Fusion in Europe 2 | 2014

N E W S & V I E W S O N T H E P R O G R E S S O F F U S I O N R E S E A R C H

FUSION IN EUROPE

2 | 2014

A BIG STEP FORWARD29 NATIONAL RESEARCH UNITS FORM THE EUROFUSIONCONSORTIUM

JET FINANCED UNTIL 2018

STELLARATORS AND THE FUSIONROADMAP

Contents

3 A big step forward4 EUROfusion is all of us6 The EUROfusion Programme Management Unit8 Stellarators and the Fusion Roadmap10 First Medium Size Tokamak campaign

successfully completed12 JET financed until 201814 Planning the research programme for JT-60SA

15 FUSION IN EUROPE invites: Maria van der Hoeven

16 Preview December: More news from the Research Units

Newsflash18 www.euro-fusion.org

Imprint

Fuel for Thought

Moving Forward

Preview

Perspectives

FUSION IN EUROPE

Picture: Japan Atomic Energy Agency

Picture: DIFFER

14Planning the research programme for JT-60SA

17How the tungsten wall of a fusion reactor protects itself

Picture: Bernhard Ludewig, IPP

8Stellarators and the Fusion Roadmap8Stellarators and the Fusion Roadmap

14Planning the research programme for JT-60SA

17How the tungsten wall of a fusion reactor protects itself

2 | 2014

Picture: NASA

A BIG STEPFORWARD

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| Moving Forward |

The European Consortium for the Development ofFusion Energy (EURO fusion) is a consortium of

29 national Research Units representing Europe’s fusionlaboratories. It manages European fusion research acti-vities on behalf of Euratom, which awards the appro-priate grant to the consortium. As you are reading this,the final steps are being taken to release this grant tothe Fusion Community with the signing of the agree-ment by EUROfusion and the European Commission/Euratom. EUROfusion funds fusion research activities within theEuropean programme in accordance with the Roadmap

to the realisation of fusion energy, often referred to as theFusion Roadmap. is Roadmap outlines the most effi-cient way to realise fusion electricity. It is the result of ananalysis of the European Fusion Programme as undertakenby all Research Units within EUROfusion’s predecessororganisation, EFDA.

EUROfusion activities are implemented by the EURO -fusion Programme Management Unit based in Garching,Germany, and in Culham, UK. EUROfusion’s ultimate de-cision making body is the General Assembly, which com-prises representatives of all Research Units. n

Picture: Jan Kranendonk, Thinkstock

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FUSION IN EUROPE | Moving Forward |

WORkING TOWARDS A STRONG TEAM:

EUROfusionIS ALL OF US

Tony, what motivated you to apply for the positionof the EUROfusion Programme Manager?

I must say that I thought about it for a long time becauseI knew it is a very hard job, but I like challenges. As Headof Research Unit and, prior to that as topical group leader,I was involved in EFDA and I felt strongly that we neededto organise things in a different way to be ready for thefuture.

What are your goals?Ultimately I want reach a point at which all ResearchUnits want to strengthen EUROfusion because they feela part of it and consider it a very successful organisation.As an organisation, EFDA only coordinated a relativelysmall fraction of the work of the various Research Unitsand therefore they did not have a strong shared aim, eventhough there was much collaboration between laborato-ries. We need to establish a strong shared spirit in orderto tackle the Roadmap missions in a coherent way. is ischallenging because the programme has become morecompetitive without baseline support. On the other hand,each Research Unit has its strong points and I hope tomake use of these in order to get the best out of thesystem.

Where do you see the main challenges faced byEUROfusion?One of the challenges in which we are already makinggood progress, is the interlacing of the JET programmewith the rest of the European Fusion Programme. esehave previously been considered separate activities and

we need to change that in order to bring more coherenceto our programme. Recently, the Task Force Leaders ofthe JET Programme and of the Medium Size Tokamakproject discussed next year’s work programme and thedeliverables they are aiming for. is was very importantbecause I think it is better to first discuss the researchprogramme with everyone involved and then divide itinto different work packages. For this reason we will alsohold a combined general planning meeting for JET andthe MST devices early next year. e other main challenge is keeping everyone aboard. Inthe new set-up, the Research Units need to raise moneyin a competitive way rather than receive annual baselinesupport. We need to motivate them to focus on their keycompetences and on areas that are part of the FusionRoadmap. at will take many bilateral discussions.Another aspect is communication. I often noticed thatpeople working within the Research Units did not knowwhat has been decided in the General Assembly. I wouldurge the Heads of Research Unit to keep their teams upto date. is is not an easy task when units are large andspread out, for this reason, we have set up our electronicnews brief that everyone can subscribe to. We have to also push the internationalisation of JET tobring in other ITER parties, as recommended by an in-ternational expert panel. is would imply investmentsfrom those parties. We are considering, for instance, anElectron Cyclotron Resonance Heating System or mag-netic perturbation coils. JET is currently funded up to2018 and is planning a tritium campaign in 2017. If weincorporate international partners, we will need to move

The implementation of the EUROfusion consortium brings with it significant changes for itsmembers, the national Research Units. Previously the European Commission had funded apercentage of each laboratory’s fusion activities by means of baseline support. Under the newset-up, EUROfusion distributes all EU-resources in form of funded projects defined according tothe priorities set out by the Fusion Roadmap. In June, Tony Donné was appointed EUROfusionProgramme Manager and he has since finished setting up the new organisation. Prior to thathe was Head of the Dutch Research Unit FOM-DIFFER.

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Picture: Mark Woollard/EUROfusion

this campaign to a later date, because we would need amajor shutdown in order to integrate the new systemsinto the machine. JET would have to start preparing fortritium experiments now. A decision must be made bythe end of this year although we do not know our budgetbeyond 2018. It would be good to be able to continue JETto enable a joint preparatory experiment for all ITER part-ners. It would also be a good strategy to keep the machineclosest to ITER running until ITER starts up.

What opportunities do you see for your work?I hope that I will succeed in forming a successful organi-sation which is also viewed this way by its members andpartners. I hope to see some of the other ITER partiescopy our formula as a really good way to organise collab-orative research. is is a big opportunity. If we get every-one working in the same direction, we can make an enor-mous impact in the field.

Is the EUROfusion organisation that you are aimingfor fit to implement the goal-oriented approachdemanded by the Fusion Roadmap? Yes, in my view it is indeed. Once we get the ResearchUnits more closely aligned, EUROfusion will hopefullywork as one big team, thus giving us the strength to pursuethe Roadmap in the most efficient way. At the same time,we maintain a system flexible enough to add new topicsand halt others, as new aspects are bound to arise.

What is your vision for EUROfusion beyond this(2014-2018) funding period?I am confident that EUROfusion will continue until 2020.Around 2019 we will have to carefully assess EUROfusionand I hope that by then all partners and members willview it a successful organisation and want it to continue.It is possible that the conceptual design work we are doingfor DEMO might move to Fusion for Energy, which bythen will have finished most procurements for ITER andwill therefore have resources available. EUROfusion’s nat-ural role would then be to coordinate European partici-pation in ITER, ensuring that we get most out of this ex-periment.

Education is also a part of the Roadmap. Where willyou set priorities?We will continue the very successful grants for post-docresearchers and introduce a similar set-up for engineers.e current Goal-Oriented-Training for engineers has notalways succeeded in funding the most promising candidates.With our new grant scheme for engineers we will select ex-cellent candidates but also ensure that they can work to-gether in a network. Beyond this, we are carrying out astaff survey in Europe to assess how many people must beeducated in the years to come and in what fields. e out-come of that survey, combined with input from our partnersF4E, FuseNet and Industry, will be used to define the areason which we focus our future fellowships. n

"My goal is to deliver tothe EUROfusion ProgrammeUnit the operation of JETcompatible with the roadmap."

EUROfusion is all of usTony Donné

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THE EUROfusionPROGRAMMEMANAGEMENTUNIT

Meet therequirements ofthe new system

Christina Mrozek

“Ensuring efficientadministration and

developing standards,procedures and

guidelines that meet theneed of all players.”

JET Operation

Lorne HortonJETEXPLOITATION

UNIT

FUSION IN EUROPE

“In order to best preparefor ITER we must have

one consistent programwithin which Task Forces

for all European fusionexperiments collaborate

closely.”

Xavier

Litaudon

ITER PHYSICS

ITER PHYSICS@JET

ADMINISTRATION

“We have a very good teamwith excellent Project Leaders for

the distributed PPPT Projects and a good PPPTPMU team with a balanced mix of senior ex-

perts and brilliant young engineers.”

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| Moving Forward |

Making commu nicationflow

Petra Nieckchen

“I am hoping to form one big team comprisingthe ProgrammeManagement Unit andthe 29 Research Units.”

“I dedicate my work to along term goal: creatingtogether with the FusionCommunicatorsNetwork a coherentEuropean voice forfusion.”

ITER

Darren McDonald

“EUROfusion hasagreed a roadmap andcommon structure. is allows us toprepare for ITERexploitation and DEMOdesign as a unifiedteam.”

ITER is the focusof our research

Xavier LitaudonStart put ting the design and technology of Demoin the right context

Gianfranco Federici

COMMU NICATIONS

ITER PHYSICS @GARCHING

POWER PLANTPHYSICS ANDTECHNOLOGY

PROGRAMMEMANAGER

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FUSION IN EUROPE

STELLARATORSAND THE FUSION ROADMAP

STEADY-STATE OPERATION. Principally, a stel-larator is a steady-state device. W7-X will operate in quasisteady-state mode with plasma pulses 30 minutes in length,limited only by the cooling capability of the water coolingplant. Since ITER will operate at similar pulse lengths,technology developments for ITER and W7-X have a lotin common. Just like ITER, W7-X employs superconduct-ing coils to produce magnetic fields. Long pulses requireequipment such as measuring, control and heating systemsand wall components sufficiently capable of maintainingthe long operation times and withstanding heat and particleexhausts from the plasma. W7-X uses powerful microwavesto heat the plasma (Electron Cyclotron Resonance Heating,ECRH) and is the first device to operate an ECRH systemat such high power and with such long plasma pulses. ITER

Inside the Wendelstein 7-X stellarator. (Picture: Bernhard Ludewig, IPP)

The world’s most advanced stellaratorWendelstein 7-X, built by IPP in Greifswald, isgetting ready for operation: In May the device wasofficially inaugurated and it is beingcommissioned at present. Initial plasmaexperiments will start in 2015 and EUROfusionwill participate from the very beginning.

Stellarators are a possible long-term alternative to toka-maks. e European Programme therefore dedicates a

mission of its own to stellarator research in the FusionRoadmap. Furthermore, Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) can helpanswer specific questions for ITER and DEMO.

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will use the same technology and is able to draw upon theexperiences of W7-X, e.g. how to safely operate the deviceat high power or how to toughen the diagnostic systems towithstand stray microwave radiation. e data acquisitionsystems must also be capable of managing and analysingthe large amount of data collected by all of the diagnosticdevices during one long pulse. e plasma control bothfor W7-X and ITER is to be set up in a completely differentway: Today, typical plasma pulses last a few minutes atmost – with a few exceptions like the WEST device, a mod-ification of the Tore Supra tokamak. Steady-state operationas for W7-X, however, will allow plasma conditions to bechanged on the fly, e.g. by modifying magnetic field shapesor plasma heating. e control systems must thus be de-signed to handle this.

3D-PLASMA PHYSICS. W7-X contributes in variousways to answer physics questions for ITER. e commonuse of an ECRH-system is just one example. In general,synergies stem from the use and development of theoreticaltools or systems that are of interest to both devices. Onearea in which stellarators are able to provide exceptionalsupport is 3D-plasma physics. In tokamaks, 3D-effects oc-cur when the magnetic field’s rotational (so called toroidal)symmetry is broken up. e magnetic field of W7-X pos-sesses this kind of three-dimensionality by design. Stellaratorresearch therefore has high levels of expertise in and ap-propriate tools for 3D-plasma physics. One way in whichthese can help tokamak physics, is techniques to mitigate

plasma edge instabilities, so-called ELMs or Edge LocalisedModes. ey are short plasma outbursts which thrust largeheat and particle loads onto the vessel wall. In powerfuldevices like ITER, ELMs are potentially harmful and mustbe mitigated. Several tokamaks have succeeded in mitigatingELMs by perturbation of magnetic fields at the plasma edge,but the physics behind this effect is not yet understood. Asthese resonant magnetic perturbations (RMPs) create 3D-plasma, W7-X provides well-defined experimental condi-tions in which to investigate them. e EMC3 simulationcode developed at W7-X to describe the physics in the outer(scrape-off) plasma layer may also contribute to a betterunderstanding of how these RMPs work.

EUROfusion AND WENDELSTEIN 7-X. EURO fusion is already involved in the preparation of theW7-X program by contributing several components, de-velopments of experimental schemes and computer simu-lations predicting plasma behaviour. e activities rangefrom video cameras designed and built in Hungary toplasma control software from France, electronics fromPortugal, manipulators and probes from Germany andAustria, diagnostic systems from Poland, Spain andPortugal and ion-cyclotron heating from Belgium.Preparation of experimental schemes for W7-X benefitsfrom TJ-II in Spain, the only operating stellarator in Europe.Expertise in stellarator theory from Germany, Austria,Spain and Poland is employed for a theory driven prepara-tion of the exploitation of W7-X. Beyond these develop-ments, a EUROfusion Task Force is being set-up as part ofthe W7-X team from the very start of experiments. n

CONTACT AND INFORMATION: Dr. Andreas Dinklage, IPP, [email protected] Time-lapse video showing the assembly of Wendelsten 7-X:http://www.ipp.mpg.de/1727365/zeitraffer_w7xhttp://www.ipp.mpg.de/16900/w7x

STELLARATORS are magnetic confinement fusiondevices using external coils to create the confining mag-netic field. Tokamaks, on the other hand, rely on thetransformer principle to induce a plasma current whichcreates one of the magnetic field components. The toka-mak configuration is today’s most advanced conceptand it is thus used for ITER and will probably be used forDEMO. However, stellarators offer intrinsic advantagesover tokamaks: they have the inherent capability forsteady-state operation, because they do not use trans-former action. Stellarators are also less prone to plasmainstabilities and do not develop disruptions, both ofwhich are potentially damaging plasma events. Up tonow, stellarator plasmas have shown higher energy andparticle loss than tokamak plasmas. As a result, fusionresearch focussed more on tokamaks and less on stel-larators. The advanced stellarator W7-X addresses theseissues by employing optimised magnetic field shapes toovercome the lower, stellarator specific energy confine-ment.

Eventually, stellarators could be a realalternative for fusion power plants. Bothtokamaks and stellarators have advantages anddisadvantages and in the end the market willdecide. e good thing is that critical points oftokamaks can be dealt with by stellarators andvice versa. It is therefore a prudent approachthat the European Programme persues bothavenues within the Fusion Roadmap to mitigaterisks and to promote a synergetic developmentof fusion power.Andreas Dinklage, Task Force Leader of theEUROfusion stellarator project

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FIRST MEDIUM SIZESUCCESSFUlly

Task Force Leaders Piero Martin, Marc Beurskens andHendrik Meyer plus ASDEX Upgrade’s technical proj-

ect leader Arne Kallenbach review this first MST1 cam-paign. (Ed. note: e other two MST1 Task Force LeadersStefano Coda (CRPP) and omas Eich (IPP) were not pres-ent.) We were just talking about the fact that EUROfusion’sscientific interests sometimes took the machine to the limit,thus leading to quite powerful disruptions. (Ed. note:During a disruption the plasma thrusts all its energy rapidlyonto the vessel wall.) e Task Force Leaders were just ap-preciating Arne’s and IPP’s openness for these challengingexperiments when the news comes in that a tile appears tohave fallen off the wall during last Friday’s disruption, thusputting an end to this day’s experiments at least. But despitethe damage to the machine and that fact that the TaskForce Leaders need to strike today’s experiments off theirlist, the atmosphere is filled with comradeship. ey allthink that taking risks in today’s experiments is a necessityto ensure a safe operation of ITER. It is this productive at-mosphere within the MST1 team and between it and itshost, the ASDEX Upgrade team that has been a key elementof the conversation. (Ed. note: e tile has since been re-placed and the machine inspection has shown that the vesselwas otherwise in good shape.) We are looking back at 40experimental days, during which about 300 scientists fromall over Europe were working on ASDEX Upgrade.

What is your verdict after this very first MST1 campaign?MARC: “Considering that this is a totally new organisation,things have gone rather well. We have dealt with a largegroup of new scientists, which none of us had really ex-

pected. And we had very clear ideas of what we wanted toachieve, although we only had a few weeks to design thescientific programme, and this really contributed to thegood progress we made.” ARNE: “Especially at the beginning, training these newpeople was quite a burden on all of us. But next year, wewill be able to benefit. We also need to design the experi-mental programme to permit more contingency time.” PIERO: “I think that this large number is a success. It notonly reflects the way Europe now organises and funds fu-sion research, it also tells us that we designed an attractivescience project. We hope that colleagues from all the labswill feel more and more at home in the MST experiments.”

Are you happy with the scientific work that was done? MARC: “In my area, which is the investigation of confine-ment in metal wall fusion devices, we made good progress.Experiments with the JET ITER-Like Wall showed thatplasma confinement was, in some cases, up to 40 percentlower than with the same plasma and a carbon wall. Similarbut not so extreme findings had been made at ASDEXUpgrade. We knew it was possible to recover the confine-ment by seeding impurities into the plasma, but we didnot quite understand why. In MST1, using experimentscomparing deuterium-methane and nitrogen seeding, wehave confirmed that the absence of carbon in a metal walldevice may lead to a confinement reduction. We also tooka detailed look into the role of other impurities, such as

From left: Philip Schneider, Marc Beurskens, Pascale Hennequin andPiero Martin

FUSION IN EUROPE

TUESDAY 29TH JULY, IN THE ASDEX UPGRADE CONTROL ROOMAT IPP GARCHING.

IT’S THE PENULTIMATE DAY OF THEEUROFUSION MEDIUM SIZE TOKAMAK (MST1) CAMPAIGN.

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TOKAMAK CAMPAIGNCOMPlETED

helium and krypton, on the confinement. ese are keyexperiments for future fusion reactors.”HENDRIK: “Investigating ELM mitigation via magneticperturbation fields made good progress, too. We benefittedfrom the fact that people from various machines in whichsuch experiments had been conducted came together atASDEX Upgrade. Everyone involved said that they reallybenefitted from this part of the programme.” (Ed. note:Edge Localised Modes (ELMs) are potentially harmfulplasma edge instabilities.)ARNE: “Each machine had different explanations for ELMmitigation, but these did not always match. is verycomplicated situation is starting to become clearer be-cause people from different machines have worked to-gether and exchanged their views. We now know what

measurements to do and, at some point, we will hopefullybe able to better predict how such perturbation coils willwork for ITER.”PIERO: “Runaway electrons are another topic. ey de-velop during a disruption, it is difficult to slow them downand when they hit the wall in a strong, collimated beamthey may cause considerable damage. Disruptions and run-aways are a big concern for ITER and their study is a highpriority for us.”ARNE: “… which is challenging for the machine operator,because these electrons are really quite dangerous. Wewere not particularly keen on doing this experiment (every-one laughs) but the pressure from ITER really convincedus to try it. I am quite happy that we found a scenariowhich is manageable, reproducible and not so harmful forASDEX Upgrade.”MARC: “We’ve also done some smaller experiments, suchas helium transport. ose are important for deuteriumand tritium plasmas, which ITER will use in its activatedphase. D-T fusion produces helium and the problem ishow to remove it, because it may not be allowed to dilutethe plasma. We’ve done some nice transport experimentsto study the profile of helium and how quickly it dissipates.Surprisingly, we found that the helium profile shape fol-lowed the electron profile shape. at’s not explained bythe theories and now we have a lot of questions to answer.is experiment only obtained a couple of shots but hasalready produced some nice results.” n

From left: Hendrik Meyer, Marc Beurskens, Arne Kallenbach, Piero Martin From left: Mike Dunne, Thomas Pütterich, Eleonora Viezzer, Hans-Werner Müller and Hendrik Meyer

| Moving Forward |

WITHIN THE MEDIUM SIZE TOKAMAKPROJECT, three national fusion devices — ASDEXUpgrade (IPP), MAST (CCFE) and TCV (CRPP) — makeexperimental time directly available to the EUROfusionconsortium. In a way, these laboratories hand over theirmachine to a group of European scientists who conductexperiments necessary to pursue the Fusion Roadmap.All this is done under the management and guidance ofthe Project Task Force Leaders and the host machine’steam.

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FUSION IN EUROPE

A 283 million euro operation contract signedbetween the European Commission and theCulham Centre for Fusion Energy (CCFE) inJuly secures JET operation until 2018. Thecontract represents the largest in the historyof JET with an unprecedented duration of fiveyears. After finishing the current campaign,preparations will start for experiments withdeuterium-tritium plasmas.

Up to mid-October, experiments on JET exploit theITER-Like Wall with increased heating power (up

34 Megawatt (MW) of Neutral Beam Heating and 5-6MW of Ion Cyclotron Resonance Heating, ICRH), hencecreating plasma scenarios similar to those in ITER.Experiments focus on developing plasma scenarios andon studying disruption mitigation and runaway electrons(Ed. note: Disruptions are potentially harmful events dur-ing which a plasma very rapidly loses its power. Runaway

electrons are strong, potentially harmful electron beamsthat may develop during disruptions). Also, studies of en-ergy and particle transport in the plasma and of reducingthe heat stress at the vessel wall by seeding impuritiesinto certain plasma areas are carried out. “e campaignis running pretty well, operators and task forces are work-ing very hard, even on weekends. Even though we are op-erating through the summer holidays, we have been ableto man all experiments with scientists,” says Lorne Horton,Head of JET Exploitation. e campaigns will end with aseries of experiments in hydrogen, as JET intends to usethe ITER-Like Wall to test all working gases planned forITER: hydrogen, helium, deuterium and deuterium-tri-tium. Comparisons between hydrogen and deuterium op-

JET FINANCEDUNTIL 2018

at the new operating contract runs for fiveyears instead of the usual one-year renewablecontracts is a big step forwards. It makes thepreparation and planning for deuterium-tri-tium operation in 2017 much easier.Lorne Horton, Head of the JET Exploitation Unit

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| Moving Forward |

eration will also help prepare for the JET deuterium-tri-tium and tritium experiments. In autumn JET will beshutdown until April 2015. Wall tiles will be removed toevaluate the tungsten melt experiments carried out forITER and to continue analysing how tungsten debris isdeposited and re-deposited on the reactor wall. e up-graded ITER-Like ICRH antenna and an optimised pelletinjector will also be installed.

DEUTERIUM-TRITIUM EXPERIMENTS. ecurrent plans for JET foresee a scientific campaign withdeuterium-tritium (D-T) plasmas in 2017. D-T plasmasproduce more fusion power and will therefore be the fuelfor fusion power plants. ITER will carry out its ultimateexperiments with D-T plasmas. Usually fusion laborato-ries operate with D-D plasmas, thus avoiding handlingthe radioactive tritium. D-D experiments can be scaledup to predict the performance of D-T plasmas. JET isthe only device operating that has been licensed for tri-tium. During its last high power D-T campaign in 1997,it produced a world record amount of fusion power. Sincethen, JET has become a much more ITER-like machine:Its vessel wall comprises the same materials as ITER andits upgraded heating systems allow it to operate withsimilar plasma scenarios as ITER. “When JET did thelast D-T campaign in 1997, we did not have the hybridscenario which will be used in ITER, but we do have itnow. Back then, we also did not have the ITER-like plasmafacing components made of tungsten and beryllium. atmakes the D-T experiments very challenging and inter-esting with respect to physics, technology and operation,”explains Xavier Litaudon, Head of the EUROfusion ITERPhysics Department. e JET Exploitation Unit andCCFE have a long to-do-list before the campaign starts:apart from implementing the refurbished ICRH Antennaand the pellet injector, all components must be commis-sioned for operating with the more powerful D-T plas-mas, staff must be trained, the safety measures must bechecked, diagnostic systems must be tested and possiblyadjusted for operation with tritium plasmas and finally,the necessary level of plasma performance must be en-sured.

ORGANISATIONAL CHANGES. e way JET ismanaged within the European Fusion Programme hasbeen reorganised with the implementation of the

EUROfusion consortium. Historically, Europe managedits plasma physics research for ITER (“ITER Physics”)and JET research and operation (“JET Department”) sep-arately. Operation of the JET facilities is provided as anin-kind contribution to the consortium via a contractbetween the European Commission and the CulhamCentre for Fusion Energy. e JET Exploitation Manager,Lorne Horton, assisted by the JET Exploitation Unit, isresponsible for implementing the JET operation contracton behalf of the Commission, including overseeing JEToperation and ensuring consistency with the FusionRoadmap. e split between operational tasks and theorganisation of scientific work on JET has opened thewindow for the combination of ITER Physics and JET

scientific activities within one department. Head of thiscombined ITER Physics Department is Xavier Litaudon.Given the large similarities between JET and ITERPhysics, this change is a strong organisational improve-ment which will enable EUROfusion to work more effi-ciently. “In fact, I applied for my position because I feltthat in order to best prepare for ITER we must combineJET and ITER Physics. e new set-up enables us to de-sign one consistent research programme within whichall European Task Forces and Project Leaders collaborateclosely in the common goal, ensuring the success ofITER,” explains Xavier Litaudon.

An ongoing activity driven by the EU Commission and byEUROfusion is to open up JET beyond Europe. A reviewconducted by a panel of external experts, the so-called“Wagner-Panel”, advised that JET should involve the otherITER parties as it is the machine closest to ITER. “If thisinternationalisation is accomplished, then JET has a goodchance of being kept operational beyond 2018” says LorneHorton. n

CONTACT AND INFORMATION: Dr Xavier Litaudon, Head of ITER Physics,[email protected] Lorne Horton, Head of JET Exploitation,[email protected]

e JET Task Forces and their Leaders (internal): http://tinyurl.com/TF-Leaders

It is important that we prepare ITER opera-tional scenarios on JET with deuterium-tritiumexperiments under ITER-relevant conditionswith respect to physics and operation.Xavier Litaudon, Head of the EUROfusion ITERPhysics Department

e fact that we can now rely on a five yearcontract makes it easier for us and CCFE to ful-fil the goal defined by the Fusion Roadmap.Tony Donné, EUROfusion Programme Manager

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FUSION IN EUROPE | Moving Forward |

In May, fusion scientists from Europe and Japan met todiscuss the integrated research activities planned for the

advanced super-conducting tokamak JT-60SA. is deviceis currently being built jointly by Europe and Japan in Naka,Japan, and start of operation is planned for 2019. e proj-ect is part of the Broader Approach Agreement betweenEuratom and the Japanese government. Each partner fi-nances half of JT-60SA and both will subsequently use thedevice together. e European part is managed by Fusionfor Energy for the EU. EUROfusion manages the contribu-tions of European scientists to the development of the jointscientific programme for JT-60SA within the WPSA WorkPackage. Darren McDonald (ITER Physics Deputy Leader)and Gerardo Giruzzi (WPSA Project Leader) are respon-sible for organising this work within the framework of theEUROfusion ITER Physics Department.

AT THE TALKS IN NAKA, EUROfusion presented afive (2014-2018) year plan focusing on preparation workfor the scientific exploitation of JT-60SA. Darren McDonaldemphasises the good atmosphere of the discussions: “It isessential to build a Japanese-European team which worksvery well together since we share the same facility. Eachscientific role has a team member from both Europe and

Japan and, at the talks, these people sat together in opensessions and smaller groups. e atmosphere was warmand productive throughout.” e meeting coincided withthe installation of the first section of the JT-60SA vacuumvessel, a major milestone in the construction of the ma-chine.

STEADY-STATE OPERATION. JT-60SA is an ad-vanced tokamak designed for steady-state operation. It hassuperconducting magnetic coils and can create high plasmapressures, both of which are essential for steady and near-steady-state conditions. ese properties make it an im-portant device to answer the questions posed by ITER ex-periment planning. ITER is scheduled to begin operationin 2020, but it will be several years before it begins deu-terium-tritium operation and explores advanced scenarios.JT-60SA starts operation in 2019, which means it is welltimed to perform crucial support experiments. In addition,a significant part of the JT-60SA programme is aimed toanswer questions regarding DEMO design.

EUROFUSION ACTIVITIES. ere are three mainareas within the current EUROfusion WPSA 5-year plan.Firstly, the modelling of JT-60SA plasmas to prepare thefuture experiments and support design work. Secondly,experiments must be designed in a way that they utilisethe diagnostic and other systems that will be implementedin JT-60SA in the best possible way. irdly, the operationof a device that is located in another continent must be or-ganised. Infrastructure and tools for real-time data transferand/or for remote operation must be designed and in-stalled. ITER will benefit directly from these activities sinceit will also use similar infrastructure and tools. EUROfusionmust also ensure that it has enough scientists trained tocarry out JT-60SA experiments and to lead the experimen-tal sessions on the machine in Japan. n

CONTACT AND INFORMATION: Dr Darren McDonald, [email protected] Pietro Barabaschi, Head of F4E Broader Approach Dr Gerardo Giruzzi, Project Leader WPSA www.jt60sa.org

PlANNING THEPROGRAMME

RESEARCH FOR JT-60SAEarly in September, the fourth sector of the JT-60SA vacuum vessel was installed, completingnearly half (160 degrees) of the torus. (Picture: Japan Atomic Energy Agency)

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Despite efforts to move to lower-carbon energy sources,the share of fossil fuels in today’s global mix is exactly thesame as it was 25 years ago – above 80%. Despite some en-couraging signs – particularly regarding energy efficiency– and some new policies, energy-related CO2 emissionscontinue to rise at a rate that risks a disastrous warming ofour planet. ankfully, the global energy sector is in transition; coun-tries are assuming new roles and technological advance-ment is changing the balance. Unconventional oil and gassupply and the growth of renewables are transformingour understanding of the distribution of global energyresources. But not everything is changing. Some of thekey indicators of the health of the global energy systemremain as worrying as ever. Currently, one in every 5 peo-ple on earth lack access to modern energy services. Policymakers everywhere face tough challenges as they seek tobalance economic growth, energy security and climatepriorities.Looking to the future, global energy demand is expected toincrease by one-third by 2035 with electricity consumptiondoubling over the same period. How can we expect to meetthis demand while enabling a low-carbon future? Innovative policies and technologies for electricity genera-tion will be the keys to a sustainable future. Action in allsectors is necessary. Yet there is no magic solution to theclimate change problem, and no single technology can pro-vide all the answers. A portfolio of technologies - across allsectors - will need to be deployed at an accelerated pace.Lack of support for energy R&D represents a major chal-lenge, given the strategic importance of energy to the econ-omy and the environment. e Tracking Clean EnergyProgress 2014 report underlines that the world is not ontrack when it comes to supporting RD&D (ResearchDevelopment and Demonstration, Ed. Note) in many suchtechnologies. erefore policies and measures targeted atsupporting RD&D will move early-stage clean energy tech-nologies closer to the market. Fusion could be one of these technologies. What needs tobe done? And what is the IEA doing about it? Fusion hasthe potential—but so far only the potential—to be a game-changer in the future. It has potential to “up-end” our pro-jections entirely, and we would be the first to welcome thissafe, reliable, affordable and clean power source. is would

Maria van der Hoeventook over as ExecutiveDirector of the IEA in2011. Ms. Van der Ho-even previously servedas Minister of Econom-ic Affairs of the Nether-lands from February2007 to October 2010,prior to this she wasMinister of Education,Culture and Sciencefrom 2002 to 2007. Shewas an elected member

of the Netherlands House of Representatives of theStates-General between 1991 and 2002. Up to 1987 shewas head of the Adult Commercial Vocational TrainingCentre in Maastricht, after which she served as head ofthe Limburg Technology Centre until 1991.

Picture: IEA

indeed be a major achievement for our society, and it is forthis reason that the IEA actively, and proudly, supports in-ternational collaborative energy research in all areas, in-cluding fusion. e IEA Fusion Power Co-ordinatingCommittee (FPCC) provides a platform to discuss cross-cutting research issues and to share results of fusion activ-ities worldwide between IEA Member countries, theInternational Atomic Energy Agency, the OECD NuclearEnergy Agency, the European Commission, as well as ex-perts from Partner countries.e FPCC also oversees the activities of eight fusionImplementing Agreements, or international collaborativeworking groups, that examine specific policy and technicalaspects of fusion power, the largest share of any other cat-egory among the 41 currently operating Agreements. eITER IO and the European Commission (EURATOM) aremembers of these agreements. As with any prospectivetechnology, we must do all we can to foster further devel-opment. Maintaining support for R&D is essential. Fosteringpublic awareness and acceptance is also necessary. eseefforts will be particularly important for successful com-mercialisation of fusion. e IEA's fusion activities con-tribute valuable efforts in this regard. n

FUSION IN EUROPE

INVITES Maria van der HoevenA POTENTIAL GAME CHANGER FOR FUTURE ELECTRICITY SUPPLY

FUSION IN EUROPE

PREVIEW DECEMbER:MORE NEWS FROMTHE RESEARCH UNITS

Picture: IPP, Ernst Fesseler

YOUNG FACESOF FUSION

Fusion in Europe talks to Edmund Highcock, a PostDoc at Oxford University about his work investigating

ways to eliminate turbulence from fusion plasmas. n

PRODUCING TUNGSTEN ON AN INDUSTRIAL SCALE

Researchers at KIT have developed a powder injectionmolding process to manufacture tungsten parts. e

new process is more cost effective than the conventionalmachining of tungsten components. Tungsten is the ma-terial foreseen for the reactor wall of DEMO. It is ex-tremely brittle, which makes conventional machining oftungsten parts very cost and time intensive. n

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HOW THE TUNGSTEN WALLOF A FUSION REACTOR PROTECTS ITSElF

Experiments in the linear plasma device Magnum PSIinvestigate the interaction between fusion plasmas

and the reactor wall. Scientists from DIFFER and TUEindhoven were the first in the world to mimic the ex-treme energy bursts that the wall materials of future fusionpower plants will have to endure. ey were able to showthat the tungsten surface expels a cloud of cooling hydro-gen particles which acts as a protective layer. n

The Magnum PSI linear plasma device is used to investigate theinteraction between fusion plasmas as the vessel wall.

Pictures: DIFFER

EPS PlASMAPHYSICS AWARDS

At its annual conference in June in Berlin, Germany,the Plasma Physics Division of the European Physical

Society rewarded researchers who have achieved out-standing scientific or technological results. n

Picture: IPP, Ernst Fesseler

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ImprintFUSION IN EUROPE

ISSN 1818-5355

For more information see thewebsite: www.euro-fusion.org

EUROfusion Programme Management Unit – GarchingBoltzmannstr. 285748 Garching / MunichGermanyphone: +49-89-3299-4263fax: +49-89-3299-4197email: [email protected]: Petra Nieckchen, Christine RüthSubscribe at [email protected]

© Tony Donné (EUROfusion ProgrammeManager) 2014.

This newsletter or parts of it may not be reproducedwithout permission. Text, pictures and layout, exceptwhere noted, courtesy of the EUROfusion members.The EUROfusion members are the Research Unitsof the European Fusion Programme. Neither theResearch Units or anyone acting on their behalf isresponsible for any damage resulting from the useof information contained in this publication.

FUSION IN EUROPE | Perspectives |

NEWS FLASHNEWS FLASH

www.euro-fusion.org

The website of the European Fusion ResearchProgramme has moved from www.efda.org to

www.euro-fusion.orgIt provides information about fusion research in Europe,

the EUROfusion consortium and about fusion powerin general. e multimedia section contains informationmaterial and high resolution fusion research imagesunder a creative commons license. e content can ea-sily be shared in social networks. www.euro-fusion.org is also the entry point for all userspaces.

EUROPEAN CONSORTIUM FOR THE DEVElOPMENT OF FUSION ENERGy

REALISING FUSION ELECTRICITY BY 2050

Austrian Academy of SciencesAUSTRIA

Ecole Royale Militairelaboratory for Plasma Physics

BELGIUMbulgarian Academy of Sciences

BULGARIARuđer bošković Institute

CROATIAUniversity of CyprusCYPRUS

Institute of Plasma PhysicsAcademy of Sciences of the

Czech RepublicCZECH REPUBLIC

Technical University ofDenmark

DENMARKUniversity of TartuESTONIA

Technical Research Centre ofFinland

FINLAND

Commissariat à l’énergieatomique et aux énergies

alternativesFRANCE GERMANY GERMANY

Max-Planck-Institut fürPlasmaphysikGERMANY

National Center for ScientificResearch "Demokritos"

GREECE

Wigner Research Centre forPhysics

HUNGARYDublin City UniversityIRELAND

Agenzia nazionale per le nuovetecnologie, l’energia e lo

sviluppo economico sostenibileITALY LATVIA

lithuanian Energy InstituteLITHUANIA

Institute of Plasma Physicsand laser Microfusion

POLANDInstituto Superior TécnicoPORTUGAL

Institute for Atomic PhysicsROMANIA

Comenius UniversitySLOVAKIA

Jožef Stefan InstituteSLOVENIA

Centro de InvestigacionesEnergéticas Medioambientales

y TecnológicasSPAIN

Swedish Research CouncilSWEDEN

École polytechnique fédéralede lausanne

SWITZERLAND

Foundation for FundamentalResearch on Matter

THE NETHERLANDSUNITED

KINGDOM

Our partners:

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ISSN 1818-5355l Fusion laboratoriesl EUROfusion partners

This work has been carried out within theframework of the EUROfusion Consortiumand has received funding from theEuropean Union’s Horizon 2020 researchand innovation programme under grantagreement number 633053.The views and opinions expressed hereindo not necessarily reflect those of theEuropean Commission.