Of Interest archive

Three toroidal field conductor lengths left the Kurchatov Institute near Moscow, Russia for the ASG Superconductor plant in La Spezia, Italy on Friday 4 July. This delivery marks the halfway point in the shipment of Russian toroidal field conductor production lengths to the European winding facility.

Following this latest shipment (two 760-metre unit lengths and one 415-metre unit length), 14 unit lengths of toroidal field conductor remain to be delivered under the terms of the Procurement Arrangement signed between the ITER Organization and ITER Russia.

​The latest issue of the European Domestic Agency's newsletter, F4ENews,  has just been released. You can consult it here.

 

The ITER Business Forum opened on 2 July in Seoul attended by 220 representatives of 122 companies from the seven member states of the ITER project.

In his video address (pictured) ITER Director-General Osamu Motojima stressed the "essential part" that industry plays in the ITER Project. "And by 'industry' I mean all industry," he said, "not only the large international companies that are familiar with big projects, but also the small and medium-sized firms that drive economic growth and technological innovation in most countries today."

The ITER Business Forum continues until 4 July, with thematic sessions on the different ITER components and plant systems and presentations from industry.

 

​A number of building projects will be kicking off on the ITER site in the months to come. 

In this video, Laurent Schmieder, Site, Buildings and Power Supplies Project Manager for the European Domestic Agency, explains the different types of works that are planned, and how the construction of the Tokamak Complex and a number of surrounding buildings will get underway simultaneously, and the challenge of organizing such a busy worksite.

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Watch the video here ​on the F4E website. 

After 60 years of fusion research, are we any closer?

This was the question asked during a 90-minute episode of the US science series "NEXT: People | Science | Tomorrow" (KPCC Southern California Public Radio) that aired on 30 June.

Guests William W. Heidbrink, professor of physics and astronomy in the School of Physical Sciences at the University of California, Irvine; John Parmentola, senior vice president of General Atomics' Energy and Advanced Concepts Group; and Ned R. Sauthoff, director of the US ITER Project Office, Oak Ridge National Laboratory joined host Mat Kaplan for a tour of fusion science, the ITER Project and the outlook for fusion energy.   You can watch the live stream here.

​The clouds cleared up in time to welcome three distinguished members of the South Korea's National Assembly on 25 June 2014. Hae Ja Park, Sye-kyun Chung, and Young Kyo Seo were accompanied by the head of the Korean Domestic Agency for ITER, Kijung Jung. They were warmly welcomed by ITER Director-General Motojima who presented the current status of the ITER Project before they headed out onto the construction site for a visit.

At the end of the visit, Sye-kyun Chung remarked how impressive the project is and how, "in the long term, this project will be very helpful for all of humanity."

​Learning to harness fusion in a controlled way — recreating the sun on earth, as a clean source of energy — is the objective of national programs in Asia, Europe and the USA. And the race is heating up, with several quite promising options.
 
According to Professor Allan Offenberger "A sustained fusion burn is no longer an academic dream but will be realized in the near future."
 
Dr. Offenberger, on behalf of the Alberta Council of Technologies Society (ABCtech), led an assessment team on visits to the major programs around the world last year. As part of the assessment, the Society also entertained Alberta energy leaders in workshops in Calgary and Edmonton and invited international fusion researchers to report on progress at a Forum co-hosted with Alberta Energy at Alberta Innovates last fall.

Included in the Report — and found favourable — was an assessment of the merit of employing fusion energy in oil sands extraction. "Fusion ignition generates heat that would reduce the need for vast quantities of natural gas in oil sands extraction," notes Dr. Robert Fedosejevs, from the Engineering Faculty at the University of Alberta, who also participated on the assessment team.   Read more on Troy Media website.