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You're currently reading the news digest published from 29 August 2016 to 5 September 2016.
Featured (4)
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Featured
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Polar explorer on energy and ITER

In 1986 Jean-Louis Etienne set out for the North Pole alone, on foot, from Ward Hunt Island in the extreme north of Canada—a voyage across the frozen Artic Ocean that lasted 63 days. Doctor, mountaineer, navigator ... Etienne has said that reaching the North Pole "doesn't require any particular talent," only endurance, determination and near-superhuman fortitude. The experience determined the course of his life; since, either alone or as part of international expeditions, he has explored the poles by dog sled, by Rozière balloon and airship (dirigible), and even on a schooner adrift in ice-locked waters. Jean-Louis Etienne is an explorer but also a scientist who is concerned by the fragility of our planet, with the question of energy occupying a central role in his reflection. Refusing to be boxed in by dogma or "posturing," he considers that nuclear energy is "the intelligent way to go" and has spoken publically in favour of ITER. He visited the ITER site in June. How important is energy management when travelling alone to the North Pole?On the trek to the North Pole in 1986 I had two sources of energy: white gas for my camp stove (a very pure, oil-free gas that doesn't freeze) and lithium-ion batteries for the high frequency radio and the Argos transmitter. These two energy sources were vital to my survival and conservation quickly became an obsession. In extreme situations, appreciation is heightened for the role energy plays in our lives.Was it this experience that brought you to have an interest in energy issues in a more global sense?During each expedition, the production and the consumption of energy was a constant preoccupation. Trying to optimize local resources led me to think in a more global way about the potential and the limitations of renewable energy sources. For example, the challenge of storing electricity ...Planet wide, the International Energy Agency forecasts an 80 percent increase in the demand for electricity by 2040. Do you feel that the political decision makers are fully aware of the challenge?If we aggregate the growing demand for electric transport, that of huge megacities where 75 percent of the world's population will be concentrated, and the requirements of data centres, portable phones, tablets, connected objects, etc. ... it becomes obvious that energy consumption is set to explode. I think our political decision makers are well aware of the situation, surrounded as they are by experts. But easy access to fossil fuels—especially low-cost coal—doesn't incite governments to engage on a path to new energy sources. One exception to that is renewables, which have been imposed through governmental promises to reduce emissions as well as by the expectations of the public.Nuclear energy, in its different forms, will occupy an important place in the "energy mix" of the decades to come. Some voices from the "green" or "ecological" spheres have expressed surprise at your opinions on nuclear energy ...Attitudes on energy are more often a result of posturing and herd behaviour than a real reflection of knowledge on the subject, which takes some time and effort. We have to start planning an exit from dependence on fossil fuels for the environment (the climate) and also because deposits will eventually dry up or become too costly to exploit. After finite energy sources ... it is now time to pass on to flow energy sources. The challenges of renewable energy sources—low density production; acceptability issues for wind turbines, hydroelectric dams, solar parks; and electricity storage issues among them—mean that renewables will not suffice. In that context, will we be able to do without nuclear energy? I'm speaking about fourth-generation fission reactor concepts or ITER. For these reasons, I support the pursuit of nuclear energy research. A trek of 63 days over the frozen Artic Ocean — a transformational experience that led Jean-Louis Etienne to an interest in the future — and the fragility — of our planet. Photo Francis Latreille You have spoken out on different occasions in support of the ITER Project. What draws you to this research program in fusion energy?With the exception of geothermal energy, all other energy sources that we find in nature have a common source—the Sun. There are those that are considered unlimited, such as solar, wind, biomass, hydroelectric (evaporation, precipitation) and indirectly marine currents, which are linked to the position of the Sun and the moon. Then there are fossil fuels, which result from the transformation over millions of years of vegetal matter (produced by photosynthesis) in the heat and pressure of the Earth's crust. This energy of the Sun, transformed over an incredibly long time frame, cannot be reproduced within our lives. With all of these energy sources originating from the Sun, the temptation is strong to reproduce a "Sun on Earth." This is why I consider ITER to be a bold and worthwhile project.What do you consider to be the advantages of fusion energy?No long-lived radioactive waste, quasi unlimited fuel, no risk of explosion, and a reaction that can be halted immediately in the case of a problem.You visited ITER recently. Were you surprised by what you saw? How would you describe the experience?The building project is monumental. The challenges are both enormous and enormously exciting: we're talking about the fusion reactions that are produced in the very core of the Sun. It's a planetary project that reminds me of CERN (Geneva) in the complexity of its structure and the ambitions of its research program ... a pairing of fundamental science and state-of-the-art technology.Click here for more information on Jean-Louis Etienne.
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A matter of size

The JT-60SA tokamak, a joint R&D project involving Japan and Europe, is in no way a small machine. Standing 15,5 metres high, with a plasma volume of 130 cubic metres, it will dethrone JET as the largest operating tokamak in the world. But compare the size of one of JT-60SA's D-shaped toroidal field coils on the left, to one of ITER's on the right, and you'll have an idea of just how large the ITER machine will be.
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Toroidal field coil manufacturing at Mitsubishi

Click here to view the video.
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29th SOFT opens its curtains in Prague

The 29th edition of the Symposium on Fusion Technology (SOFT) today opened its curtains in the Czech capital of Prague. With 30 exhibitors and more than 800 scheduled posters and presentations, SOFT once more proves to be one of the major platforms for exchanging the latest developments in fusion research and fusion technology. The line up of keynote speakers included András Siegler from the European Commission's Directorate for Energy, who called the audience to action. "If we want to meet the historical agreement that was signed by 195 countries at the COP-21 in Paris last December—that is to keep the increase of the global temperature below two degrees—we have to achieve the shift to a 60 percent low carbon energy era. Could fusion be the solution?" Some people believe that fusion will come too late, Siegler said. "But when it comes to the decarbonization of the global energy system, advanced nuclear technologies such as fusion will never come too late."   ITER Director-General Bernard Bigot then impressed the audience with a technology-intensive and high-speed presentation that reported the latest developments on the construction site, the manufacturing process of the ITER components and, last but not least, the recently implemented management changes. With a picturesque image of the construction site set against the snow-covered mountain ranges of the French Alps, Bigot closed by saying that his personal goal was to see fusion enter the international energy landscape.    ITER Director-General Bernard Bigot giving an interview to Daniel Stach, moderator of the popular National Czech TV program "Hyde Park Civilizace" (which will be aired in English this Saturday) in front of the illuminated Compass tokamak. During this year's edition the SOFT Fusion Innovation Prize, launched by Euratom in 2014, was awarded for the second time. Third prize went to Jonathan Naish from the UK for his work on innovative software (VORTEX) that combines the virtual reality environment with results of radiation transport calculations to allow improved radioprotection in radiation environments of high complexity. The winners of this year's Fusion Innovation Prize: Walter Fietz, Karine Liger, Silvano Tosti, Alessia Santucci and Jonathan Naish. The second prize was awarded to an Italian/French research team for their work on a new type of palladium-based membrane that will have applications in tritium recycling (part of the fusion fuel cycle).   And finally the first prize went to a German/Swiss team led by Walter Fietz from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology for its contributions to the development of a novel and innovative type of high temperature superconducting "CrossConductor" cable based on REBCO material and the transfer of this innovation to industrial applications.
Of interest

Princeton fusion lab goes EAST

https://www.iter.org/of-interest?id=635
The Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) has been named principal investigator for a multi-institutional project to study plasma-materials interaction on the EAST tokamak in China. The experiments will be designed to test the ability of lithium to protect the EAST walls from the hot plasma and to prevent impurities from bouncing back into the core of the plasma and halting fusion reactions. Success could point to a method for optimizing long-running plasmas. PPPL will use devices called flowing liquid lithium limiters and granule injectors, as well as optimization of coating techniques, to protect the plasma-facing components. PPPL has experience with applying lithium to its National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX), which has recently been upgraded, and at the Lithium Tokamak Experiment (LTX), a small, short-pulse complementary experiment at the laboratory that explores the effect of a liquid-lithium boundary on the plasma. See the full article on the PPPL website. --Photo of the interior of EAST vacuum vessel.
Publications

ITER Organization 2015 Annual Report

https://www.iter.org//sites/default/files/media/2015_iter_annual_report.pdf
Press

World's largest fusion reactor will harness the power of the sun

http://interestingengineering.com/worlds-largest-fusion-reactor-harness-power-sun/

The world's largest science experiment — by the numbers

http://www.chem.info/article/2016/08/worlds-largest-science-experiment-%E2%80%94-numbers