Of Interest archive

Imagine a world powered by a cheap, safe, clean, virtually limitless, sustainable fuel source such as water. If fuel and energy are cheap and available to all nations, that reduces global political tensions. If our energy comes from a clean-burning fuel source, that reduces air pollution. All that would be good, right?

Billionaires such as Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen apparently think so. They've each thrown their money into a different fusion development company, each with its own idea how to solve the fusion puzzle, according to Forbes. "What we're really doing here is trying to build a star on Earth," said Laban Coblentz at the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), a massive fusion reactor being built by 35 countries in southern France. When Coblentz said "star," he meant that quite literally. Fusion is what keeps stars, including our own sun, burning bright. Photo: "When we succeed, it will be for the benefit of the whole world," says ITER Engineer Anna Encheva in the CNN program. Follow this link to the CNN program.

The 3rd Joint Coordination Meeting (JCM-3) in fusion R&D and related areas took place between China and Korea in Xi'an, China from 13 to 14 August.

Gathering government officials, scientists and engineers from national research institutes, industries participating in ITER and the Chinese and Korean Domestic Agencies, the meeting was hosted by the Department of International Cooperation of the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology MOST and ITER China, with support from Western Superconducting Technologies—a supplier of ITER China located in Xián.   At the meeting, the current status of the Chinese and Korean fusion programs was passed in review as well as reports from bilateral working groups on the collaborative activities of the previous year. In 2014, China and Korea collaborated in the areas of tungsten wall/divertor and plasma-wall interaction; DEMO reactor design; lower hybrid current drive (LHCD) physics and technology; and ITER procurements including blanket shield blocks, AC/DC convertors and Test Blanket Modules.   The next bilateral meeting will take place in August 2016 in Korea.

​General Atomics (San Diego) opened a facility making the world's largest magnets for rare public tours on 2 October in honour of the nationwide Manufacturing Day in the US.

The factory in Poway, California, is making seven giant magnet modules, each weighing approximately 110 metric tons, for the $20 billion International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, or ITER, being built in France.

Each magnet is made of 560 turns of superconducting cables made from stands of a rare niobium-tin alloy wound around a tube that will carry liquid helium. In operation, the magnets will be cooled to -269°C while 50,000 amps of power are applied.   Their role in the ITER Project is to contain a fusion reaction — literally trapping the sun in a bottle.  

Photo by Chris Jennewein

Read the full article in the Times of San Diego.

​On 28 September, the last lengths of Russian-procured conductor for ITER's toroidal field magnets were loaded onto trailers at the Kurchatov Institute in Moscow for shipment to the European winding facility in La Spezia, Italy.

Through a Procurement Arrangement signed in February 2008 with the ITER Organization, the Russian Domestic Agency took on the responsibility of procuring 20 percent of toroidal field conductor lengths (28 lengths, including two dummies), plus testing and transport to the European winding facility.

The building blocks of the ITER magnets are high-performance, internally cooled superconductors called CICC (cable-in-conduit) conductors, made up of bundled superconducting and copper strands that are cabled together and contained in a structural steel jacket. For the toroidal field magnets, the completed conductor will be wound into D-shaped "double pancakes," inserted into the grooves of a radial plate to hold it in place, stacked to form winding "packs," and finally contained in steel cases to form the completed coil.

The shipment of three final lengths procured in Russia (pictured) completes Russia's longest-lead procurement campaign for ITER.

-- Alex Petrov, ITER Russia

​On 17-18 September, the ITER Organization hosted the annual meeting on intellectual property issues that brings together contact persons and specialists from the ITER Central Team and the seven Domestic Agencies

Chaired by the ITER Organization Legal Adviser, the Intellectual Property Contact Persons meeting is the forum for discussions on intellectual property-related issues encountered with suppliers, legal issues related to non-disclosure agreements, the use of the ITER logo, and the utilization of the intellectual property database.

The fundamental principles of intellectual property management within the ITER Project are set out in Article 10 of the ITER Agreement: The ITER Organization and the Members shall support the widest appropriate dissemination of information and intellectual property they generate in the ITER Project. The ITER Members benefit from accessing the intellectual property that results from the project through intellectual property provisions included in each contract, in compliance with the ITER Agreement and fully detailed in its annex on information and intellectual property (IIP Annex).

The network of Central Team-Domestic Agency contact persons plays a significant role in the implementation of intellectual property provisions in the framework of the project, confirming progress, sharing best practice, and furthering the management of intellectual property issues.

-- Akiko Takano, Legal Affairs 

By Steven Cowley

Chief Executive Officer of the UKAEA Head of the EURATOM/CCFE Fusion Association

​

This December, world leaders will gather in Paris for the United Nations Climate Change Conference, where they will attempt — yet again — to hammer out a global agreement to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. Despite the inevitable sense of déjà vu that will arise as negotiators struggle to reach a compromise, they must not give up. Whatever the political or economic considerations, the fact remains: if global temperatures rise more than 2˚C from pre-industrial levels, the consequences for the planet will be catastrophic.

But the challenge does not end with reducing emissions. Indeed, even if we make the transition to a cleaner world by 2050, we will need to determine how to meet a booming global population's insatiable appetite for energy in the longer term — an imperative that renewables alone cannot meet. That is why we need to invest now in other technologies that can complement renewables, and provide reliable electricity for many centuries to come. And one of the most promising options is nuclear fusion — the process that powers the sun and all stars.

(Photo Elle Starkman/PPPL)

Read the full article on the WorldFinance website.

T​he Satellite Tokamak Program, JT-60SA, is a major modification of the existing JT-60U tokamak at the Naka Fusion Institute in Japan. Part of the Broader Approach Agreement signed between Japan and Euratom (and implemented by the Japan Atomic Energy Agency and the European Domestic Agency for ITER), it is designed to support the operation of ITER and to investigate how best to optimize the design and operation of fusion power plants built after ITER.

Recent progress has been reported in the fabrication of equilibrium field coils and the vacuum vessel thermal shield, as well as the procurement of the quench detection system.

Read more in the August issue of the JT-60SA Newsletter or on the European Domestic Agency website.

​To encourage the participation of Chinese professionals in international organizations and international mega-science projects such as ITER, a week-long training program was held at Zhejiang University, Hangzhou from 16 to 21 August.

Cao Jianlin, Vice Minister of the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) and head of the Chinese delegation to the ITER Council participated, along with other 13 distinguished scholars, high-level officials from international organizations, representatives of government, and the heads of the Chinese and Korean Domestic Agencies for ITER.   Through expert lectures, case studies and seminars, participants were updated on progress in research and technology at home as well as the status of international mega-projects in science and participation opportunities.

The European Domestic Agency has produced a five-minute video on the delivery of its first manufactured components to the ITER site in southern France—six drain tanks for the ITER Tritium Plant. 

Click here to watch.

​ It was arguably the scientific fraud of the century, but a hugely expensive failed project to create energy from nuclear fusion laid the foundation for Argentina's success in physic.   The ruins are ghostly, silent. The crumbling buildings and labs — hidden on an island that's drowning in a dense, green forest — look as if they are an abandoned villain's lair from an early James Bond movie. And in a way, they are a villain's making — they're all that remains of a top-secret project, 'Proyecto Huemul', which turned out to be one of the biggest and most expensive frauds in scientific history — and ironically also became the foundation of a scientific success story.   Tiny Isle Huemul, with an area of just two square kilometres, is covered in alerce trees; it resembles the head of a giant crocodile taking a snooze on a sunny August afternoon, poking out of the mesmerising deep blue waters of Lake Nahuel Huapi in Patagonia, amid the snow-capped mountains of the Argentinian Andes.
Read the whole article on Engineering and Technology Magazine website.   Also in Newsline # 196

​The ITER International School (IIS) is an annual event jointly organized by the French Aix-Marseille University and the ITER Organization. The 2015 edition will take place from 14 to 18 December at the University of Science and Technology (USTC) in Hefei, China, hosted by USTC and the Academy of Sciences Institute of Plasma Physics, ASIPP.

The primary objective of the IIS is to provide a regular forum for conducting a post-graduate training school in the area of fusion science for young researchers with a view to attracting them to participate in the scientific exploitation of ITER. The IIS will present the current and future scientific and technical challenges facing fusion science. The academic program of the IIS will be focused on a chosen scientific theme relevant to ITER and which may change from year to year.

The theme chosen for 2015 is: Transport and pedestal physics in tokamaks   Previous editions have taken place in Aix-en-Provence, France; Gandhinagar, India; and Austin, TX, USA. For more on the ITER International School, or to enroll, please visit the IIS 2015 website.

 

​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.

​For one week at the end of June, a representative of the ITER quality assurance team inspected a number of Russian industries for compliance with the quality system requirements of the ITER Organization.

These companies are producing hardware in the framework of Russia's commitments to ITER's in-kind procurement program, which distributes the manufacturing of ITER components and systems among the seven ITER Members.

The industries inspected—the Dollezhal Institute (Moscow), the Efremov Institute (St. Petersburg), JSC Energopul (Moscow), Fusion Centre (Moscow), and CJSC RTSoft (Moscow)—are responsible for the development and procurement of switching networks and fast distribution units, DC busbars and instrumentation; the blanket first wall; the electron cyclotron radio frequency gyrotrons; blanket module connections; and diagnostic systems and port plug integration. The Russian Domestic Agency was also inspected for its compliance to quality systems requirements.

The final report highlighted compliance with ITER Organization requirements and identified a number of "good practices" at the industries inspected. 

Alexander Petrov, ITER Russia 

  

​Do you want to gain professional experience and contribute to the work of the European agency for ITER, Fusion for Energy? Are you curious about the ITER Project and what it's like to work in an international environment? A Fusion for Energy (F4E) traineeship could be the perfect opportunity for you!

F4E´s traineeships program aims to promote awareness, knowledge and understanding of F4E's role in the ITER Project and within the European context, as well as to provide training to university graduates in the fusion field. The traineeship is paid and lasts from four to nine months with F4E in any of the three sites: Barcelona (Spain), ITER site (France), or Garching (Germany), starting on either 1 March or 1 October.

Click here for a list of opportunities.

​Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have developed a detailed model of the source of a puzzling limitation on fusion reactions. The findings, published in June in Physics of Plasmas, complete and confirm previous PPPL research and could lead to steps to overcome the barrier if the model proves consistent with experimental data. "We used to have correlation," said physicist David Gates, first author of the paper. "Now we believe we have causation." This work was supported by the DOE Office of Science.

At issue is a problem known as the "density limit" that keeps donut-shaped fusion facilities called tokamaks from operating at peak efficiency. This limit occurs when the superhot, charged plasma gas that fuels fusion reactions reaches a certain density and spirals apart in a flash of light, shutting down the reaction. Overcoming the limit could facilitate the development of fusion as a safe, clean and abundant source of energy for generating electricity.

Read the full article on the PPPL website.

Image: Magnetic island geometry showing the asymmetry effect that is crucial in determining the mechanism for the density limit. Reprinted with permission from Phys. Plasmas 22, 022514 (2015). Copyright 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.