ºÚÁÏÉçapp

​On 17-18 September, the ºÚÁÏÉçapp hosted the annual meeting on intellectual property issues that brings together contact persons and specialists from the ºÚÁÏÉçapp Central Team and the seven Domestic Agencies

Chaired by the ºÚÁÏÉçapp Legal Adviser, the Intellectual Property Contact Persons meeting is the forum for discussions on intellectual property-related issues encountered with suppliers, legal issues related to non-disclosure agreements, the use of the ºÚÁÏÉçapp logo, and the utilization of the intellectual property database.

The fundamental principles of intellectual property management within the ºÚÁÏÉçapp Project are set out in Article 10 of the ºÚÁÏÉçapp Agreement: The ºÚÁÏÉçapp and the Members shall support the widest appropriate dissemination of information and intellectual property they generate in the ºÚÁÏÉçapp Project. The ºÚÁÏÉçapp Members benefit from accessing the intellectual property that results from the project through intellectual property provisions included in each contract, in compliance with the ºÚÁÏÉçapp Agreement and fully detailed in its annex on information and intellectual property (IIP Annex).

The network of Central Team-Domestic Agency contact persons plays a significant role in the implementation of intellectual property provisions in the framework of the project, confirming progress, sharing best practice, and furthering the management of intellectual property issues.

-- Akiko Takano, Legal Affairs 

By Steven Cowley

Chief Executive Officer of the UKAEA Head of the EURATOM/CCFE Fusion Association

​

This December, world leaders will gather in Paris for the United Nations Climate Change Conference, where they will attempt — yet again — to hammer out a global agreement to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. Despite the inevitable sense of déjà vu that will arise as negotiators struggle to reach a compromise, they must not give up. Whatever the political or economic considerations, the fact remains: if global temperatures rise more than 2˚C from pre-industrial levels, the consequences for the planet will be catastrophic.

But the challenge does not end with reducing emissions. Indeed, even if we make the transition to a cleaner world by 2050, we will need to determine how to meet a booming global population's insatiable appetite for energy in the longer term — an imperative that renewables alone cannot meet. That is why we need to invest now in other technologies that can complement renewables, and provide reliable electricity for many centuries to come. And one of the most promising options is nuclear fusion — the process that powers the sun and all stars.

(Photo Elle Starkman/PPPL)

Read the full article on the  website.

T​he Satellite Tokamak Program, JT-60SA, is a major modification of the existing JT-60U tokamak at the Naka Fusion Institute in Japan. Part of the Agreement signed between Japan and Euratom (and implemented by the Japan Atomic Energy Agency and the European Domestic Agency for ºÚÁÏÉçapp), it is designed to support the operation of ºÚÁÏÉçapp and to investigate how best to optimize the design and operation of fusion power plants built after ºÚÁÏÉçapp.

Recent progress has been reported in the fabrication of equilibrium field coils and the vacuum vessel thermal shield, as well as the procurement of the quench detection system.

Read more in the August issue of the or on the European Domestic Agency .

​To encourage the participation of Chinese professionals in international organizations and international mega-science projects such as ºÚÁÏÉçapp, a week-long training program was held at Zhejiang University, Hangzhou from 16 to 21 August.

Cao Jianlin, Vice Minister of the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) and head of the Chinese delegation to the ºÚÁÏÉçapp Council participated, along with other 13 distinguished scholars, high-level officials from international organizations, representatives of government, and the heads of the Chinese and Korean Domestic Agencies for ºÚÁÏÉçapp.   Through expert lectures, case studies and seminars, participants were updated on progress in research and technology at home as well as the status of international mega-projects in science and participation opportunities.

The European Domestic Agency has produced a five-minute video on the delivery of its first manufactured components to the ºÚÁÏÉçapp site in southern France—six drain tanks for the ºÚÁÏÉçapp Tritium Plant. 

Click to watch.

​ It was arguably the scientific fraud of the century, but a hugely expensive failed project to create energy from nuclear fusion laid the foundation for Argentina's success in physic.   The ruins are ghostly, silent. The crumbling buildings and labs — hidden on an island that's drowning in a dense, green forest — look as if they are an abandoned villain's lair from an early James Bond movie. And in a way, they are a villain's making — they're all that remains of a top-secret project, 'Proyecto Huemul', which turned out to be one of the biggest and most expensive frauds in scientific history — and ironically also became the foundation of a scientific success story.   Tiny Isle Huemul, with an area of just two square kilometres, is covered in alerce trees; it resembles the head of a giant crocodile taking a snooze on a sunny August afternoon, poking out of the mesmerising deep blue waters of Lake Nahuel Huapi in Patagonia, amid the snow-capped mountains of the Argentinian Andes.
Read the whole article on website.   Also in Newsline # 196

​The ºÚÁÏÉçapp International School (IIS) is an annual event jointly organized by the French Aix-Marseille University and the ºÚÁÏÉçapp. The 2015 edition will take place from 14 to 18 December at the University of Science and Technology (USTC) in Hefei, China, hosted by USTC and the Academy of Sciences Institute of Plasma Physics, ASIPP.

The primary objective of the IIS is to provide a regular forum for conducting a post-graduate training school in the area of fusion science for young researchers with a view to attracting them to participate in the scientific exploitation of ºÚÁÏÉçapp. The IIS will present the current and future scientific and technical challenges facing fusion science. The academic program of the IIS will be focused on a chosen scientific theme relevant to ºÚÁÏÉçapp and which may change from year to year.

The theme chosen for 2015 is: Transport and pedestal physics in tokamaks   Previous editions have taken place in Aix-en-Provence, France; Gandhinagar, India; and Austin, TX, USA. For more on the ºÚÁÏÉçapp International School, or to enroll, please visit the IIS 2015 .

 

​Registration is open through 1 October 2015 for the fifth FuseNet PhD event, which will take in Prague, Czech Republic from 15 to 18 November.

The aim of the event is to enable students to disseminate their research, develop a network of contacts and learn from each other's experiences.

Organized by the Faculty of Nuclear Sciences and Physical Engineering of the Czech Technical University under the umbrella of the FuseNet Association and with financial support by , the PhD Event 2015 brings together PhD students working in the field of fusion science and engineering.

The PhD Event is open to all PhD students whose topic is associated with nuclear fusion research and registered at a European university, or at a FuseNet member university. Financial support for attending students is available, granted by EUROfusion through FuseNet, at the FuseNet website. More details will be posted on the registration form.

  Registration is open through 1 October 2015.

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

In July, the European agency announced that it had signed the fourth and final Procurement Arrangement for remote handling systems with the ºÚÁÏÉçapp—the Cask and Plug Remote Handling System. Responsible for confining and transporting the machine's activated in-vessel components, this complex system will interface with more than 50 different ºÚÁÏÉçapp systems and comply with the strictest nuclear safety requirements.

The casks, which are automated, mobile containers weighing approximately 50 tons, will move equipment such as divertor cassettes and heating plugs between the Tokamak Building and the Hot Cell Building in order for them to be repaired, tested or disposed of. These transfer devices will need to be able to lift components weighing up to 45 tons and operate with high accuracy within a tightly confined space within the buildings.

The procurement contract for a fleet of 14 units is expected to be awarded in 2016.

Read the full article on the European Domestic Agency .

​"Fusing the Project World" is the title of a Project Management Conference organized by "eVa in the UK" in collaboration with the ºÚÁÏÉçapp. The event will take place at the ºÚÁÏÉçapp Headquarters on 4 September 2015.

This one-day conference offers first-hand opportunity to exchange ideas and experiences with world leading project managers. The list of speakers lined up includes CERN's leading engineer Roberto Saban, Didi Hopkins from the National Theatre of Great Britain and Harvey Maylor from the Said Business School. The fusion part of the conference will be covered by ºÚÁÏÉçapp Director-General Bernard Bigot and Steven Cowley, the CEO of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority. For more information please click .

​The 10th Asia Plasma & Fusion Association Conference (APFA) will be held in Gandhinagar, India from 14 to 18 December 2015.

The purpose of the APFA is to organize Asian scientists and engineers working in plasma and fusion science and engineering fields, to exchange information on mutual interests, to strengthen friendships, to promote education of young scientists and engineers, and to contribute to the development of plasma science and fusion engineering.

Abstract submission closes on 1 August. For more information, visit the APFA .

​Chuck Kessel, a principal engineer at the US Department of Energy's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), has won the 2015 Fusion Technology Award. The honour, from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' (IEEE) Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society, recognizes outstanding contributions to fusion engineering and technology.

"Chuck has long been a widely recognized pioneer in developing advanced tokamak operating scenarios that have served as the basis for several machine design concepts," said Michael Williams, associate director for engineering and infrastructure at PPPL and a past recipient of the honour. "Receiving the 2015 Fusion Technology Award duly recognizes Chuck's outstanding contributions to the development of fusion technology."

Presentation of the award came during the 2015 Symposium on Fusion Engineering (SOFE) that was held in June in Austin, Texas. The annual event focuses on the latest developments in the quest for fusion energy. While at the conference Kessel gave a plenary talk about the Fusion Nuclear Science Facility (FNSF), a proposed next step in the US fusion program. Kessel heads a nationwide study that will detail options for the FNSF and consider its role in relation to ºÚÁÏÉçapp.

(Photo by Elle Starkman/ PPPL Office of Communications)

Read the whole article on the PPPL .

​The first edition of the new Summer School "" for students and postdocs was successfully realized last week (16-20 June 2015) in Poland.

 The aim of this initiative (cooperation between CEA Cadarache, Institute of Nuclear Physics PAN and Rzeszow Technical University in Poland) is to establish a thematic school, i.e. Summer School of Plasma Diagnostics, with a strictly defined topic: the first edition was devoted to 'Soft X-ray diagnostics for Fusion Plasma'.

 The choice of the School's venue, in the south-eastern part of Poland, was not accidental. In this region the 'green field' for DONES is proposed under the auspices of local government and . This region has a heavy concentration of aerospace industry, scientific research centers, as well as educational and training facilities.

 The next edition of the School in 2017 will be devoted to neutron and gamma for fusion plasma diagnostics. Book your time in the summer of 2017 for PhDiaFusion !

 Photo: Chairman of the School Didier Mazon (CEA) has invited the eminent scientists who led lectures and tutorials for young students. Among them they were: Luigi Alloca, Robin Barnsley, Dimitri Batani, Andreas Dinklage, Tony Donne, Christian Ingesson, Hans-Joachim Kunze, Martin O'Mullane, Jef Ongena, Marek Rubel, Marek Sadowski, Jan Stockel and Tom Todd.

​For one week at the end of June, a representative of the ºÚÁÏÉçapp quality assurance team inspected a number of Russian industries for compliance with the quality system requirements of the ºÚÁÏÉçapp.

These companies are producing hardware in the framework of Russia's commitments to ºÚÁÏÉçapp's in-kind procurement program, which distributes the manufacturing of ºÚÁÏÉçapp components and systems among the seven ºÚÁÏÉçapp Members.

The industries inspected—the Dollezhal Institute (Moscow), the Efremov Institute (St. Petersburg), JSC Energopul (Moscow), Fusion Centre (Moscow), and CJSC RTSoft (Moscow)—are responsible for the development and procurement of switching networks and fast distribution units, DC busbars and instrumentation; the blanket first wall; the electron cyclotron radio frequency gyrotrons; blanket module connections; and diagnostic systems and port plug integration. The Russian Domestic Agency was also inspected for its compliance to quality systems requirements.

The final report highlighted compliance with ºÚÁÏÉçapp requirements and identified a number of "good practices" at the industries inspected. 

Alexander Petrov, ºÚÁÏÉçapp Russia 

  

​Do you want to gain professional experience and contribute to the work of the European agency for ºÚÁÏÉçapp, Fusion for Energy? Are you curious about the ºÚÁÏÉçapp Project and what it's like to work in an international environment? A Fusion for Energy (F4E) traineeship could be the perfect opportunity for you!

F4E´s traineeships program aims to promote awareness, knowledge and understanding of F4E's role in the ºÚÁÏÉçapp Project and within the European context, as well as to provide training to university graduates in the fusion field. The traineeship is paid and lasts from four to nine months with F4E in any of the three sites: Barcelona (Spain), ºÚÁÏÉçapp site (France), or Garching (Germany), starting on either 1 March or 1 October.

Click for a list of opportunities.

​Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have developed a detailed model of the source of a puzzling limitation on fusion reactions. The findings, published in June in Physics of Plasmas, complete and confirm previous PPPL research and could lead to steps to overcome the barrier if the model proves consistent with experimental data. "We used to have correlation," said physicist David Gates, first author of the paper. "Now we believe we have causation." This work was supported by the DOE Office of Science.

At issue is a problem known as the "density limit" that keeps donut-shaped fusion facilities called tokamaks from operating at peak efficiency. This limit occurs when the superhot, charged plasma gas that fuels fusion reactions reaches a certain density and spirals apart in a flash of light, shutting down the reaction. Overcoming the limit could facilitate the development of fusion as a safe, clean and abundant source of energy for generating electricity.

Read the full article on the website.

Image: Magnetic island geometry showing the asymmetry effect that is crucial in determining the mechanism for the density limit. Reprinted with permission from Phys. Plasmas 22, 022514 (2015). Copyright 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.

 

​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 ºÚÁÏÉçapp 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 ºÚÁÏÉçapp, the huge international tokamak under construction in France that will demonstrate the feasibility of fusion as a source of energy for generating electricity. ºÚÁÏÉçapp'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 ºÚÁÏÉçapp-like wall is constructed using the same materials that will be used in ºÚÁÏÉçapp, 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 ºÚÁÏÉçapp operating regimes are compatible with the new wall materials.

 

Read the full article on the  website.