������app

​In June, a group of Communications Officers from fusion laboratories across Europe met in Finland for two days of exchange.

Representing the 29 research organizations and universities from 26 European countries plus Switzerland, the communicators from FuseCOM met for the first time on behalf of the newly built consortium to discuss European fusion communication.   EUROfusion, the European Consortium for the Development of Fusion Energy, manages and funds European fusion research activities on behalf of Euratom, in accordance with the , which outlines the most efficient way to realize fusion electricity by 2050. It is the result of an analysis of the European Fusion Programme undertaken in 2012 by the Research laboratories within EUROfusion's predecessor agreement, the European Fusion Development Agreement, EFDA.   The FuseCOM members met in Finland, where they were hosted by Finland's Research Unit VTT. Through presentations and working groups, participants shared news from the research units across Europe, practical examples of communication work, and strategies for the future. Meeting organizer and head of EUROfusion's Communications Office, Petra Nieckchen, commented: "We have established a trusting network that is the very basis needed to reach our long-term goal: creating, with the network, a coherent European voice for fusion."   Learn more about FuseCOM .

The 8th edition of the Festival de Théorie opens on Monday 6 July in Aix-en-Provence, France.

Held every two years, the Festival organizes theory working groups on well-focused subjects in magnetized plasma physics and aims to foster interdisciplinary links between magnetic fusion, astrophysics, plasma physics and related fields.

The international meetings usually bring together 25 to 35 experts and about 80 younger researchers, including PhD students and post-docs. The Director Committee for this year's edition is chaired by ������app Director-General Bernard Bigot. The scientific committee is chaired by Prof. P.H. Diamond (UCSD and NFRI) and co-chaired by Dr. X. Garbet (CEA).

The 2015 Festival de Théorie will run from 6 to 24 July 2015. The main topic is "Pathways to Relaxation." This includes — but is not limited to — reconnection events such as solar flares and general impulsive relaxation in astrophysics, sawteeth, Edge Localized Modes and edge relaxation phenomena in confined plasmas, Taylor relaxation, Potential Vorticity mixing dynamics and homogenization in fluids, and general aspects of constrained relaxation.

More information at the conference .  

​Rotation is key to the performance of salad spinners, toy tops, and centrifuges, but recent research suggests a way to harness rotation for the future of mankind's energy supply. In papers published in Physics of Plasmas in May and Physical Review Letters this month, Timothy Stoltzfus-Dueck, a physicist at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), demonstrated a novel method that scientists can use to manipulate the intrinsic — or self-generated — rotation of hot, charged plasma gas within fusion facilities called tokamaks. 

Such a method could prove important for future facilities like ������app, the huge international tokamak under construction in France that will demonstrate the feasibility of fusion as a source of energy for generating electricity. ������app's massive size will make it difficult for the facility to provide sufficient rotation through external means.

Rotation is essential to the performance of all tokamaks. Rotation can stabilize instabilities in plasma, and sheared rotation — the difference in velocities between two bands of rotating plasma — can suppress plasma turbulence, making it possible to maintain the gas's high temperature with less power and reduced operating costs.

Today's tokamaks produce rotation mainly by heating the plasma with neutral beams, which cause it to spin. In intrinsic rotation, however, rotating particles that leak from the edge of the plasma accelerate the plasma in the opposite direction, just as the expulsion of propellant drives a rocket forward.

On the Tokamak à Configuration Variable () in Lausanne, Switzerland, Stoltzfus-Dueck and the TCV team influenced intrinsic rotation by moving the so-called X-point — the dividing point between magnetically confined plasma and plasma that has leaked from confinement. 

Read the full article on the  website.

(Images obtained on the TCV tokamak.)

​Since 2011, JET has been using beryllium and tungsten as plasma-facing materials in the vessel. As the name suggests JET's ������app-like wall is constructed using the same materials that will be used in ������app, the next generation fusion experiment which is currently being built in France.

So far, experiments with the new wall have been fuelled by hydrogen and deuterium. Since the most economic fuel for future fusion power plants is a mix of deuterium and tritium, this mixture needs to be put to the test.

As part of the preparations for this extraordinary event, the first delivery of tritium has arrived at the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy (CCFE), the home of JET. Tim Jones, project sponsor from CCFE explains: 'For licensing reasons, only a limited amount of tritium may be transferred over the JET tritium storage facility in an individual batch quantity. Additional batches will later be delivered in order to collect together a total amount of 55 grams that will be needed for the scheduled campaign."

Dedicated sets of experiments using deuterium and tritium are necessary to promote understanding of the influence of the fuel isotope on plasma performance and on interactions between the plasma and the new wall.

Similar experiments to those planned with tritium are being prepared with hydrogen and deuterium, so far the results show that ������app operating regimes are compatible with the new wall materials.

 

Read the full article on the  website.

​A round-up of the latest news articles, videos and images from the European Domestic Agency for ������app can be found in the June edition of the F4E News, accessible by clicking on this .

​The European consortium responsible for manufacturing seven of the nine ������app vacuum vessel sectors has begun hot forming activities on sector #5.

In this video filmed by Patrick Vertongen (������app Quality Assurance & Assessment Division) at Walter Tosto SpA in Chieti, Italy (part of the AMW consortium, with Ansaldo Nucleare S.p.A and Mangiarotti S.p.A) a stainless steel plate is pressed into the required shape through an open die hot forming process.   First, the 60 millimetre-thick plates are heated to 930 °C in a gas-fired furnace and maintained at this temperature for 30 minutes. Then, the plate is removed from the furnace and positioned in a die to be pressed. After two hours in the die, the plate is removed and cooled for the next manufacturing operation.   Each of the nine vacuum vessel sectors will be 13 metres high, 6.5 metres wide, 6.3 metres deep and will weigh approximately 500 tons; all of the sectors are double-walled, containing thermal shielding in the interstice to protect the super conducting coils. The other two sections of the ������app vacuum vessel are being supplied by Korea.   Click to watch the video (With the authorization of Walter Tosto SpA.)

​What would it mean to have an essentially limitless amount of energy? If we can harness fusion power, we can have energy that is clean, safe, sustainable, and secure. It will be the power of a sun on earth. The dream of fusion energy has been a scientific goal for decades, but it has remained elusive.

On Tuesday, June 16, 2015, Dennis Whyte, the Director of the showed that a series of scientific and engineering breakthroughs could enable fusion to become a feasible a power source faster and cheaper than anyone had thought possible. These technological breakthroughs—High Temperature Superconducting magnets, 3D printing techniques, and a new liquid salt material that could be used as a liquid blanket—were not originally developed for fusion, but they could revolutionize the development of fusion energy.   As a part of New York Energy Week, Whyte presented the recent and ongoing technological breakthroughs to a group of professionals from energy, finance, and media at FTI Strategic Communications' Wall Street office. This event was sponsored by the as part of their program on Next Generation Energy.   See the original article and slide show presentation .

If only it were possible to read minds. It would have been interesting to know what that particular visitor was thinking as he leaned over the fence to stare down into the busy Tokamak Complex construction area, with its massive rebar and concrete structures. Perhaps how ������app is taking shape, after all these years... 

Academician Evgeny Velikhov, current President of the Kurchatov Institute in Moscow, is one of the masterminds behind the ������app Project. He helped to initiate the project at the highest political level by persuading Secretary-General Mikhail Gorbachev that the next generation of fusion device needed to be a joint international effort. He was ������app Council Chair during the technical design phase for ������app and again at the start of ������app construction from 2010-2012.

  Academician Velikhov was on-site to attend the sixteenth ������app Council meeting held at Headquarters from 17 to 18 June, but for now it was time to see how construction was progressing. Escorted by the acting head of the ������app Tokamak Engineering Department, Alexander Alekseev, as well Section Leader Igor Sekachev, Velikhov—now in his —was able to take full measure of the road travelled as he looked over the 42 hectare construction site spread out before him.   Back at Headquarters, he quickly removed the obligatory safety shoes and safety equipment to meet some of the Russian staff members at ������app before returning later that day to Moscow.

​​In this five-minute video produced by the European Domestic Agency for ������app, the type of specialized robotics, networks and virtual reality techniques used in deep sea or space operations find their application for ������app, where remote handling will be used to perform maintenance, inspection and repair tasks.

The European agency is responsible for delivering four remote handling systems to ������app: the divertor remote handling system, the neutral beam remote handling system, the cask transfer system for activated components, and the in-vessel viewing and metrology system—in all, about EUR 250 million of investment.

Recently, conclusive tests were carried out at the VTT Technical Research Centre in Tampere, Finland for the remote handling of ������app divertor cassettes—10-ton components that must be installed and/or exchanged through high-tech robotics. 

Watch the video .

​The signature nuclear fusion experiment at the Princeton Plasma Physics Lab is expected to relaunch this summer after being shuttered for upgrades for about three years.

When it reopens, the reactor there will be the most powerful of its kind in the world, lab directors say.

"We expect to start up probably toward the end of June. We'll do the initial tests that will get us toward research operations, and (research) will start later in the summer, let's say August time frame, maybe mid-September," said Adam Cohen, chief operating officer for the lab.

The National Spherical Torus Experiment, also known as NSTX, is a plasma in the shape of a cored apple heated to between 50 million and 100 million degrees.

The experiment's $94 million upgrade bought a stronger magnet for the plasma's nuclear reactor and a second neutral beam accelerator to heat plasma even further.

Read the whole article on the  website.

​As part of a (SciDAC) project, a partnership between the US Department of Energy's and Fusion Energy Sciences programs, researchers are using the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility's (OLCF's) Titan supercomputer to try to get closer to producing sustainable fusion for electricity.

 

The project, led by Brian Wirth, a researcher with the University of Tennessee and DOE's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, brings researchers from various organizations together to work on different aspects of the ������app experimental fusion reactor.

... Wirth and his collaborators are using , a Cray XK7 supercomputer capable of 27 petaflops, or 27 quadrillion calculations per second, to shed light on how fusion plasma interacts with the materials used to build the reactor. Specifically, they're investigating how tungsten—one of the toughest materials known—will be affected by the plasma over time.   As helium particles bombard the tungsten wall, they begin to form clusters within the material. Once a helium atom is embedded in the wall, it attracts other helium particles. When enough helium is bunched together, it can "knock out" a tungsten atom from its normal position within the material, forming a nanoscale cavity, or hole, within the tungsten.   Read the full report published on the Oak Ridge National Laboratory's website .

Ten years ago this month, a group of industrial nations agreed on the location for the world's largest nuclear-fusion experiment: ������app, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, which they had decided to build jointly. Today, roughly €4 billion worth of construction contracts and €3 billion in manufacturing contracts worldwide are underway and the first large components are being delivered to the site at St-Paul-lez-Durance in southern France. Faced with slippage in the schedule—despite the best efforts of the more than 2,000 dedicated people working on ������app—in March 2015 the ������app Council moved to appoint Bernard Bigot, from France, to the top management position of the project. In this in Nature, published on 11 June, the new ������app Director-General explains how he will strengthen leadership and management to refocus the project's aim of harnessing nuclear fusion.

​Researchers at the US Department of Energy's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have for the first time simulated the formation of structures called "plasmoids" during Coaxial Helicity Injection (CHI), a process that could simplify the design of fusion facilities known as tokamaks.

The findings, reported in the journal Physical Review Letters, involve the formation of plasmoids in the hot, charged plasma gas that fuels fusion reactions. These round structures carry current that could eliminate the need for solenoids — large magnetic coils that wind down the centre of today's tokamaks — to initiate the plasma and complete the magnetic field that confines the hot gas.

"Understanding this behavior will help us produce plasmas that undergo fusion reactions indefinitely," said Fatima Ebrahimi, a physicist at both Princeton University and PPPL, and the paper's lead author. 

Left: Plasmoid formation in simulation of NSTX plasma during CHI / Right: Fast-camera image of NSTX plasma shows two discrete plasmoid-like bubble structures. (Photo by Left: Fatima Ebrahimi, PPPL / Right: Nishino-san, Hiroshima University)

Read the full article on the PPPL .

​Facilitating the encounter between job opportunities and local jobseekers was the objective of the third "L'Energie pour l'Emploi" (Energy for Employment) job fair held last Thursday 4 June at the Château de Cadarache near ������app.

This year's fair, organized by Saint-Paul Emplois (the municipal employment association of Saint-Paul-lez-Durance, France) in collaboration with a number of neighbouring municipalities and the national employment agency Pôle Emploi, had broadened its outreach beyond the ������app construction site and the CEA research centre.

To make the fair even more attractive to the 500 job seekers that had come from all over the region, 40 local companies were present as well as the French Army and the Gendarmerie.

Long queues formed at each of the stands as jobseekers waited for their turn in this professional speed-dating exercise with human resource specialists from each organization.

In total more than 350 jobs were on offer, in a variety of fields such as construction, engineering, nuclear industry, army and services. "Every day, more than 8 000 people come to work in Saint-Paul-lez-Durance at one of the worksites or organizations based on its territory," says Roger Pizot, Mayor of Saint Paul, "and this also creates considerable indirect employment.  This Forum helps to ensure that the first ones to benefit from these job creations are the local jobseekers."

The ������app stand. From left to right, Sophie Gourod, Sophie Flechel and Emilia Fullmer-Bourree from the Human Resources Department.

​Before it can become operational, the main body of an electrical transformer must be equipped with several additional elements such as oil radiators, an oil conservator, and insulators called "bushings" — long ceramic devices that deliver the current to the transformer and stick out like horns on the head of a beast.

In order to prevent electrical discharge in the air, the length of the bushings must be proportional to the voltage: at 400 kV, no less than 6 metres of conductor, filled with oil and encased in a ceramic structure, are necessary.

Installing each one-ton component is a long and delicate operation that must be replicated three times for each transformer (one per electrical phase).

When all accessories are installed, the transformer will be filled with oil (an operation that will take three days straight). More than 60,000 litres of oil are necessary per transformer.

​Another key step in the building of the MAST-Upgrade fusion device was taken last week with the joining of the first two main segments of the new machine. 

MAST-Upgrade was designed to be divided into seven modules to maximize the amount of assembly work that could be carried out at the same time. On Thursday 28 May, a day ahead of schedule, two modules were brought together for the first time. The 30-tonne MAST-Upgrade vacuum vessel (known as the outer cylinder module) was lifted onto the lower cassette module, a key part of the Super-X divertor — the innovative plasma exhaust system that is a key feature of the new device.

This was the culmination of a huge amount of design, procurement and assembly effort by the MAST-Upgrade team over the past 12 months. It means the project remains on track to hit its major build milestones over the coming months and deliver a machine ready for pump-down by October 2016.

Read the full story on the  of the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy (CCFE).

​On Wednesday 27 May, ������app 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 ������app 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 ������app, the group DAHER is the Logistics Service Provider for the project's global transport, logistics and insurance needs.

Through implementation agreements concluded with each ������app Domestic Agency, DAHER (or DAHER partners nominated locally) will manage the complex logistics related to the transport of ������app components from suppliers all over the globe to the ������app 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 ������app.   "Our main objective is to offer an equal level of services to all the Members of the global ������app Project," said François Genevey, Daher director for ������app 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 ������app components arriving by sea (Fos-sur-Mer); the discovery of the 104-kilometre itinerary to ������app; an introduction to DAHER logistics tools for ������app; and a session on the management of Protection Important Components (PIC) and, more generally, on the specific demands of a basic nuclear installation like ������app in France.   A similar kick-off meeting was held in September 2014 for DAHER partners from Japan, Korea and the US.   Daher partners for ������app 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—particularly in view of the next step beyond ������app, the demonstration power station DEMO.

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