It was in 1968 in Novosibirsk, at the third Fusion Energy Conference hosted by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), that Russian Academician Lev Artsimovich from the Kurchatov Institute presented some amazing results from the T3 Tokamak: a confined plasma with electron energies up to 1 keV had been achieved, corresponding to temperatures of more than ten million degrees. The news was received at first with considerable skepticism, the fusion physicists who were present remember. But the breaking news proved to be correct and led to a global shift in nuclear fusion research. Last week, 46 years after that historic Novosibirsk meeting, the Fusion Energy Conference returned again to Russia, this time to St. Petersburg, to take stock of the development prospects for fusion power. Approximately 1,000 people attended the conference, representing 39 Member States and 4 international organizations. Participants had the chance to tour the exhibition and attend the many presentations and posters on scientific and technological developments in fusion. "Saturated Low-n Kink peeling Mode" or "Electron Bernstein Wave Heating" anyone? "The world has moved on and so has the development of fusion energy," said Alexander Bychkov, the IAEA Deputy Director-General, in his opening speech. "With ITER under construction in the south of France and plans for DEMO reactors being developed around the world, the focus of nuclear fusion research is slowly shifting from pure research to technology, material science and engineering. This does not mean that pure research is becoming less important, but that other aspects increasingly have to be taken into account as well. In the future, when ITER will start operation and when DEMO reactors are being designed, the questions of safety, security and even safeguards will grow in importance."Qualifying ITER as "one of the most promising projects of our time," the Deputy Director General of Rosatom, Vyacheslav Pershukov, introduced ITER Director-General Osamu Motojima, who reported the latest project achievements including the completion of the lower basemat of the ITER Tokamak Complex and the arrival of the first machine components on site. "Ninety percent of the project's in-kind procurement value is now under contract," the Director-General stressed. A press conference was held for more than 50 Russian and international journalists at the Efremov Institute, staged right up aginst huge mockups of busbars, fast discharge and switching units. Left to right, presenting: IAEA Deputy Director-General Alexander Bychkov; ITER Director-General Motojima; Oleg Filatov, director of the Efremov Institute; and Vladimir Vlasenkov, deputy director of ITER Russia. The head of the Russian Domestic Agency for ITER, Anatoli Krasilnikov, described the broad scope of Russian contributions to ITER and the good progress achieved to date, and invited participants to take a technical tour of the Efremov Institute situated on the outskirts of St. Petersburg. It is here where Russian superconductors for ITER take shape and plasma-facing components are designed, manufactured and tested for their heat resistivity. A press conference was held for more than 50 Russian and international journalists, staged right up against huge mockups of busbars, fast discharge and switching units to help bring home the impressive dimensions of the ITER plant. When asked for some good arguments against those who question the pace of construction, Oleg Filatov, director of the Efremov Institute, had one short answer: "Look around," he said. "Welcome to the argument factory!"Although there were no game-changing results reported at the 25th Fusion Energy Conference, there was plenty of news that "expands the frontier of fusion," according to Richard Buttery, Director of the DIII-D Experimental Science Division (US). The number of presentations and posters covering progress in fusion materials such as tungsten reflected the importance of this field of research. Assessments of technological developments in fusion and studies of plasma behavior under extreme conditions were also well represented. The ITER Organization, with 7 oral presentations, 24 posters and 54 papers, did its part to contribute to the expansion of the fusion frontier.

When scientists at the JET fusion experiment go home at night, another team takes over. As this exclusive video by the Culham Center for Fusion Energy reveals, some really strange things start happening...

During the week of 6 October, the 12th Conductor Meeting took place in Kokura, Japan near the Wakamatsu ITER factory, where jacketing activities for ITER's toroidal field conductors and central solenoid conductors have been underway since 2010.The Conductor Meeting is held semi-annually to reunite the actors involved in the procurement of conductors—from the ITER Organization, the six producing Domestic Agencies, and industrial manufacturers—for a review of progress.Over 95 percent of toroidal field superconducting strand lengths and approximately 75 percent of toroidal field conductor unit lengths have been fabricated. As the procurement of toroidal field conductors nears completion, the focus of magnet activities is shifting to the next phase: the fabrication of 19 toroidal field coils (18 plus one spare). Three toroidal field conductors have been wound and heat treated in Japan and Europe.Progress was also reported on central solenoid conductor procurement. Five central solenoid conductor unit lengths (approximately 10 percent of total needs) were fabricated and transferred from Japan to the USA in June 2014. These conductors will be wound for the lower module of the central solenoid coil stack (CS3L) in California.Strand and conductor production for the poloidal field coils is also steadily advancing, with 18 unit lengths of poloidal field conductor manufactured to date.Arnaud Devred, head of ITER's Superconductor Systems & Auxiliaries Section, looks back with satisfaction on seven years of collaboration on magnets. "We have come a long way since the signature of the first magnet Procurement Arrangement with Japan (for the toroidal field conductor) in November 2007. As of today, more than 140 conductor unit lengths have been completed by China, Europe, Japan, Korea, Russia and the United States and the ITER Organization has cleared approximately 9,700 control points through the web-based ITER conductor database.""In spite of extraordinary tough project constraints, the ITER Organization and Domestic Agency responsible officers have been able to build a strong collaborative spirit and a good mutual understanding of the technical and quality assurance/quality control requirements that have been instrumental in overcoming difficulties and ensuring progress. The Conductor Meeting has been an important and effective forum for exchanging information"The next Conductor Meeting will take place in March 2015 at the CRPP fusion institute in Switzerland with the participation of the SULTAN working group for ITER conductor tests. A final conductor meeting is foreseen in September 2015 at the ITER Organization.

The international ITER fusion project is building "a sun on earth" that will produce a self-heated, burning plasma—a key step toward industrial-scale fusion energy production. Controlling that plasma can be tricky, though, because disruptions may occur that cool and collapse the plasma. Sudden losses of plasma energy and current have the potential to erode plasma-facing components inside the ITER vacuum vessel. US ITER researchers based at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory are leading the development of a disruption mitigation system to reduce the effects of plasma disruptions. The United States Domestic Agency for ITER signed a formal arrangement with the ITER Organization on 29 July 2014 for the work. "We have a very conservative and flexible approach to disruption mitigation on ITER," said Larry Baylor, a distinguished scientist in plasma technologies and applications at ORNL, "with different locations for material to be injected, different types of material, and different response times. We are also designing the system in a way that will allow for evolution of the mitigation technology." A 16 mm neon—deuterium pellet, indicated by an arrow, captured with a high speed camera as it travels from left to right at about 300 metres per second in a test stand at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Pellet Lab. Photo: ORNL Two approaches have been developed to help reduce the effects of plasma disruptions: massive gas injection and shattered pellet injection. Both deliver material to the plasma within milliseconds. By injecting material to the plasma, ITER operators will be able to manage plasma energy in a way that lessens thermal loads and mechanical stresses on the plasma-facing components of the machine. The injected material can also inhibit the formation of runaway electrons, which occur when electrons are accelerated by the electric field in the plasma during a disruption.The gas will be neon, argon, deuterium or helium; the pellets will typically be composed of neon with a deuterium outer layer. The pellets are shattered against a plate as they enter the vacuum vessel in order to better disperse the material into the plasma. First-of-a-kind achievements have already emerged from the US ITER and ORNL team, including the largest cryogenic frozen hydrogen pellet ever formed and fired by a pellet injector "gun" (25 mm in diameter) and a novel three-barrel pellet injector for delivering the pellets to the plasma. The pellet guns use a gas propellant to fire pellets at 300 metres per second, or about 670 miles per hour. The team is now at work making even larger cryogenic pellets—up to 41 mm in diameter—that can still maintain the necessary speed to deliver material to the plasma within milliseconds of a disruption. 

​Russia is developing a hybrid nuclear reactor that uses both nuclear fusion and fission, said head of leading nuclear research facility. The project is open for international collaboration, particularly from Chinese scientists. A hybrid nuclear reactor is a sort of stepping stone to building a true nuclear fusion reactor. It uses a fusion reaction as a source of neutrons to initiate a fission reaction in a 'blanket' of traditional nuclear fuel. The approach has a number of potential benefits in terms of safety, non-proliferation and cost of generated energy, and Russia is developing such a hybrid reactor, according to Mikhail Kovalchuk, director of the Kurchatov Research Center. "Today we have started the realization of a distinctively new project. We are trying to combine a schematically operational nuclear plant reactor with a 'tokamak' to create a hybrid reactor," he told RIA Novosti, referring to a type of fusion reactor design. Photo:  Director of the Kurchatov Research Center Mikhail Kovalchuk  Read the whole story on the Russia Today website and also (in Russian) on the Newsland website.

​Manufacturing is underway in India for the acceleration grid power supplies that will be supplied to the SPIDER test bed in Italy as well as to ITER's diagnostic neutral beam.   The technical specifications for both acceleration grid power supplies are similar (system rated for 96 kVDC, 75 A). The SPIDER test bed is designed to finalize the development of the ion sources required for the ITER neutral beam injectors and to test all essential aspects of the diagnostic neutral beam accelerator.   Following the Final Design Review held in August 2013 for the acceleration grid power supplies, a Manufacturing Readiness Review was conducted early this year at the Indian Domestic Agency with the participation of the ITER Organization and ECIL, the Indian manufacturer responsible for the fabrication of the system and its installation at the SPIDER test bed in Padua, Italy.   Major components of the acceleration grid power supplies—60 kW water-cooled switched power supply modules and 2.8 MVA oil-cooled multi-secondary transformers—are presently being inspected at intermediate stages and the factory acceptance test for the first batch is scheduled for the end of November 2014.   Discussions are also being held with local support agencies for SPIDER site works with coordination assistance from the Consorzio RFX team in Padua.   Dilshad Sulaiman, ITER India      

The German science and engineering website Tau Omega recently featured a three-hour audio interview of ​ITER physicist Richard Pitts. The program focuses on the physics and the engineering challenges of ITER, but also addresses some of the unique organizational aspects of the project.

​A General Atomics physicist has won one of the most prestigious awards in fusion energy research, it was announced this week at a major international scientific conference in Russia. Dr. Philip Snyder, who works in General Atomics' San Diego headquarters, received the 2014 International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Nuclear Fusion Prize. The award was announced at the biennial conference during the opening ceremony of the 25th IAEA Fusion Energy Conference being held 13-18 October in St. Petersburg. Dr. Snyder won the prize for his published scientific paper judged to provide the most impact in nuclear fusion over the last two years. Dr. Snyder has spent the last 15 years working in fusion research at General Atomics, where he serves as Director of Theory and Computational Science for the Energy and Advanced Concepts Group. Read more on the Energy Industry Today website.

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.