FUSION N E W S
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ITER IS THE WAY TO FUSION INTERVIEW: ITER TECHNICAL DIRECTOR REM HAANGE THE ROAD TO FUSION ELEC TRICIT Y INDIA BUILDS COILS FOR JET NEW NEUTRON SOURCE FOR FUSION RESEARCH
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EUROPEAN FUSION DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENT
FUSION IN EUROPE | Contents | FUSION IN EUROPE № 1 | 2013
Contents Moving Forward
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New Gateway computer comes online
3
EFDA A straight road ahead
4
The road to fusion electricity
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New Gateway computer comes online
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Beyond EFDA ITER is THE way to fusion
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Associates New neutron source joins the fusion material quest
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Fusion in Europe invites: Bernard Bigot
JETInsight
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ELM coils – The best of both worlds
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The Joint European Torus
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ELM coils – The best of both worlds
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India builds coils for JET
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JET Guestbook
(Image: Russell Perry, CCFE)
Community
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People Young faces of fusion
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EFDA welcomes new Heads of Research Units
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In dialogue Portuguese teachers catch up on fusion
Miscellaneous 18
Newsflash, EFDA online
Young faces of fusion (Image: Olli Nykänen)
Imprint
Title pictures: EFDA
EFDA Close Support Unit – Garching Boltzmannstr. 2 85748 Garching / Munich
FUSION IN EUROPE ISSN 1818-5355
Germany phone: +49-89-3299-4263 fax:
+49-89-3299-4197
e-mail: christine.rueth@efda.org For more information see the website:
editors: Petra Nieckchen, Christine Rüth
www.efda.org
Subscribe at newsletter@efda.org
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© Francesco Romanelli (EFDA Leader) 2013. This newsletter or parts of it may not be reproduced without permission. Text, pictures and layout, except where noted, courtesy of the EFDA Parties. The EFDA Parties are the European Commission and the Associates of the European Fusion Programme which is co-ordinated and managed by the Commission. Neither the Commission, the Associates nor anyone acting on their behalf is responsible for any damage resulting from the use of information contained in this publication.
| Moving Forward | EFDA |
A STRAIGHT ROAD AHEAD Dear reader, The year 2012 has seen the completion of a process started early in the seventh framework programme: the definition of the long-term European activities in fusion. Through EFDA, the Commission requested the European fusion community to produce an ambitious and realistic roadmap to fusion electricity by 2050. I want to thank all Associates and the experts involved for their contribution to this achievement. It is now necessary to secure the resources for the roadmap implementation in the upcoming framework programme, Horizon 2020, and to start preparing for the detailed execution of the roadmap missions. After the successful experimental campaign in 2011/12, JET scientists presented the results from the ITER-Like Wall to the global fusion community. Their findings are, on the whole, very positive for ITER. This was recognised by the ITER Director General during his visit to JET in July, where he emphasised the continuing role of JET for ITER. JET will carry out a series of dedicated experiments this year in support of the final decision on the tungsten divertor in ITER. An important step forward in the collaboration of the ITER parties on JET has been made in 2012 with the launch of a project with India to perform the design and the R&D for the ELM control coils. We are looking forward to increasing the collaboration with other ITER parties in the near future.
The EFDA Physics Department has set a course towards a transition to a more goal oriented approach, coherently with the fusion roadmap. The positions in the Department have been widely renewed during 2012 and there is a large motivation to develop the activities on a more focussed basis. The EFDA Power Plant Physics and Technology Department has substantially advanced many of the assessments originally launched in view of the preparation of the Horizon 2020 activities in this area – an important achievement for the preparation of the fusion roadmap. Throughout Europe, we have seen promising research results and encouraging progress. I would like to express my respect for the work done and encourage us all to keep the spirits and efforts up during this year. Let me take this opportunity to give you my best wishes for the year 2013. â–
FRANCESCO ROMANELLI
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FUSION IN EUROPE | Moving Forward | EFDA |
THE ROAD TO FUSION ELECTRICITY A long-term perspective on fusion is mandatory since Europe has a leading position in this field and major expectations have grown in other ITER parties on fusion as a sustainable and secure energy source. China, for example, is launching an aggressive programme aimed at fusion electricity production well before 2050. Europe can keep the pace only if it focuses its effort and pursues a pragmatic approach to fusion energy. With this objective EFDA has elaborated the present roadmap. Focussing on the research and engineering activities needed to achieve fusion electricity, the roadmap shows that these can be carried out within a reasonable budget. The amount of resources proposed are of the same level as those originally recommended for the seventh European Research Framework Programme – outside the European investment in the ITER construction. The roadmap covers three periods: The upcoming Eu ropean Research Framework Programme Horizon 2020, the years 2021 – 2030 and the time between 2031 and 2050.
E
FDA has published a roadmap
which outlines how to supply fusion electricity to the grid by 2050.
The roadmap to the realisation of fusion energy breaks the quest for fusion energy down into eight missions. For each mission, it reviews the current status of research, identifies open issues, proposes a research and development programme and estimates the required resources. It points out the needs to intensify industrial
ITER is the key facility of the roadmap as it is expected to achieve most of the important milestones on the path to fusion power. Thus, the vast majority of resources proposed for Horizon 2020 are dedicated to ITER and its accompanying experiments. The second period is focussed on maximising ITER exploitation and on preparing the construction of a demonstration power plant DEMO, which will for the first time supply fusion electricity to the grid. Building and operating DEMO is the subject of the last roadmap phase. In the course of the roadmap implementation, the fusion programme will move from being laboratory-based and science-driven towards an industry- and technologydriven venture. ITER construction already generates a turnover of about six billion euro. The design, construction and operation of DEMO requires full involvement of industry to ensure that, after a successful DEMO operation, industry can take responsibility for commercial fusion power. ■
involvement and to seek all opportunities for collaboration outside Europe. 4
The roadmap can be downloaded here: http://tinyurl.com/EFDA-Roadmap
| Moving Forward | EFDA |
LOTS OF FLOPS FOR EUROPEAN FUSION RESEARCH New Gateway computer comes on line
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n January 9, the new European Gateway Computer was inaugurated at IPP in Garching. The Gateway is a five teraflop computer cluster, funded by EFDA and hosted by IPP. EFDA also covers one fifth of the hosting and operation costs. Gateway is dedicated to the common development of the European simulation platform for fusion modelling, which is coordinated by the EFDA Integrated Tokamak Modelling Task Force (ITM-TF). This platform is designed to allow for simulations of the complex behaviour of fusion plasmas to be executed on high performance computers (HPC) or distributed clusters (GRID). The Gateway’s predecessor, hosted by ENEA in Portici, Italy, was shut down at the end of 2012 after five years of successful operation. Meanwhile, all data has been transferred to Garching and the new Gateway will be operational by the end of January 2013. The Gateway is one of the computer resources Fusion researchers currently use, which includes also the High Performance Computer for Fusion (HPC-FF) at Forschungszentrum Jülich (100 teraflops peak performance). HPC-FF will be shut down later this year. The community has also access to the super computer HELIOS (about one petaflop), a Japanese-European facility, which has started operation last year at the Inter national Fusion Energy Research Center in Rokkasho, Japan. The use of HELIOS by the European fusion community is managed via Fusion for Energy and EFDA. ■ Contact: Denis Kalupin, EFDA Responsible Officer for ITM, denis.kalupin@efda.org
Happy faces in Garching as EFDA inaugurates the new Gateway computer. Top: Denis Kalupin, EFDA Responsible Officer for ITM; Bottom, from left: Gloria Falchetto, Leader of the EFDA ITM Task Force, David Coster, Deputy Leader and – participating remotely – Deputy Leader Rui Coelho.
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FUSION IN EUROPE | Moving Forward | Beyond EFDA |
ITER is THE way to fusion, we have to make it a success
(Image: ITER Organization)
T
wo years ago, Remmelt Haange
took up his duties as Deputy Direc-
tor-General for the ITER Project Department. His previous position as Technical Director of the Wendelstein 7-X project brought him to Cadarache. There, Rem faces familiar challenges but also additional complexities.
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| Moving Forward | Beyond EFDA |
This Seismic Pit will support the heavy Tokamak Complex. Made up of the Tokamak, Tritium and Diagnostic buildings, the total weight of the Tokamak Complex is estimated at 360,000 tons. (Image: ITER Organization, July 2012)
Rem, the French authorities have recently licensed the ITER construction. Is that a big step forward? This is certainly a big step forward. We expected to receive the decree in December 2012 and it is very positive that it has been issued already in November. Now the Authorities will continue to inspect the construction, from taking concrete samples to checking our paperwork. You’ve been appointed to ITER at a critical time for the project – you were called to Wendelstein 7-X at a similar time. Do you feel a bit like the fireman for fusion projects? No. A fireman extinguishes a fire in a very short time and then the job is done, but ITER is a very complex project. Fusion devices are complex by nature, but ITER is more complex in two aspects. Firstly, it is a nuclear device and has to be licensed by the French regulator, which is progressing well. Secondly, ITER is more complex because all seven members want to contribute high-tech components in order to qualify their industries. As a consequence, we have six Domestic Agencies working on the blanket and four on the vacuum vessel and even more on the coils. The decision to sign the ITER Agreement this way has multiplied interfaces
rather than minimised them and interfaces always create difficulties. We are already seeing cases where the interface between two contributing countries is on hold and they come to us for help. This is all new, and we will learn, but it is a lot of extra work. How does your experience at Wendelstein 7-X help you at ITER? Well, without Wendelstein I would not be here. The project had been in a difficult situation, and when I left it was in very good shape. Of course, many people besides me contributed to this, but EURATOM seemed to have noticed and asked me to join ITER. As I said, ITER is more complex than W 7-X. It also poses new technical challenges, the biggest of which are the toroidal field coils. Their strands have to be heat treated to become superconducting, but that process makes them rather brittle. So we wind the conductors first and then heat them. Since they slightly change their size, we can only machine the grooves in the radial plates that go inside the coils, and into which the conductors will fit, after the heat treatment. About 60 percent of the strands have been produced and many conductors are already available, so we do not see a problem or bottleneck there.
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FUSION IN EUROPE | Moving Forward | Beyond EFDA |
The ITER Headquarters building was completed in October 2012 (Image: ITER Organization)
What challenges do you see ahead for ITER? Well, the main challenge that I see is the technology needed in the industries. The production of ITER components is starting throughout the world, and with such complex components, one very likely runs into difficulties. These will be solved, but it will take time. So keeping within the schedule is one of our main challenges. It is vital that we keep a very, very close eye on things and react immediately if we sense problems. We have already done so in some cases. In my experience – and this is my fifth project – this is quite normal to happen, but it is always the most difficult part, as schedule is cost. And at ITER, with seven Domestic Agencies, a few months delay here and there can quickly cost many million euros. We are under very high pressure to keep the schedule that has been set by the ITER Council.
Financially, the EU contributes 45 percent and well over 60 percent in terms of manpower. Europe also brings a lot of personnel into the higher levels, as section leaders or division heads, for instance. We receive many more applications from Europe than we do from the other member countries, partly because it is easier for Europeans to move here. Of course my wish is that the European fusion community keeps supporting us as much as possible. ITER is the way to fusion, ITER must be made a big success. Do you have anything specific in your mind with regards to European support?
We have to do everything to keep that schedule. It is hard to say for sure, but in a year or two we will be able to predict this quite accurately. We have to keep as close as we possibly can to the current schedule and that’s what we are working on. There is no visible roadblock ahead right now, but we know it is difficult.
What I see is that when we have a vacancy in plasma physics, we nearly only get applications from Europe. This is a field where Europe certainly makes a very large contribution. We also need the link to the fusion community to ensure that we have young and trained people that can operate ITER for the next 20 years or so. Diagnostics and heating are other fields for which we need the expertise of the fusion community. It is not easy to write a specification for a diagnostic for the industry and to make sure that the component works on the ITER machine. Hence continued fusion community support will be required.
Europe plays a large financial role in ITER. How do you view the European contribution in general?
Rem, we thank you very much and wish you a very successful year 2013. ■
Are you confident that ITER will stay on schedule?
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| Moving Forward | Associates |
A NEW NEUTRON SOURCE JOINS THE FUSION MATERIAL qUEST CCFE collaboration enhances capabilities of European fusion materials research
T
he neutrons that emerge from fusion reactions carry the energy to produce electricity, but their high-speed onslaught on the surrounding structures causes damage and activation – leaving materials researchers with a headache. Testing samples of suitable elements and materials is therefore a high priority, but the prodigious amount of energy – 14 mega electron-volts (MeV) – carried by fusion neutrons is difficult to reproduce. One of the few devices worldwide that can produce neutrons at this energy is the ASP accelerator operated by the Atomic Weapons Establish ment (AWE) in Aldermaston, UK. CCFE scientists are collaborating with AWE, using this accelerator to collect experimental data about neutron-induced nuclear reactions taking place inside materials. Though ASP – like all other available 14 MeV neutron sources – delivers neutron fluxes of the same energy, but of much lower intensity than a fusion plasma, experiments on such devices help with the validation of nuclear data which is needed to design suitable materials. The development of neutron-resistant materials for fusion power plants is based largely on computer simulations of the effect of the fast neutrons on the material’s atomic structure. CCFE is very strong in these theoretical fields and it also maintains one of the world’s most extensive libraries of nuclear reactions – the European Activation System, EASY. The data used in the simulations are not exhaustive – for instance cross-sections, which determine the likelihood of certain types of reactions to occur are not always available for the energy level of fusion neutrons. Lee Packer of CCFE’s Applied Radiation Physics Group explains the importance of having access to high-energy neutron sources: “We can now experimentally validate the data used to support our calculations in important areas, such as activation of materials. Previously, through collaborations with European experts in the field, we’ve assembled an extremely detailed set of cross-section predictions derived from theory to cover many types of nuclear reactions, but there’s no substitute for real experimental data to underpin such predictions.”
During an ITER neutronics meeting hosted by CCFE, members of the European Consortium on Nuclear Data took the opportunity to visit the ASP accelerator at AWE. From left: AWE staff, Martin O’Brien (CCFE), Shaun Hughes (ASP Facility Manager, AWE), Axel Klix (KIT), AWE staff, AWE staff, Ulrich Fischer (KIT), Rosaria Villari (ENEA), Maurizio Angelone (ENEA), Jesus Izquierdo (F4E), Steve Lilley (CCFE) and AWE staff. (Picture: © British Crown Owned Copyright [2012]/AWE)
European Consortium on Nuclear Data As part of this activity, CCFE has recently joined the European Consortium on Nuclear Data, a group of institutes that provides experimental data required for the validation of the nuclear data libraries that are being developed for fusion applications. CCFE’s joining means that, in ASP, the consortium now has access to a third 14 MeV neutron source – alongside FNG at ENEA, Frascati, and a device at the Technical University of Dresden. “We will also benefit from CCFE’s well recognised capability on simulating nuclear reactions in fusion materials” adds Maurizio Angelone from ENEA, who leads the Consortium. ■ Nick Holloway, CCFE, Christine Rüth, EFDA The European Consortium on Nuclear Data is formed by ENEA, KIT, JSI, CCFE, the Polish University of Science and Technology and the Czech Nuclear Physics Institute. Contact: Dr Maurizio Angelone, ENEA, angelone@enea.it; Dr Lee Packer, CCFE, Lee.Packer@ccfe.ac.uk More information: ASP: http://www.awe.co.uk/set/Radiation_Science_9fe46.html EASY: http://www.ccfe.ac.uk/EASY.aspx
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FUSION IN EUROPE | Moving Forward | Associates |
FUSION IN EUR OPE INVITES: BERNARD BIGOT POOLING RESOURCES IS ONE KEY FOR FUSION SCIENCE
T
he conditions of our energy supply have numerous economic and social consequences for our daily lives. As an example, the cost of importing fossil fuels represented more than €62 billion in 2011 for France alone and has doubled in the last six years. The rising world population will practically double the energy demand as early as 2030, despite the indispensable efforts to save and use energy more efficiently. Furthermore we need to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions drastically so as to mitigate the impact of climate change. Rising to this challenge of a sustainable energy supply are several generations of researchers and engineers at the French Atomic Energy and Alternative Energies Commission (CEA). They have been developing research programmes to offer a broad range of solutions required to produce safe and economically attractive carbon-free energy: development of nuclear Generation III and Generation IV fission reactors, research for fusion energy and development of innovative technologies for renewable energies such as solar, energy storage, fuel cells and biofuels. The various energy technologies under investigation by CEA not only differ in their concepts, but also in their stages of development. On one hand, some CEA teams are currently getting ready to commission a preindustrial prototype designed to produce 2nd generation biofuels. On the other hand, fusion research is still considered a field of basic research with a first deuteriumtritium demonstration plant, DEMO, planned for 2040. Fission, in comparison is an established energy source that now has to be enhanced with innovations in order to make nuclear reactors always safer and able to recycle spent fuels and depleted uranium, reducing the amount of ultimate waste products. The strength of the CEA lies in its capacity to bring together a broad set of technical competences within a global strategy and fusion benefits from such an organisation. The “Institut de Recherches sur la Fusion Magnétique” (IRFM), which runs the Tore Supra superconducting tokamak at Cadarache, conducts most of the CEA’s research in fusion energy. IRFM finds invaluable support from several other CEA units, which boast firstclass teams specialised in various fields essential for the progress of fusion R&D, such as numerical simulation, materials, thermohydraulics, cryogenics, nuclear safety, robotics, tritium management or the operation of nuclear
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DR BERNARD BIgoT is currently University Professor of Physical Chemistry at Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, Chairman of the CEA (since January 2009) and French Senior Representative for the ITER project in France since 2007. He graduated from the Ecole Normale Supérieure and obtained a PhD in Physical Sciences in 1979 from the Pierre et Marie Curie University (Paris). Bernard Bigot has contributed to more than 70 scientific publications on quantum physical chemistry and about 25 articles on energy policy. Between 1993 and 1997 he worked as Director General of Research and Technology and as Chief of Staff of the Research Minister in 2002 and 2003. CEA, the French Atomic Energy and Alternative Energies Commission, is a government-funded technology research organisation, mostly focussed on energy and defence matters. facilities. Indeed, pooling resources, so as to draw on a broad set of competences is essential to reach our challenging goals. Clearly, fusion will benefit from CEA’s existing contacts to industrial partners in other more advanced industrial fields and from its experience in bringing new technologies to market. CEA has been successful in the fusion field as in many other fields due to its variety of competences and we believe from that assessment that the ITER project will benefit from pooling resources with European or other research organisations throughout the world. For this reason, I am extremely pleased with the strong ties that have been forged between the CEA and European research organisations associated by EFDA, and likewise with the ITER project. We are now ready to move on to the next big step by building the ITER facility at Cadarache and by preparing its research programme for the following 20 years. After many key preliminary results for more than 40 years, this will be a decisive stage in the scientific and technological development of fusion energy. Fusion is expected to deliver its first power to the grid in less than 50 years and the results of this ITER prototype will be vital at a time when strategic choices will have to be made. ■
| JETInsight |
THE JOINT EUROPEAN TORUS, JET EUROPE’S LARGEST FUSION DEVICE – FUNDED AND USED IN PARTNERSHIP
The JET vessel in May 2011, featuring the complete ITER-Like Wall (Picture: EFDA)
EFDA provides the work platform to exploit JET in an efficient and focused way. More than 40 European fusion laboratories collectively contribute to the JET scientific programme and develop the hardware of the machine further. The tokamak is located at the Culham Science Centre near Oxford in the UK. It is funded by EURATOM, by the European Associates, and by UK’s fusion Associate, the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy (CCFE) as host. CCFE operates the JET facilities including carrying out the maintenance and refurbishment work required to realise the given scientific goals.
FUSION IN EUROPE | JETInsight |
ELM COILS – the best of both worlds
A computer generated impression of the ELM control coils mounted inside of the JET vacuum vessel. The coils comprise an upper large coil, and three lower smaller coils in each octant, mounted on two structural “strongbacks”. Current is supplied independently to each coil through leads using four main vertical ports, as shown. (Image: Russell Perry, CCFE)
P
iece by piece JET is being adapted to be
as close as possible to a mini-ITER, to enable as much advance testing of the next
step fusion experiment’s design and operation as possible. The last experimental campaign was based around the ITER-Like-Wall, testing out the materials and behaviour of the plasma in a metallic vessel. Future plans involve moving to different fuels and testing other subsystems planned for ITER such as ELM coils, which could prove crucial to ITER's success. 12
ITER of course aims to operate in the plasma regime with the highest energy confinement. Known as the Hmode, this regime of operation was discovered at the Asdex tokamak in Germany in 1982. When the right combination of heating and gas fuelling is used, the Hmode occurs, characterised by the plasma developing an outer layer which prevents particles from escaping. However, with the H-mode came ELMs, edge localised modes. The confinement in the H-mode is so good that pressure builds up inside the plasma until an ELM develops: a burst of turbulence that spews out particles and energy, much like a solar flare. Depending on the amount of energy ejected these ELMs can damage components and erode or melt wall tiles. ITER will have a plasma an order of magnitude larger than any device before, so the scale of its ELMs is a bit of an unknown. Thus the designers have taken a precautionary approach
| JETInsight | and opted to include technologies to tackle them head on. One of the most successful approaches has been to use coils to perturb the magnetic field on the edge of the confined plasma to create resonant magnetic perturbations (RMPs). The exact mechanism of the process is still being explored. The H-mode’s confinement layer relies on particles circulating around the tokamak in distinct layers, a bit like lanes on a motorway. The innermost layers have the fastest moving particles, while the outer layers are the slowest - in the H-mode confinement is good because the particles do not change lanes much. The RMP coils induce regular wiggles in the outside layers of the plasma.
These wiggles cause the concentric layers to overlap, so particles then have a way to change lanes between the layers without completely breaking down the structure. In this way the confined particles can leak out, relieving the pressure build-up which would otherwise lead to an ELM. This technique was pioneered in the nineties on the DIII-D tokamak in San Diego and has since been replicated on other similar sized fusion experiments. However testing on JET, currently the world’s largest tokamak, is required to ensure the successful scaling to ITER’s large dimensions. Phil Dooley, EFDA
India builds coils for JET The project leader on the EFDA side is Dr Christopher Lowry: “The coils are vital to demonstrating a fully integrated ITER scenario on JET,” he says, “and such collaboration is the future of JET – as a training ground for all the ITER partners.” Two teams of Indian scientists and engineers, including project leader Dr Raju Daniel, all from the Institute for Plasma Research (IPR) in Gandhinagar, arrived at JET in the latter half of 2012 to begin work in earnest.
The ELM coil conceptual design team. From left, Prosenjit Santra, Kanubhai Rathod, Pramit Dutta, Vishnubhai Rathod, Ravi Prakash N. (Team Leader – India), Christopher Lowry (Project Leader – EFDA), Manoah Stephen.
A
new chapter in JET’s career has ope-
ned, with the commencement of a significant international collabora-
tion with India. The project is to develop the conceptual design of a system of ELM control
coils for JET including the fabrication and testing of prototype coils. It is being almost entirely funded and carried out by the Indian partners.
The first team, which arrived in midSeptember and will stay at JET for six months, is developing a conceptual design for the 32 coils which will be installed inside the JET vessel. As the coils will be assembled inside the vessel the team also needs to take into consideration any remote handling requirements, such as designing bespoke tooling, along with the many other JET specific requirements. Senior CCFE engineers Nick Sykes and David Wilson are working closely with the team to ensure that all such requirements are clearly understood. The second team from India will carry out R&D for suitable technology and manufacturing processes in India with the help of Indian industry and fabricate two prototype coils, to be delivered in mid-November 2013. While most of the work will be conducted in India, the team of four spent a month at JET familiarising themselves with the pre-conceptual design and preparing preliminary models. Phil Dooley, EFDA
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FUSION IN EUROPE | JETInsight |
JET GUESTbOOK Some of the around 1200 visitors who came to JET from September through December 2012: ■ 330 school students, along with 46 teachers, including several groups from abroad, came to learn about fusion and JET ■ 177 university students attended tours and information days ■ 230 Industry members came for information and networking ■ about 80 scientists visited the facilities for discussions and information ■ Chief Scientific Adviser to the President of the European Commission, Prof. Anne Glover, came in November 2012 to see JET and to discuss European fusion research issues. “Bringing the Sun down to Earth is a good example of the amazing achievements of science,” Ann Glover said, “and we can all be inspired by these outstanding advances in delivering fusion energy.” ■ From left: Tim Jones (Head of Machine Operations), Duarte Borba (Senior advisor to the EFDA Leader), Francesco Romanelli (EFDA Leader), Steve Cowley (CCFE Director), Anne Glover and Lorne Horton (Head of EFDA JET department).
■ Sponsored by the Chinese government, a group of Chinese investors toured renewable energy sector facilities in UK in late November 2012. As part of the tour they visited JET for a taste of energy research. “The members of the delegation are very excited to see JET, as we know the EU is a pioneer in energy development,” said Wang Rui, from the Investment Promotion Agency of China’s Ministry of Commerce. ■
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| Community | People |
YOUNG FACES OF FUSION – EERO HIRVIJOKI
Eero, what is your PhD work about? I work on simulations of fast ions in fusion plasmas and I hope that my work will yield insights about fast ion related physics in the presence of magnetohydrodynamic activity. Do you interact a lot with the machines in Europe? We have a collaboration with ASDEX Upgrade and visit Garching two or three times a year. We also work with JET, but I myself have only been there once, attending a summer school. What made you choose a PhD subject connected to fusion science? Well, it really started some time ago when I looked for my first summer job at the university. I wanted to have something to do with energy, and the group that I am working with now interested me most. Later I did my masters thesis in that group and now I am working on my PhD. Are you finding that your expectations are being fulfilled? My expectations are fulfilled in the sense that I am part of a group that works quite internationally and has some serious computing resources at use. What also motivates me a lot is that some bigger partners in fusion are interested in our results. So I would say that my expectations have been more than just fulfilled.
(Image: Olli Nykänen)
Eero Hirvijoki (right) is a third year PhD student in the Department of Applied Physics at Aalto University, Finland. When he is not operating supercomputers to simulate fast ions in fusion plasmas, he is out rowing on the bay next to the campus.
Where would you like to be ten years from now? Do you have a dream job? University is a good option and, if I want to stay in Finland, VTT is another possibility. But if I really wanted to pursue a career in the academic world or in the fusion community, I would have to go abroad and apply at JET or ITER or one of the larger research centres like IPP Garching. For me personally, a dream job would be more that of a university researcher than working at one of those facilities, because you have more freedom at a university. ■
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FUSION IN EUROPE | Community | People |
EFDA welcomes NEW HEADS OF RESEARCH UNITS
Danish Association EURAToM-DTU VOLKER NAULIN Dr Volker Naulin is a senior scientist at the Danish Technical University. His work focuses on plasma turbulence and transport using numerical simulations. Volker Naulin has been serving as deputy Leader and Leader of the EFDA JET Task Force Transport between 2004 and 2011 and since 2010 as Deputy Leader of the EFDA Topical Group Transport. Dr Naulin was appointed Head of Research Unit in September 2012. ■
“The recently adopted roadmap for the achievement of electricity from fusion by 2050 needs to be supported by ambitious activities in the member
Austrian Association EURAToM-ÖAW FRIEDRICH AUMAYR Friedrich Aumayr is Professor of Experimental Physics at Vienna University of Technology and Deputy Director of the University’s Institute of Applied Physics. His research areas are in the fields of atomic, surface and plasma physics. Professor Aumayr was Deputy Head of Research Unit (HRU) of the Association EURATOM-ÖAW before being appointed HRU in January 2013. He is a member of the Commission at the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) for the Coordination of Fusion Research in Austria. Professor Aumayr is also member of the ASDEX Upgrade Program Committee and he belonged to the EFDA Science and Technology Advisory Committee between 2007 and 2010. ■
states in a corresponding time frame. My aim is to strengthen both the Danish participation within
“As Head of Research Unit of the Austrian Fusion
the joint fusion programme and the standing of
Association my top priority is to maintain and
fusion with the public.“
strengthen the Association’s internal cooperation and integration into the European Fusion Programme, especially with a view to the challenges of Horizon 2020.”
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| Community | In dialogue |
PORTUGUESE TEACHERS CATCH UP ON FUSION
L
ast autumn, 24 secondary school
teachers attended a dedicated workshop offered by Instituto de
Plasmas e Fusão Nuclear (IPFN), which belongs to the Portuguese EFDA Associate IST. The group was introduced to plasma physics, technological applications of plasmas, nuclear fusion, and engineering technologies for nuclear fusion. Part of the programme was also a visit to the Portuguese tokamak ISTTOK, and a subsequent visit to Culham to see JET, in which thirteen of the teachers took part. Their schedule there included meetings with JET Engineer In Charge, Nick Balshaw, and EFDA Senior Advisor Duarte Borba. The knowledge gained in the workshop was vital for keeping up with the students, said Maria Helena Azevedo from Ancorensis, Cooperativa de Ensino in Vila Praia de Âncora. “They read a lot on the internet and ask difficult questions!”
There is a feeling amongst some high school physics and chemistry teachers that their education in recent decades does not keep them abreast of scientific developments. They often lack resources or practical applications. This workshop sought to address ways to overcome these problems, by offering proper documentation, teaching tools for the applications of key concepts, discussion of some ideas for experimental application at schools and a good grounding in the basic principles of fusion machines. The Portuguese teachers were delighted with the opportunity to tour the JET site and expressed a lot of curiosity in the technologies developed there. IPFN is strongly committed to having an active role in the communication of science, and disseminating information about its scientific and technological achievements throughout society. The workshop was the second event of this kind and was sponsored by the outreach programme “Ciência Viva” of the Portuguese Ministry for Science and Technology and TAP Air Portugal. Building on the success of this second workshop, IPFN envisages continuing this approach in the future. This will not only provide training to a wide range of teachers, but will also raise awareness of the level of expertise in nuclear fusion in Portugal. ■ Bruno Gonçalves, Carmo Nunes, IST
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FUSION IN EUROPE | NewsFlash |
NEWSFLASH
A travelling exhibition financed by EFDA.
Fusion Expo in ITER’s neighbourhood The opening of Fusion Expo in Aix-en-Provence in November 2012, gave the ITER Director-General Osamu Motojima (right picture) an opportunity to have a personal go at power production. Pedalling on the bicycle power plant, he and many other visitors visibly demonstrated how hard it is to generate enough power to cover the consumption of an average first-world citizen. Hosted by the ITER Organization, Fusion Expo was on display in Aix-en-Provence, just 30 kilometres away from the ITER site, from November 12–28. In total, it welcomed around 1500 visitors, among them several school classes and many local journalists. ITER also took the opportunity to invite the interested public for round table discussions, which were well attended.
Where is Fusion Expo? See you in 2013 in the following countries: Latvia, Czech Republic, UK, Estonia, Sweden, Germany, Portugal Stay tuned for the exact dates at: http://www.efda.org/fusion-expo Contact: Tomaž Skobe, tomaz.skobe@ijs.si
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Most prominent picture of 2012 The picture featuring the AC pulsed operation of the Portugese tokamak ISTTOK received the most clicks (within a reference time span) of all pictures of the week in 2012.
Computer Generated pictures of the JET vessel Russell Perry at the CCFE’s Graphics office generates images of JET and its systems based on CAD data.
All about remote handling at JET Remote handling plays a big role in the maintenance of JET and will be even more important for ITER. Therefore, we dedicate a separate web-section to the JET remote handling systems.
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28 European countries signed an agreement to work on an energy source for the future: EFDA provides the framework, JET, the Joint European Torus, is the shared experiment, fusion energy is the goal.
Austrian Academy of Sciences AUSTRIA
B E LG I U M
Bulgarian Academy of Sciences B U LG A R I A
University of Cyprus CYPRUS
Institute of Plasma Physics Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic CZECH REPUBLIC
University of Tartu E S TO N I A
Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation FINLAND
Commissariat à l’énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives FRANCE
GERMANY
GERMANY
EURATOM Hellenic Republic GREECE
Wigner Research Centre for Physics HUNGARY
Dublin University IRELAND
Agenzia nazionale per le nuove tecnologie, l’energia e lo sviluppo economico sostenibile I TA LY
Ministère de l’Energie LU X E M B U R G
University of Malta M A LTA
Institute of Plasma Physics and Laser Microfusion POLAND
Instituto Superior Técnico PORTUGAL
Ministry of Education and Research ROMANIA
Comenius University S LO VA K I A
Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport S LO V E N I A
Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas Medioambientales y Tecnológicas S PA I N
Swedish Research Council SWEDEN
Centre de Recherches en Physique des Plasmas SWITZERLAND
Dutch Institute for Fundamental Energy Research THE NETHERLANDS
UNITED KINGDOM
Association EURATOM – University of Latvia L AT V I A
Technical University of Denmark DENMARK
Max-Planck-Institut für Plasmaphysik GERMANY
Lithuanian Energy Institute LITHUANIA
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F4E, S PA I N
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EUROPEAN FUSION DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENT
ISSN 1818-5355