civil Construction (CCS) Department is organizing a workshop on Value Engineering. The meeting will take place in the Aquabella Hotel in Aix-en-Provence. Value engineering is a formal process whereby functional requirements and traditional construction methods are challenged in order to come up with overall cost or schedule savings for the project. Please contact Timothy Watson for further details. 4th International Conference on the Frontiers of Plasma Physics & Technology From 6-10 April 2009, the 4TH International Conference on the Frontiers of Plasma Physics and Technology will take place in Kathmandu, Nepal. Emphasis of the conference will be on all the Frontier topics of plasma physics and technologies which are classified in three categories but not limited to: A) Plasma theory and simulations, Advances in plasma diagnostics, Condensed matter physics, Astrophysical, cosmic and space plasmas etc. B) Advances in ultra-short Laser pulses, Laser-matter interaction, magnetically confined plasmas, Inertial fusion plasmas, Fast ignition etc. C) Emerging innovative trends in Applications and Technologies: Advances in plasma tools, particle/photon acceleration, Plasma applications in industries, Environmental, Biology, Health, Nanotechnologies, Novel radiation sources, unconventional energy sources, Laboratory planetary events, Astrophysical plasmas etc. For further inquiry please contact: Tara Desai, Chair, FPPT-4, tara.desai@mib.infn.it or fppt-4@libero.it ITER on Russian TV The Russian Media "Russia Today" has published a TV programme on the ITER project. Click here to watch it... Original soundtrack of ITER Summer Party now available The original soundtrack of ITER Summer Party is now available and can be downloaded here...

Focus On

Links

Conferences

On Site

Announcement

NewsLine Editor

Announcements