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?On Wednesday 27 May, ºÚÁÏÉçapp received the Chinese ambassador to France, Mr Zhai Jun, who visited the project with a delegation of 12 as part of a diplomatic tour of southern France.

Ambassador Zhai met with ºÚÁÏÉçapp Director-General Bernard Bigot, toured the construction site, and met Chinese staff members. To all, he expressed his interest in the project that "may change the future course for all humanity." Ambassador Zhai was accompanied by his wife, Mme Wang Xinxia (second from left); the Chinese Consul-General in Marseille, Mme Yu Jinsong (second from right); and members of the embassy and consular staff. Also pictured: Management Advisory Committee member Peng Yiqi (far right) and head of the Chinese Domestic Agency Luo Delong (far right).

The Wendelstein 7-X fusion project at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP) in Greifswald, Germany is slated to begin operation later this year. The US, through the Department of Energy, contributed financing to the construction of the device; now, US scientists will have the opportunity to be involved in the research conducted on the machine from 2015 to 2017 with a contribution of about $4 million annually.

The renewed funding enables US universities to take an active role in the research program during the next three years. Scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) will measure the turbulence in the plasma by various methods; scientists from the universities at Wisconsin and Auburn will be concerned with the properties of the plasma edge. Finally, studies on a probe for measuring electric fields in the plasma will be conducted by a private research company, Xantho Technologies, in Madison, Wisconsin.   Three national research centres (Princeton, Oak Ridge and Los Alamos) will also be involved in projects on Wendelstein 7-X, including the construction and operation of an X-ray spectrometer, development of a pellet injector that injects tiny frozen hydrogen pellets to refuel the plasma, and operation of the five large auxiliary coils supplied by the US.   Read the full article on the IPP . (image credit: RST Rostock/EADS)

?Since February 2012, and the signature of a major framework contract with the ºÚÁÏÉçapp, the group DAHER is the Logistics Service Provider for the project's global transport, logistics and insurance needs.

Through implementation agreements concluded with each ºÚÁÏÉçapp Domestic Agency, DAHER (or DAHER partners nominated locally) will manage the complex logistics related to the transport of ºÚÁÏÉçapp components from suppliers all over the globe to the ºÚÁÏÉçapp site.   In May 2015, as part of a three-day training session held by DAHER for its logistics partners from China (Sinotrans) and India (Deugro India), a site visited was organized at ºÚÁÏÉçapp.   "Our main objective is to offer an equal level of services to all the Members of the global ºÚÁÏÉçapp Project," said Fran?ois Genevey, Daher director for ºÚÁÏÉçapp logistics. "Our partners located in each Member are recognized specialists who offer a regional point of contact and expertise. DAHER ensures that each partner is provided with all IT tools and processes that allow for the delivery of the best services to the Domestic Agencies."   In addition to the site visit, the training program also included a visit of facilities at the Mediterranean arrival point for all ºÚÁÏÉçapp components arriving by sea (Fos-sur-Mer); the discovery of the 104-kilometre itinerary to ºÚÁÏÉçapp; an introduction to DAHER logistics tools for ºÚÁÏÉçapp; and a session on the management of Protection Important Components (PIC) and, more generally, on the specific demands of a basic nuclear installation like ºÚÁÏÉçapp in France.   A similar kick-off meeting was held in September 2014 for DAHER partners from Japan, Korea and the US.   Daher partners for ºÚÁÏÉçapp are : Cosco and Sinotrans (China), Deugro (India), Hitachi (Japan), Shin Jo (Korea), and Transproject (US).

?Applications are now open for the 2015 edition of the International School on Fusion Technologies that will be held at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT, Germany) from 31 August 2015 to 11 September 2015.

The twelve-day program focuses on the current status of key fusion technologies and on long-term R&D¡ªparticularly in view of the next step beyond ºÚÁÏÉçapp, the demonstration power station DEMO.

The deadline for applications is 15 July. More information can be found on the KIT .

?By Raphael Rosen

Scientists from General Atomics and the US Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have discovered a phenomenon that helps them to improve fusion plasmas, a finding that may quicken the development of fusion energy.

Together with a team of researchers from across the United States, the scientists found that when they injected tiny grains of lithium into a plasma undergoing a particular kind of turbulence then, under the right conditions, the temperature and pressure rose dramatically. High heat and pressure are crucial to fusion, a process in which atomic nuclei ¡ª or ions ¡ª smash together and release energy ¡ª making even a brief rise in pressure of great importance for the development of fusion energy.

"These findings might be a step towards creating our ultimate goal of steady-state fusion, which would last not just for milliseconds, but indefinitely," said Tom Osborne, a physicist at General Atomics and lead author of the paper. This work was supported by the DOE Office of Science.

 Left: DIII-D tokamak. Right: Cross-section of plasma in which lithium has turned the emitted light green. (Credits: Left, General Atomics / Right, Steve Allen, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)

Read the whole article on the PPPL .

?The ºÚÁÏÉçapp Commission locale d'information (the citizen watchdog group that monitors ºÚÁÏÉçapp activities in accordance with the French 2006 Transparency and Nuclear Safety Act) held its plenary session in the ºÚÁÏÉçapp Council chamber on 18 May.

The session provided ºÚÁÏÉçapp Director-General Bernard Bigot with an opportunity to present his Action Plan and develop his vision for the future of the project. "You are a very important body because you are conveying to us the preoccupations of the local populations regarding the ºÚÁÏÉçapp Project," he said to the assembled CLI members. "We need to have a confident relationship and I am open to any question and debate."

Applications for the 3rd edition of the doctoral program in plasma science and engineering APPLAuSE (Portugal) are now open for the course starting in February 2016.

The aim of the four-year program is to provide each student with broad knowledge in the field of plasma science and engineering by promoting close interaction with renowned specialists. It consists in a student-centred and highly modular PhD program designed to enhance each student's capabilities and maximize his/her potential in a chosen area of specialization.

The course language is English. Find out more on the host institution website: (Instituto de Plasmas e Fus?o Nuclear) or at . 

Applications close on Sunday 7 June.

Three high voltage transformers for ºÚÁÏÉçapp's steady state electrical system have been loaded onto transport trailers in the Mediterranean port of Fos-sur-Mer and are ready for delivery to ºÚÁÏÉçapp.

Procured by the US Domestic Agency for ºÚÁÏÉçapp, the 87-ton transformers and their transport vehicles will cross the inland sea Etang de Berre by barge before travelling the 104 kilometres of the ºÚÁÏÉçapp Itinerary in one night, for arrival on 21 May.   Four identical transformer units (one was delivered to ºÚÁÏÉçapp in January) will serve to connect the ºÚÁÏÉçapp site's 400kV Prionnet substation, operated by the French operator RTE, to the ºÚÁÏÉçapp steady state electrical system AC distribution system.    Before the end of the month, two of the four units will be installed in their definitive location on the ºÚÁÏÉçapp construction site.

Physicist Luis Delgado-Aparicio, of the US Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), has won a highly competitive Early Career Research award sponsored by the DOE's Office of Science. The five-year grant of some $2.6 million will fund Delgado-Aparicio's research aimed at eliminating a key barrier to developing fusion power as a safe, clean and abundant source of electric energy.   Delgado-Aparicio's research focuses on the impurities that migrate from the interior walls and plasma-facing components of a fusion facility¡ªor tokamak¡ªinto the plasma. These impurities are tiny particles that can cool the plasma and halt or slow the fusion reaction. Delgado-Aparicio is developing a process to enable researchers to pinpoint and analyze the impurities and quickly flush them out of the plasma.   Ridding plasmas of these impurities is becoming increasingly vital as experiments utilize longer pulses to produce more sustained fusion energy.   Read the full story on the PPPL .

?The Conseil g¨¦n¨¦ral, the executive body of the French d¨¦partements recently had their name changes to Conseil d¨¦partemental. In Bouches-du-Rh?ne, the d¨¦partement that is home to ºÚÁÏÉçapp, this change in name was accompanied by a change in president.

Since 2 April and for the first time in 225 years, a woman, Martine Vassal from Marseille, sits in the presidential seat. On 6 May, she paid an official visit to ºÚÁÏÉçapp in order to reaffirm the d¨¦partement's support to the project (Bouches-du-Rh?ne contributes 152 million EUR to ºÚÁÏÉçapp).   "We are committed to ºÚÁÏÉçapp and determined to stand along with you in this great venture", she said to ºÚÁÏÉçapp Director-General Bernard Bigot before taking a tour of the construction site. President Vassal with Vice-President Gazay (centre) and DG Bigot on the ºÚÁÏÉçapp site.

?View this spectacular of the ºÚÁÏÉçapp site seen from a drone's point of view. (Produced in April by the European Domestic Agency.)

?The April issue of the WEST Newsletter (09) can be downloaded here.

The 2nd WEST Governing Board took place on March 5, 2015. WEST international partners have come from China, Europe, India, Japan, Korea and USA to share the progress on the project, joining efforts to achieve the common objective : first plasma in 2016.

Series production launched for complementary divertor components. In addition to the ºÚÁÏÉçapp-like prototypes to be tested in WEST, the divertor is constituted of complementary elements based on alternative technologies. The series production of these key plasma-facing components has been launched.

New European partners for WEST. On March 4, 2015, two European laboratories, KIT (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany) and IPP.CR (Institute of Plasma Physics, Czech Republic) signed a Letter Of Intent to join the collaboration on the WEST project.

?In this the European agency for ºÚÁÏÉçapp Fusion for Energy recaps the main progress achieved in ºÚÁÏÉçapp construction in 2014 and presents the activities for the year ahead.

"2015 is the year of construction," says Romaric Darbour, F4E's Deputy Project Manager. "The works for ten new buildings or facilities will start, including the cryoplant, buildings for magnet power conversion and radio frequency heating, the cooling towers; cleaning facilities and the control building. The construction of the second floor of the Tokamak Building is also expected to begin this summer."

?

Anne White has always relished challenges. As an undergraduate, she was fascinated by fluid dynamics, and the prospect of nuclear fusion as a game-changing energy source. She followed those passions to her current position as the Cecil and Ida Green Associate Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering at MIT, where she spends much of her time studying plasma turbulence ¡ª which is a challenge unto itself. "I like it because it's really difficult," she says. "You take fluid turbulence and add electrical and magnetic fields, which make it even harder to understand. Then you heat it to 100 million degrees and have to figure out ways to measure it and see what it's doing. That's why I'm at home here at MIT ¡ª everyone's really excited about tough things."

Read more on the  webpage.

Same component, same origin, same route: the second of four high voltage transformers procured by the US and manufactured in Korea reached Marseille's industrial port (Fos-sur-Mer) on Sunday 19 April.

The 87-ton component was unloaded the following morning and placed in storage, where it will remain until the last two transformers reach Fos (delivery expected around 10 May).

On the ºÚÁÏÉçapp platform, near the 400 kV switchyard, workers are putting the finishing touches to the large concrete pit that will host the first transformer, which should be operational in the early months of 2016.

Connected to the switchyard, it will bring down the voltage to 22 kV and dispatch power to the various plant systems of the installation.

 

?An important milestone has been reached on the , with the re-installation of four of the largest magnetic coils inside the machine.

Many of the internal poloidal field magnetic coils are new, especially around the upper and lower parts of the device. Only four coils in MAST-Upgrade remain from the original MAST experiment ¡ª the large mid-plane P4 and P5 (upper and lower) coils.

But it was not as simple as just leaving them in the vessel ¡ª they were removed with all the other internal equipment to enable the interior to be fully stripped down and cleaned. The coils were also comprehensively cleaned, including a hydroblast pressure wash. The P5 coils were then fitted with new flux loops.

Prior to re-installation, a full spatial survey of the vessel and coil supports and indeed of the shape of the coils themselves was undertaken. All four cleaned and surveyed coils were re-installed a few weeks ahead of schedule, on new strengthened coil supports inside the MAST-U vessel. A final survey indicated they were within 0.5mm of their optimum position ¡ª minimizing any stray fields when operations commence.

Coil re-installation is an important step, marking in many ways the beginning of the rebuild of the tokamak.

?The Ecole Polytechnique F¨¦d¨¦rale de Lausanne (EPFL) is presenting the first Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on plasma physics and its applications, including fusion energy, astrophysical and space plasmas, societal and industrial applications. Enroll now !

A team including Prof. A. Fasoli, Prof. P. Ricci and colleagues at the Plasma Physics Research Center (CRPP) of EPFL, recorded the first MOOC on the basics of plasma physics and its main applications. Current titles include:
? Basics of plasma physics
? Basics of space plasmas in astrophysics
? Industrial and medical applications of plasmas
? Basics of fusion as a sustainable energy
? Advanced concepts in fusion such as magnetic confinement, plasma heating and energy extraction. Classes start on 1 May 2015. The course is given in English and will last nine weeks. Register or get more information or view the on .

?The mission of the JT-60SA tokamak (based in Naka, Japan, and financed jointly by Europe and Japan) is to contribute to the early realization of fusion energy by addressing key physics issues for ºÚÁÏÉçapp and DEMO. It is a fully superconducting tokamak capable of confining high-temperature (100 million degree) deuterium plasmas, equivalent to achieving plasma energy balance if 50/50 deuterium/tritium were used. It is designed to help optimise the plasma configurations for ºÚÁÏÉçapp and DEMO, and has a large amount of power available for plasma heating and current drive, from both positive and negative ion neutral beams, as well as electron cyclotron resonance radio-frequency heating. The machine will be able to explore full non-inductive steady-state operation.

More news in the of the JT-60 SA newsletter.

Lawrence Livermore Lab physicist Richard "Dick" Post, the "father of the modern flywheel" who worked at the lab for 63 years, died Tuesday night following a short illness, lab officials said. He was 96.   Post joined the Livermore lab in 1952, just months after it opened. He researched magnetic fusion energy alongside luminaries such as physicists Herb York, the lab's first director, and Edward Teller, "the father of the hydrogen bomb."   Post retired in 1994, but continued to work, driving himself to the lab four days a week to research various projects, including his flywheel battery. He worked until the last week of his life.  

Read more ?.

?In its April issue, the newsletter from the Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ASIPP) focuses on KTX, the reverse pinch machine that came into existence on 30 March. The mission of KTX is to explore the plasma profiles of future commercial fusion reactors. "KTX will produce its first plasma in June," says Pr. Liu Wandong, chief engineering director and dean of the Modern Physics Department at University of Science and Technology of China.

Read more in the _Do_KTX.pdf_DoX_April issue _Dx_of the ASIPP Newsletter.