Exploring frontier physics at the ITER International School

The 8th ITER International School took place on 14-18 December at the School of Nuclear Science and Technology of the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei (SNST-USTC). This year the focus was on transport and pedestal physics in tokamaks, which is a key R&D area for optimizing fusion performance in ITER.

The ITER International School is an annual international meeting that is jointly organized by the Aix-Marseille Université and the ITER Organization, and which takes place alternately near ITER and in one of the other ITER partner countries. The International School answers the need for training postgraduate students and young researchers in the field of fusion research and it has naturally become a worldwide reference for the preparation of a new generation of researchers for ITER's scientific exploitation.

The 8th ITER International School in December achieved an impressive attendance of more than 140 students (~75 percent from Chinese universities) and 17 leading scientific experts from the ITER partner countries and the ITER Organization who gave lectures.

The opening session included statements from USTC Vice-President C. Chen; SNST Dean Y. Wan; Organizing Committee Chair H. Qin from USTC; and Director of the Physics Laboratory of Ionic and Molecular Interactions (Aix-Marseille University) J-M Layet on behalf of the host university/school and organizing university, respectively. This was followed by presentations on the status of ITER by ITER Organization's Alberto Loarte and the status of activities for the Chinese fusion energy program  and Fusion Engineering Test Reactor by J. Li from the Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The five-day event featured 16 lectures that dealt with the physics of the edge and pedestal plasmas including plasma energy and particle transport, magneto-hydrodynamics stability, Edge Localized Modes (ELMs) and their control, and the effects of ELM-driven transient power fluxes on plasma-facing materials. (The program and all lectures can be found here.) In addition, the ITER International School included a tour of the Institute of Plasmas Physics, where the participants visited the EAST tokamak as well as facilities for the manufacturing and testing of in-kind components for ITER such as the superconductor cable for the toroidal field coils, the high temperature superconductor feeders for ITER's magnets and the test stand for the AC/DC converter units for the poloidal field magnetic coils.

The 8th ITER International School was a unique opportunity for young and talented students to explore the frontier physics of the ITER pedestal plasma and its influence on ITER's fusion performance and to share their enthusiasm for the development of fusion energy and the ITER Project with leading experts in the field.