Of Interest archive

On 18 September, three trucks arrived from Italy loaded with equipment for ITER's Steady State Electrical Network (SSEN). The high voltage disconnectors and earthing switches were procured by the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), which serves as the SSEN engineering support subcontractor to the US Domestic Agency, and manufactured by the Italian branch of Alstom.

​As the international ITER project to develop an experimental nuclear fusion reactor eats into research budgets around the world, an advisory panel to the US Department of Energy recommends mothballing at least one of three major experiments and focusing on research necessary to bring ITER online.

The Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee (FESAC) released its report on 22 September at a meeting in Gaithersburg, Maryland. The document outlines a 10-year plan for US nuclear fusion research for various budget scenarios, the most optimistic of which calls for "modest growth".

Nuclear fusion offers the potential for producing practically limitless energy by smashing heavy atoms of hydrogen into helium inside a burning 100-million-kelvin plasma and capturing the energy released by the reaction — but scientific and engineering challenges remain.

The report says the US should focus research initiatives on the biggest impediments to ITER's donut-like design, called a tokamak — how to control the writhing plasma at the reactor's core, and understanding how it interacts with surrounding material in order to engineer walls that can maintain the reaction.

Read more on Nature web site.

 

​Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories' Z machine have produced a significant output of fusion neutrons, using a method fully functioning for only little more than a year. [...]

The experimental work is described in a paper to be published in the Sept. 24 Physical Review Letters online. A theoretical PRL paper to be published on the same date helps explain why the experimental method worked. The combined work demonstrates the viability of the novel approach. "We are committed to shaking this [fusion] tree until either we get some good apples or a branch falls down and hits us on the head," said Sandia senior manager Dan Sinars. He expects the project, dubbed MagLIF for magnetized liner inertial fusion, will be "a key piece of Sandia's submission for a July 2015 National Nuclear Security Administration review of the national Inertial Confinement Fusion Program." Inertial confinement fusion creates nanosecond bursts of neutrons, ideal for creating data to plug into supercomputer codes that test the safety, security and effectiveness of the U.S. nuclear stockpile. The method could be useful as an energy source down the road if the individual fusion pulses can be sequenced like an automobile's cylinders firing.   Read more on Sandia National Laboratories web site.

On 8-9 September the final acceptance meeting was held for the Cryostat Workshop. This 5,500-square-metre building will be the theatre for the assembly of the four main cryostat sections from 54 smaller segments manufactured in India.   As the contractor chosen by the Indian Domestic Agency for the construction and assembly of the ITER cryostat, Larsen & Toubro Limited is also in charge of the on-site cryostat worksite. The company awarded the construction contract to the French company SPIE Batignolles TPCI, who began work just over a year ago, in June 2013.   "Larsen & Toubro (L&T) takes pride in having completed the temporary workshop before the contractual delivery date," a company statement read. "This was possible due to the positive and collaborative efforts by all of the teams involved: SPIE Batignolles TPCI, Danieli (crane contractor), Currie & Brown (engineering), Apave (health and safety protection), ITER India and the ITER Organization. Larsen & Toubro is thankful to all of these teams for their role in achieving this feat."

​The process of magnetic field line reconnection, in which the magnetic field lines in a plasma snap apart and violently reconnect, transforms magnetic field energy into particle energy. Little was known about this phenomenon that is known most prominently in the form of solar flares on the surface of the sun. The subsequent geomagnetic storms on earth have demonstrated how much energy can be released by magnetic reconnection.

In the research conducted on the Magnetic Reconnection Experiment (MRX) at PPPL, scientists measured experimentally the amount of magnetic energy that turns into particle energy. They showed that reconnection converts about 50 percent of the magnetic energy in the plasma, with one-third of the conversion heating the electrons and two-thirds accelerating the ions.

The findings also suggested the process by which the energy conversion occurs. According to the researchers, reconnection first propels and energizes the electrons, which creates an electrically charged field that becomes the primary energy source for the ions.

Read more on the FuseNet and News at Princeton websites.

​A weird type of 'hybrid' star has been discovered nearly 40 years since it was first theorized — but until now has been curiously difficult to find.

In 1975, renowned astrophysicists Kip Thorne, of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, Calif., and Anna Żytkow, of the University of Cambridge, UK, assembled a theory on how a large dying star could swallow its neutron star binary partner, thus becoming a very rare type of stellar hybrid, nicknamed a Thorne-Żytkow object (or TŻO). The neutron star — a dense husk of degenerate matter that was once a massive star long since gone supernova — would spiral into the red supergiant's core, interrupting normal fusion processes. Read more here. Access the scientific article here

​After a decade of construction, the Wendelstein 7-X experiment (W7-X) is now its commissioning phase. Work is underway to install plasma-facing components and some of the in-components of the diagnostics.

A first, three-month operation period is planned in 2015.

Find out all the detail of the first plasmas planned in the latest issue of the Wendelstein 7-X newsletter here.

 

On 11 August, during the opening session of this year's Applied Superconductivity Conference in Charlotte, North Carolina (US), ITER's Arnaud Devred received the IEEE award "for continuing and significant contributions in the field of applied superconductivity."

The prestigious prize delivered by the IEEE Council on Applied Superconductivity was awarded for his "many and significant contributions to the field of large scale applications." 

 "I am indebted to many people, who have inspired me and made me the person I am today," said the head of the ITER Superconductor Systems & Auxiliaries Section in his acceptance speech. "One of my greatest privileges—and rewards—is that throughout my carrier I have been able to meet and work with great people. First in Europe, then in the US and Japan, and now from all around the world. Therefore, I would like to share this award with my numerous collaborators in China, Europe, Japan, Korea, Russia and the United States, and, in these times of heightened political tensions, it is my wish that we can keep working together in the same open and peaceful manner—our little contribution to making the world a better place to be."

Last Saturday 13 September, the fourth edition of the ITER Games attracted a crowd of close to 250 competitors and their supporters for an all-day sports event including football and tennis competitions, a cross-country run, a kayak race and a petanque tournament. For the participants—people working for the ITER Project, club members from the local sports associations, and their families—this was another opportunity to meet, compete and share ... all ways to strengthen ties between ITER and its environment. (Photo AIF-AP)

This year's FuseNet PhD Event will take place on 18—20 November in Lisbon, Portugal.

Organized by the University of Lisbon under the umbrella of the FuseNet Association and with the financial support of EUROfusion, the PhD Event brings together PhD students working in the field of fusion science and engineering. 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.

The Event is open to all PhD students involved with research in nuclear fusion research and who are registered at a European university or a FuseNet member university.

The deadline for applications is 15 October 2014 (financial support is available). More information on the event and the application procedure can be found on the FuseNet website. 

​The latest newsletter from the IPFN Institute in Portugal (Instituto de Plasmas e Fusão Nuclear) is available here.

​The world's largest research consortium in the field of metals research and manufacturing is to be created by European industry in the form of Metallurgy Europe. The R&D program has recently been selected as a new Eureka Cluster and will bring together over 170 companies and laboratories from across 20 countries. Funding for the project has been stated as EUR 1 billion over seven years.

The European Powder Metallurgy Association and a number of other European organizations such as the European Space Agency (ESA), European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, the Institut Laue-Langevin and the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy are reported to be providing their expertise and innovation to this initiative.

Read more on the Powder Metallurgy Review website.

​Hutch Neilson, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory's (PPPL's) head of Advanced Projects, is saying "auf wiedersehen" to the lab for the next nine months as he travels to Greifswald, Germany, where he will be paving the way for future US researchers to participate on the Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) program as the experiment begins preparing for operations next year.

David Gates, a principal research physicist and the stellarator physics leader at PPPL, will be serving as Interim Head of Advanced Projects in Neilson's absence.

Neilson's new position comes after the US Department of Energy and the European Atomic Energy Commission signed an agreement in June establishing a long-term partnership with the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP) and PPPL, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Los Alamos National Laboratory. The agreement names PPPL as the lead institute for the US collaboration on the W7-X.

Read more on the PPPL website.

​At the onset of the atomic age, governments on both sides of the iron curtain sought to harness the power of nuclear fusion. Researchers at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory in New Jersey stood at the forefront of the American effort when, in 1953, they began using Stellarators — one of the earliest controlled fusion systems.

Early fusion research in the western world nearly immediately split into two halves after the end of WWII, with one subset of researchers observing super-compressed fusion materials at very short timescales, the others — including Dr. Lyman Spitzer, chair of the Department of Astronomy at Princeton University — observing these materials at a lower compression for longer times. Spitzer's invention served this purpose wonderfully. The Stellarator that Spitzer invented in 1950 is designed to hold superheated, electrically-charged plasma — a most vital and basic component of nuclear fusion research — within a designated field using electromagnetic currents.

Read more on the Gizmodo web site.

​Ed Moses, a longtime scientific leader at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, has been appointed by the Giant Magellan Telescope Organization (GMTO) as president of their organization, effective 2 October 2014.

"Ed is ideally positioned and qualified for this scientific leadership role," Goldstein said. "He is an expert in laser science, optical systems, technology development, systems engineering and project leadership and management. Ed has played key roles in major LLNL programs over the last 35 years including Atomic Vapor Laser Isotope Separation, Peregrine, the National Ignition Facility and the National Ignition Campaign."

"He also was responsible for building several major science and DOD work-for-other programs," Goldstein said. "Ed is an international leader in fusion energy science and applications. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and member of many other professional societies, and a winner of a broad spectrum of prestigious awards."

Source: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

​Scientists have long believed that the power of the sun comes largely from the fusion of protons into helium, but now they can finally prove it. An international team of researchers using a detector buried deep below the mountains of central Italy has detected neutrinos—ghostly particles that interact only very reluctantly with matter—streaming from the heart of the sun. Other solar neutrinos have been detected before, but these particular ones come from the key proton-proton fusion reaction that is the first part of a chain of reactions that provides 99% of the sun's power.

The results also show that the sun is a remarkably steady power source. Neutrinos take only 8 minutes to get from the sun's core to Earth, so the rate of neutrino production that the team detected reflects the amount of heat the sun is producing today. It just so happens that this is the same as the amount of energy now being radiated from the sun's surface, even though those photons have taken 100,000 years to work their way from the core to the surface. Hence, the sun's energy production hasn't changed in 100 millennia. "This is direct proof of the stability of the sun over the past 100,000 years or so," says team member Andrea Pocar of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.   Read more on Science website

​Tucked away from major roadways and nestled amid more than 80 acres of forest sits a massive warehouse-like building where inside, a device that can produce temperatures hotter than the sun has sat cold and quiet for more than two years.

But the wait is almost over for the nuclear fusion reactor to get back up and running at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory.

"We're very excited and we're all anxious to turn that machine back on," said Adam Cohen, deputy director for operations at PPPL.

The National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX) has been shut down since 2012 as it underwent a $94 million upgrade that will make it what officials say will be the most powerful fusion facility of its kind in the world. It is expected to be ready for operations in late winter or early spring, Cohen said.

[...]

The upgrade (NSTX-U) will essentially double the power of the reactor by increasing the heat, electrical current and magnetic field. A second [device] that helps heat the plasma was added, and the center magnet, which resembles the core of an apple, was rebuilt to create a stronger magnetic field.   "We may reach several hundred million degrees Celsius in the new machine," said Masa Ono, a research physicist and head of the NSTX department.   Access the full story, image gallery and video interview at nj.com.

​In Rokkasho, on the eastern coastline of Japan, Europe and Japan are jointly carrying out advanced R&D activities in support of ITER and for successful development of the phases after ITER. Termed the "Broader Approach," these efforts have been underway since 2007.

In early August, the Director-General of the ITER Organization, Osamu Motojima, and ITER Council Secretary, Sachiko Ishizaka, visited Rokkasho for an update on Broader Approach activities and to share information about progress at ITER.

 The activities of the Broader Approach are essential for the phases after ITER in the world fusion program. One project, IFMIF/EVEDA, is validating the concept for a fusion-relevant neutron source based on Li(d,xn) reactions and will permit the rapid construction of such a facility within cost and schedule less than a decade from the time that a decision is taken. Another—IFERC—not only holds a supercomputer that dedicated to plasma simulations for the world fusion community (Helios), but is also implementing research efforts towards a (post-ITER) DEMO reactor.

 After visiting the facilities—including the injector of LIPAc, the Linear IFMIF Prototype Accelerator (LIPAc) that is presently under installation and commissioning—the visitors from ITER were able to appreciate the sound advancements and robust health of the Broader Approach projects.

 Photo caption: After meeting the management of the Japan Atomic Energy Agency, ITER Director-General Motojima (second from left) gave a seminar to Broader Approach staff on the evolution of ITER. Juan Knaster, Project Leader of IFMIF/EVEDA (far left) and Noriyoshi Nakajima (not pictured), Project Leader of IFERC, explained the status of their respective projects and plans for the future. Council Secretary Sachiko Ishizaka is pictured fifth from right. Kenkichi Ushigusa, Director-General of Rokkasho Fusion Institute (JAEA) is pictured third from right.

 

Princeton - Tucked away from major roadways and nestled amid more than 80 acres of forest sits a massive warehouse-like building where inside, a device that can produce temperatures hotter than the sun has sat cold and quiet for more than two years.   But the wait is almost over for the nuclear fusion reactor to get back up and running at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. "We're very excited and we're all anxious to turn that machine back on," said Adam Cohen, deputy director for operations at PPPL.   The National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX) has been shut down since 2012 as it underwent a $94 million upgrade that will make it what officials say will be the most powerful fusion facility of its kind in the world. It is expected to be ready for operations in late winter or early spring, Cohen said.   Read more on the NJ.com website.

Four crates containing parts of an ITER electrical transformer (high voltage surge arresters) left the port of New York on 5 August; delivery to the ITER site in France is expected late September. The components were manufactured by ABB in Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania.