What’s New

13 October 2014

ITER news digest for the period of 6 October 2014 to 13 October 2014.

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Featured (5)

Of interest (5)

Press (7)

Featured

Three giants take position on the platform

150 participants at Industrial Info Day

Under the slab

Bolting a symbolic piece of steel

Hi-tech Brillo pads answering a hot fusion problem

World's largest fusion conference opens in St. Petersburg

The 25th IAEA Fusion Energy Conference (FEC 2014) will be held from 13 to 18 October 2014 in Saint Petersburg, the Russian Federation.

The event, hosted by the Government of the Russian Federation through the Rosatom Nuclear Energy State Corporation, provides a forum for the discussion of key physics and technology issues as well as innovative concepts of direct relevance to fusion as a source of nuclear energy. The Conference is the world's largest conference in the field of nuclear fusion.

Thematic sessions on topics such as fusion engineering, fusion nuclear physics and technology, innovative confinement concepts and more will be held as part of the Conference, which also includes the awarding of a Nuclear Fusion Prize for outstanding achievements in nuclear fusion.

The IAEA hosts an International Conference on Nuclear Fusion Energy every second year. More information is available at the conference website.

13 Oct 2014

Permalink : https://www.iter.org/of-interest?id=383

Sandia's Z machine makes progress toward nuclear fusion

Scientists are reporting a significant advance in the quest to develop an alternative approach to nuclear fusion. Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico, using the lab's Z machine, a colossal electric pulse generator capable of producing currents of tens of millions of amperes, say they have detected significant numbers of neutrons—byproducts of fusion reactions—coming from the experiment. This, they say, demonstrates the viability of their approach and marks progress toward the ultimate goal of producing more energy than the fusion device takes in.

Read more on Science web site.

12 Oct 2014

Permalink : https://www.iter.org/of-interest?id=382

Latest "Fusion in Europe" is out

The autumn issue of Fusion in Europe is available for download at this link.

The 20-page issue covers the recent launch of EUROfusion (the European Consortium for the Development of Fusion Energy), preparations for the initial plasma experiments on the Wendelstein 7-X stellarator (scheduled next year), and news from the control rooms of the JET and ASDEX Upgrade tokamaks.

Fusion in Europe is published three times per year.

12 Oct 2014

Permalink : https://www.iter.org/of-interest?id=381

EFDA becomes EUROfusion

On 9 October 2014 the European Commission officially launched the European Consortium for the Development of Fusion Energy, EUROfusion for short. EUROfusion manages the European fusion research activities on behalf of Euratom, which awards the appropriate grant to the consortium.

The new consortium agreement will substitute the fourteen year-old European Fusion Development Agreement (EFDA), as well as 29 bilateral Association agreements between the Commission and research institutions in 27 countries. The Grant Agreement (contract) provides EUR 424 million in funding from the Euratom Horizon 2020 programme 2014-18 and the same amount from Member States, adding up to an overall budget of EUR 850 million for 5 years.

The launch of EUROfusion was celebrated with Europe's fusion research community in the heart of the European Quarter, the Solvay Library.

Read the full report on the new EUROfusion website here.

10 Oct 2014

Permalink : https://www.iter.org/of-interest?id=380

Divertor cassette replaced by remote control at VTT Finland

VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland has reached an important objective in the development of ITER fusion reactor remote control, when the divertor cassette was replaced for the first time using remote control in the research facility for remote controlled maintenance. This operation is one of the most demanding measures in the forthcoming ITER fusion reactor, the construction of which is proceeding rapidly in Cadarache, Southern France.

The requirements for the technologies used in ITER, are high, since they are used to control the fusion plasma burning at a temperature of hundred million degrees centigrade. Once the ITER comes into use, its core is activated when bombed by neutrons. Therefore, all maintenance, inspection and repair measures are performed using remote operation.

Located in the lower part of the ITER reactor chamber, the 54 cassettes of the reactor component, or the divertor, measuring 3.4 m x 2.3 m x 0.6 m and weighing approximately 10 tonnes each, need to be handled at tolerances of a few millimetres. The divertor cassette is like a giant ashtray, into which the hot ashes and impurities settle.

Read more on the PhysOrg website.

7 Oct 2014