Of Interest archive

​Registration is open through 1 October 2015 for the fifth FuseNet PhD event, which will take in Prague, Czech Republic from 15 to 18 November.

The aim of the event is to enable students to disseminate their research, develop a network of contacts and learn from each other's experiences.

Organized by the Faculty of Nuclear Sciences and Physical Engineering of the Czech Technical University under the umbrella of the FuseNet Association and with financial support by EUROfusion, the PhD Event 2015 brings together PhD students working in the field of fusion science and engineering.

The PhD Event is open to all PhD students whose topic is associated with nuclear fusion research and registered at a European university, or at a FuseNet member university. Financial support for attending students is available, granted by EUROfusion through FuseNet, at the FuseNet website. More details will be posted on the registration form.

  Registration is open online through 1 October 2015.

​The European Domestic Agency for ITER is responsible for delivering four remote handling systems to ITER: the divertor remote handling system, the neutral beam remote handling system, the in-vessel viewing and metrology system, and the cask transfer system for activated components—in all, about EUR 250 million of investment.

In July, the European agency announced that it had signed the fourth and final Procurement Arrangement for remote handling systems with the ITER Organization—the Cask and Plug Remote Handling System. Responsible for confining and transporting the machine's activated in-vessel components, this complex system will interface with more than 50 different ITER systems and comply with the strictest nuclear safety requirements.

The casks, which are automated, mobile containers weighing approximately 50 tons, will move equipment such as divertor cassettes and heating plugs between the Tokamak Building and the Hot Cell Building in order for them to be repaired, tested or disposed of. These transfer devices will need to be able to lift components weighing up to 45 tons and operate with high accuracy within a tightly confined space within the buildings.

The procurement contract for a fleet of 14 units is expected to be awarded in 2016.

Read the full article on the European Domestic Agency website.

​"Fusing the Project World" is the title of a Project Management Conference organized by "eVa in the UK" in collaboration with the ITER Organization. The event will take place at the ITER Headquarters on 4 September 2015.

This one-day conference offers first-hand opportunity to exchange ideas and experiences with world leading project managers. The list of speakers lined up includes CERN's leading engineer Roberto Saban, Didi Hopkins from the National Theatre of Great Britain and Harvey Maylor from the Said Business School. The fusion part of the conference will be covered by ITER Director-General Bernard Bigot and Steven Cowley, the CEO of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority. For more information please click here.

​The 10th Asia Plasma & Fusion Association Conference (APFA) will be held in Gandhinagar, India from 14 to 18 December 2015.

The purpose of the APFA is to organize Asian scientists and engineers working in plasma and fusion science and engineering fields, to exchange information on mutual interests, to strengthen friendships, to promote education of young scientists and engineers, and to contribute to the development of plasma science and fusion engineering.

Abstract submission closes on 1 August. For more information, visit the APFA website.

​Chuck Kessel, a principal engineer at the US Department of Energy's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), has won the 2015 Fusion Technology Award. The honour, from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' (IEEE) Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society, recognizes outstanding contributions to fusion engineering and technology.

"Chuck has long been a widely recognized pioneer in developing advanced tokamak operating scenarios that have served as the basis for several machine design concepts," said Michael Williams, associate director for engineering and infrastructure at PPPL and a past recipient of the honour. "Receiving the 2015 Fusion Technology Award duly recognizes Chuck's outstanding contributions to the development of fusion technology."

Presentation of the award came during the 2015 Symposium on Fusion Engineering (SOFE) that was held in June in Austin, Texas. The annual event focuses on the latest developments in the quest for fusion energy. While at the conference Kessel gave a plenary talk about the Fusion Nuclear Science Facility (FNSF), a proposed next step in the US fusion program. Kessel heads a nationwide study that will detail options for the FNSF and consider its role in relation to ITER.

(Photo by Elle Starkman/ PPPL Office of Communications)

Read the whole article on the PPPL website.

​The first edition of the new Summer School "PhDiaFusion" for students and postdocs was successfully realized last week (16-20 June 2015) in Poland.

 The aim of this initiative (cooperation between CEA Cadarache, Institute of Nuclear Physics PAN and Rzeszow Technical University in Poland) is to establish a thematic school, i.e. Summer School of Plasma Diagnostics, with a strictly defined topic: the first edition was devoted to 'Soft X-ray diagnostics for Fusion Plasma'.

 The choice of the School's venue, in the south-eastern part of Poland, was not accidental. In this region the 'green field' for DONES is proposed under the auspices of local government and Consortium IFMIF/ELAMAT. This region has a heavy concentration of aerospace industry, scientific research centers, as well as educational and training facilities.

 The next edition of the School in 2017 will be devoted to neutron and gamma for fusion plasma diagnostics. Book your time in the summer of 2017 for PhDiaFusion !

 Photo: Chairman of the School Didier Mazon (CEA) has invited the eminent scientists who led lectures and tutorials for young students. Among them they were: Luigi Alloca, Robin Barnsley, Dimitri Batani, Andreas Dinklage, Tony Donne, Christian Ingesson, Hans-Joachim Kunze, Martin O'Mullane, Jef Ongena, Marek Rubel, Marek Sadowski, Jan Stockel and Tom Todd.