Fusion in Europe 2012 September

EUROPEAN FUSION DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENT

ITER RELIES ON JET I T E R D I R E c To R G E n E R a l v I s I T s E F D a - J E T

LOOKING AHEAD 100 YEARS WITH EFDA TIMES

HOW INDUSTRY BENEFITS FROM FUSION RESEARCH

JET INSPIRES YOUNG TALENT

3 | 2012

FUSIONQ u a r t e r l y n e w s & v i e w s o n t h e p r o g r e s s i n f u s i o n r e s e a r c h

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FUSION in europe№ 3 | 2012

contentsMoving Forward

EFDA

3 iter relies on Jet

5 Designing a straight path to fusion energy

6 looking ahead 100 years with efDa tiMes

Associates

8 efficient high-power plasma heating

9 how industry benefits from fusion research

10 recovering tritium from Jet’s waste

12 us participates in wendelstein 7-X

13 snowflakes spread the heat

14 fusion in europe invites: hans-Dieter harig

JETInsight15 the Joint european torus

16 Jet experiments take a break

18 encouraging work for iter

19 Jet guestbook

Community

In dialogue

20 Jet inspires young talent

Miscellaneous22 newsflash, efDa online

Title pictures: EFDA, CCFE

FUSION in europe | Contents |

imprintFUSION in europe

issn 1818-5355

for more information see the website:

www.efda.org

efDa close support unit – garching

Boltzmannstr. 2

85748 garching / Munich

germany

phone: +49-89-3299-4263

fax: +49-89-3299-4197

e-mail: [email protected]

editors: petra nieckchen, christine rüth

subscribe at [email protected]

© francesco romanelli (efDa leader) 2012.this newsletter or parts of it may not be reproducedwithout permission. text, pictures and layout, ex-cept where noted, courtesy of the efDa parties.the efDa parties are the european commissionand the associates of the european fusion pro -gramme which is co-ordinated and managed bythe commission. neither the commission, theassociates nor anyone acting on their behalf is re-sponsible for any damage resulting from the useof information contained in this publication.

(Image: IPP, Anja Richter-Ullmann)

12US participates in Wendelstein 7-X

16JET experiments take a break

12US participates in Wendelstein 7-X

16JET experiments take a break

20JET inspires young talent

20JET inspires young talent

3

| Moving Forward | EFDA |

“We strongly welcome ITER’s interest in JET” saidRomanelli. “In the view of generating results that sup-port ITER, it is our aim to make JET available also forscientists beyond Europe.” With Motojima were DavidCampbell (ITER Director of Plasma Operation) andAlberto Loarte (ITER senior scientist). “We are keen towork closely with the JET team on matters like disrup-tions or melting studies,“ said David Campbell, whospoke to staff at JET about the science challenges forITER. “The work carried out here is extremely impres-sive and will be important for the exploitation of ITER.I encourage you to carry on along the same path.”Back in the 90s, results from JET experiments providedthe basis for the design of ITER. Now that ITER isbeing built, the JET experiments aid the process of de-signing the ITER physics programme and preparingITER operation. JET’s size, its capability to operate withtritium and its recently installed ITER-Like-Wall, makeit the best machine to answer ITER questions. “ITERdepends on the success of JET” Director GeneralMotojima said. “The results that have been achievedwith the new wall in such a short time are both impres-sive and encouraging”.

on July 11, iter Director general

osamu Motojima came to Jet to

lay the foundation for the intensified

collaboration between the two ex -

periments. Motojima-san met with

efDa leader francesco romanelli to

review the recent experiments with the

iter-like-wall and to discuss future

collaborative work on Jet.

I T E R r e l i e so n J E T

From left: David campbell, alberto loarte, Francesco Romanelli, Tim Jones (ccFE), osamu Motojima and lorne Horton (Picture: EFDA)

FUSION IN EUROPE | Moving Forward | EFDA |

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Taking collaboration to a new level. ITERand JET maintain close ties: For years, ITER represen-tatives have attended the JET planning meetings andthe JET Associates have aligned their experimental pro-gramme to meet the needs of ITER. Now that JET ex-periments are increasingly dedicated towards providinganswers for creating ITER, ITER scientists should playan active role in them. To provide a legal frameworkfor this participation, the ITER Organization will jointhe IEA Implementing Agreement for Cooperation onTokamak Programmes. These types of contract formthe basis for international collaboration on JET andregulate issues such as the exchange of personnel, accessto data, publication rules and intellectual property rights.“This is a very important step,” explained EFDA SeniorAdvisor Duarte Borba. “To make sure that our experi-ments provide the right results to ITER, we need to in-volve ITER scientists early on. We want them to partic-ipate in the definition and execution of the experimentsas well as in the analysis of the results.”

Investigating ITER cost cuts. One key experi-ment planned for next year is to investigate how delib-erately melted tungsten tiles affect JET operation. Theoutcome of this exercise could help ITER save 400 mil-lion euros. According to current plans, ITER will startoperation with a carbon divertor and change over totungsten for the deuterium-tritium experiments. Thereason for this is the assumption that carbon will bemore forgiving during the start-up phase. To cut ITERcosts, the Director General proposed starting with tung-sten immediately. The ITER council has now grantedtime to work on the technology and assess the risksthat accidental melting of tungsten tiles may pose forITER operation. The melting experiments JET is to carryout will provide key answers to that question.

Saving time for ITER. JET is also the only facilitycapable of running deuterium-tritium (D-T) experiments.This allows the investigation of specific physics relatedto D-T regimes of operation, such as how mitigation

techniques work for harmful ELM-instabilities, a processwhich will shorten the learning curve at ITER. HavingITER scientists on-site at JET will save time, too, saidLorne Horton, who heads the EFDA JET Department.“An extended D-T campaign at JET is an ideal trainingground for ITER personnel. ITER has an aggressiveschedule and the scientific teams do not have much timeto get used to each other or to the procedures of a nu-clear fusion facility.” In his opinion, it would certainlybe a head start if part of the team have already workedtogether. “The independent panel that reviewed JET andthe European Fusion programme pointed this out.”Horton continued, “We hope that ITER will recognisethat and send us staff and we recommend other ITERpartners to do the same.” JET would also be in a positionto test hardware for ITER, added Duarte Borba. “In thepast, we have always tested new methods on smallertokamaks, like ASDEX Upgrade or D-III D, and thenscaled them up to JET. It makes a lot of sense to do thesame for ITER, for instance with the planned mitigationsystems for ELM instabilities. Knowing how the systemsbehave before installing them in ITER saves a lot oftime.”

Involving ITER partners. JET also promotes theparticipation of other ITER partners in its programme,Borba continues. “Scientists from the ITER Organ -ization will now be directly involved in JET experiments,but ITER is a group of partners. To make ITER a success,we need to provide these countries with the opportunityto conduct experiments at JET.” One method of doingthis may be to implement a system that they have de-veloped for ITER and to carry out preparatory experi-ments on JET. JET is, for instance, currently engaged incollaboration with India regarding software for chargeexchange diagnostic systems. Every collaboration withan ITER partner brings more experts and knowledge tothe JET team, also benefiting the European fusion pro-gramme. With sufficient collaboration of this type, JET'srole as a hub for fusion knowledge will reach beyondEurope and encompass the whole world. �

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| Moving Forward | EFDA |

DESIgnIng A STRAIghT pAThTo FuSIon EnERgyFusion Roadmap meeting,July 25 – 26

How can Europe implement fusion energy in themost efficient way? Approximately 100 Euro-pean fusion researchers – among them the

Heads of about 30 Research Units – met in Garchingto discuss this question. The European Commissionhas asked the fusion community to deliver a FusionRoadmap in the form of a realistic step-by-step planwhich will enable the supply of fusion electricity by2050. EFDA was assigned the task of designing theroadmap and proposed a goal-oriented programmethat takes the outcomes of the recent reviews of theEuropean fusion programme into account. After pre-senting the proposal separately to the Associates, thefusion community was invited to Garching to ensurethat all views on the matter have been taken into ac-count. Ultimately, the Roadmap needs to break theprocess of attaining fusion power down into specificprojects and propose the amount of resources for Eu-rope’s upcoming framework programme, Horizon2020. EFDA intends to reach a final consensus on theRoadmap at the Steering Committee meeting whichwill take place in October. �

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FUSION in europe | Moving Forward | EFDA |

t hese are some of the answers the

energy system model efDa tiMes

provides when asked how the world’s

energy supply evolves until 2100.

efDa has developed this model be-

cause none of the existing models

took fusion energy into account. if fu-

sion succeeds, it will start to have an

impact in the second half of this cen-

tury. therefore efDa tiMes considers

the time period from 2000 until 2100,

looking much further ahead than

usual models. the international en-

ergy agency (iea) world energy out-

look, for instance, only goes as far as

2035. By extending the model to 2100,

efDa tiMes also covers the era of in-

creasingly expensive gas, oil and ura-

nium supplies.

LOOKING AHEAD 100 YEARS

WITH EFDA TIMES

80 percent of the global primaryenergy will be drawn from fossilfuels – mostly from cheap coal.

What if… the world’s societiesput economic growth over climateconcerns?

What if… the world agrees onan upper limit for carbon dioxideemissions?

Renewable, fission and fusion en-ergy will supply half of the globalprimary energy demand.

| Moving Forward | EFDA |

European Power Plant Conceptual Study from 2005.The EFDA TIMES model is validated by ensuring thatits results until 2035 match the IEA scenarios.

Decision making with EFDA TIMESEFDA TIMES provides the means with which to explorethe potential of fusion energy for different regions andunder different societal circumstances. It enables the fu-sion community to participate in energy debates and itoffers stakeholders who deal with energy investments, atool to assess the consequences of different decisions.The model answers questions like: under what circum-stances will fusion power succeed in a future energymarket? What other energy technologies will fusion haveto compete with? How will fusion fare under differentclimate protection decisions? What are the consequencesif fusion is not available? What will happen if some re-gions also ban nuclear fission? EFDA TIMES can alsobe used to explore how the properties of the various fu-sion power plant designs will affect their respective suc-cess in a future energy market. �

This article uses input from recent IPP-exhibits on energyscenarios.

Contact:Tobias Eder, IPP, [email protected] figures based on data provided by Tobias Eder.

how EFDA TIMES worksEFDA Times is a global energy system model. It describesthe entire process chain from the primary energy sourceup to different means of energy usage for 15 regions ofthe world. For a set of defined threshold conditions, forexample, different measures to reduce CO2-emissionsor societal preferences for non-nuclear energy, EFDATIMES produces the energy mix with the lowest costfor investment, operation, maintenance and dismantling.The model does not calculate in the sense of extrapolat-ing past energy scenarios, but it “acts” with a defined setof rules and under the various boundary conditions.According to the technology available at a given year,the model “invests” in new power plants to accommo-date population growth and economic development andto replace “old” plants, which are phased out after aspecified technical lifetime. The overall cost of an energymix is determined by data about energy production costsand efficiency for the various technologies.EFDA TIMES applies an energy model generator as de-veloped under IEA. The future development assumptionsare driven by UN-scenarios for population growth andby the European Commission’s GEM-E3 model for eco-nomic development. EFDA TIMES incorporates today’sknowledge about future energy technologies like carboncapture storage or generation 4 nuclear fission plants.The parameters for fusion energy are based on the

Global electricity production (in exajoule per year). Until 2100, the production could rise by more than a factor of four. The world population would thenexceed 10 Billion people and the global economy would have grown sevenfold (Data base: moderate Un population scenario; GEM-E3 model for growth).

Electricity production in 2100: If global warming is to be avoided, societies will invest in innovative technologies like renewable energies and fusion.

7

201063

20602060

21002100

160

290

Fusion: ∼ 4 %

No climate saving measures Global warming limited to 3º C (atmospheric CO₂-concentrations below 550 ppm)

Fusion:∼ 36 %

Fusion:∼ 36 %

RenewableEnergies:∼ 44 %

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FUSION in europe | Moving Forward | Associates |

e f f i c i e n t h i g h - p o w e rp l a s M a h e at i n g

Firing beams of high-speed neutral atoms into theplasma is one of the main heating methods used intokamaks. Just like billiard balls, the atoms of the

beam transfer their energy to the slower plasma ions dur-ing the process of collision. Traditionally, fusion machinesuse neutral beam systems with positive ions that are ac-celerated and neutralised before they enter the plasma.However, a lot of energy is lost during the neutralisationprocess. This loss increases rapidly with the rising beamenergy. A power plant requires a one megaelectronvoltbeam to operate, and for this the neutralisation efficiencywould be as low as 2%. It seems nearly impossible to at-tach an electron to a beam particle that is moving at someten thousand kilometres per second. Causing the particleto lose electrons is much easier – the neutralisation effi-ciency for a negative ion beam is 58% at the same energylevel. ITER and the demonstration power plant DEMOwill therefore use negative ion neutral beam systems. Eu-rope is in charge of providing the ITER system and a testbed is under construction at Consorzio RFX, Italy.

CCFE’s Small Negative Ion Facility (SNIF) started oper-ation in June and its main role is to look for ways of im-proving techniques for negative ion beam systems beyondITER. Despite being a small-scale test bed, SNIF is ableto emulate the negative ion beam production processused in tokamaks. A relatively cold plasma (10,000 °C)is formed to produce negative hydrogen ions; a beam of

ions is then directed through a set of accelerating grids tospeed the particles up. Instead of being neutralised anddirected into a tokamak, the ion beam hits a copper targetplate containing diagnostic sensors which allow physicistsat SNIF to analyse the shape and profile of the beam.These results can then be scaled up to predict performancein the large high-power tokamaks of the future.

Materials for ion sources. One of the key areasSNIF will investigate is materials for ion sources on post-ITER machines. A coating on the walls of the source ma-terial reacts with the incoming ions and atoms, giving upelectrons to produce negative ions to flow into the heatingbeam. ITER will use caesium as an ion source material,but for fusion power plants, other candidates are alsobeing considered. These should be capable of producingbeams without the problems that are posed by the highlyreactive caesium. SNIF will test alternative materials, suchas boron-doped diamond samples.

Built at a low cost, and primarily using spare parts fromprevious systems, SNIF can also be switched over to actas a positive ion system, giving it sufficient flexibility toresearch other areas of neutral beam development andmaterials testing. Jamie Zacks, a Lead Physicist at SNIF,said: “For the first time in fifteen years, CCFE now hasits own negative ion test bed, instead of borrowing facili-ties from other fusion labs. This, combined with its size,gives us much more control and flexibility over experi-ments and allows us to open up new collaborations withpartners. So far SNIF is performing very well but there ismuch development still to do.” Elizabeth Surrey, CCFE'sTechnology Programme Leader, added: “SNIF is goingto make major contributions to European power plantstudies under EFDA but also to CCFE's own technologyprojects. Its flexibility will complement the larger negativeion facilities at IPP and RFX that are developing theITER neutral beam technology and will enable us toprogress towards DEMO faster.“ �

Nick Holloway, CCFE

Contact: Dr Elizabeth Surrey, CCFE,[email protected]

CCFE tests neutral beam injector based on negative ions

snIF Plasma (Image CCFE)

9

how INdUSTRy bENEFITSfroM FUSION RESEaRCh

MAN Diesel Turbo, Germany,introduced the latest three-dimensional modelling tech -

niques and employed the newesthigh-tech welding technologies inorder to manufacture the strangelyshaped vessel of Wendelstein 7-X.The company now uses this expertiseand these technologies for the serialproduction of chemical reactors andhas thus gained significant competi-tive advantages. This is just one ofmany examples named in a newbrochure published by IPP which de-tails how various companies benefitfrom fusion research projects. Intotal, the brochure lists 15 companiesalong with their contribution to Wen-delstein 7-X and other fusion devicesand how this involvement has helpedthem gain other contracts, open upnew markets or access Europe’slargest fusion research project ITER.Manufacturing the complexly shapedsuperconducting magnets for Wen-delstein 7-X, for instance, has helpedBabcock Noell GmbH win a contractfor 113 superconducting magnets forthe German Facility for Antiprotonand Ion Research FAIR. Thales Elec-tron and partners, to name one lastexample, have developed the power-ful microwave system for the experi-ments. High-power microwave tubesare an important technology for com-munication and materials processing,as well as for the upcoming fusion ex-periments ITER and DEMO. Thanksto their work for Wendelstein 7-X,these companies are now much betterpositioned within these markets. �

Download the brochure at: http://tinyurl.com/industrybrochure

| Moving Forward | Associates |

FUSION IN EUROPE | Moving Forward | Associates |

10

ENEA and CEA have developed a membrane process and a

palladium-based reactor to extract tritium from JET’s house-

keeping waste. Compared to alternative systems, the mem-

branes in the new device suffer less mechanical stress and the overall

process is more energy efficient. Both Associates have jointly filed

patents for their inventions, as the technology may also be employed

in other nuclear facilities or used to produce pure hydrogen for clean

energy applications such as polymeric fuel cells. The work was carried

out within the JET Fusion Technology Task Force.

R E CO V E R I N G T R I T I U MF R O M J E T ’ S WA S T E

Image: Thinkstock

11

Housekeeping waste comprises gloves, masks, personalgas filters or over clothes that have been used insideJET’s reactor chamber. A nuclear facility producesaround 0.2 kg housekeeping waste per hour and worker.Reducing the tritium content of this waste is important,because the disposal costs depend on the level of con-tamination and valuable tritium can be reused. Theusual detritiation techniques, however, produce tritiatedwater, which must undergo a second process to recoverthe tritium.ENEA and CEA have adapted the concept of palladiumsilver alloy membrane reactors – a technique which isalso used to detritiate JET exhaust gas. These mem-branes are permeable for hydrogen isotopes, but not

for molecules and thus enable the separation of tritium.The waste is ground up and heated to about 120 °C anda carrier gas stream takes up the tritium in form of tri-tiated water vapour. Inside the membrane reactor, thetritiated gas flows through a 50 cm long membrane tubewith a diameter of 10 mm and a wall thickness of 0.150mm. Outside the tube, pure hydrogen gas flows in theopposite direction. These hydrogen atoms enter the tubeand replace the tritium atoms in the waste gas. A catalystin the tube promotes this isotopic exchange reaction.The tritium atoms exit the tube through the membraneand leave the reactor with the outside gas stream.

CEA developed the detritiation process and ENEA builtthe reactor. Its design overcomes major two complica-

tions that were evident in previous versions. Firstly, dur-ing operation, the long and thin-walled membrane tubeelongates up to about two percent because it takes uphydrogen. If it is mounted in a fixed manner, it com-presses cyclically. The mechanical stress may cause de-fects in the crystal structure of the membrane, and thuscause it to lose its property of being selectively perme-able for hydrogen isotopes only. The tube fixtures inthe new reactor eliminate any harmful compressive me-chanical stress. Secondly, the tritium exchange reactionis most efficient at temperatures between 300 and400 °C. The new reactor heats only the membranes viaan electric current running through the tube (directohmic heating). It requires approximately half the heat-

ing power of traditionalsystems which heat thegas and the reactor shellas well. This high level ofefficiency makes the reac-tor more attractive forproducing pure hydrogenin clean energy applica-tions.

Tests performed at CEAshow that the Pd-mem-brane reactor is able toachieve a tritium decont-amination factor of 10 forthe gas. This thus demon-strates that the methodcan be applied to thetreatment of housekeep-ing waste. The capacity ofthis laboratory device issufficient to detritiate in-coming waste from JET.

However, if all of JET’s housekeeping waste inventorywas to be treated, this prototype would need to be scaledup to a multi-tube version. �

Contact: Dr Silvano Tosti, ENEA, [email protected];Pierre Trabuc, CEA, [email protected]

References:X. Lefebvre, et al., Preliminary results from a detritiationfacility dedicated to soft housekeeping waste, FusionEng. Des. (2012)S.Tosti,et al., Design of Pd-based membrane reactor forgas detritiation, Fusion Eng. Des.(2011)

| Moving Forward | Associates |

usion power burns the nuclei of hydrogen iso -

topes tritium and deuterium. tritium is a ra dio -

active element and contaminates the reactor

chamber. it also is practically non-existent in a natural

state and is therefore very expensive. thus a fusion power

plant must be able to recover and reuse all unused tri-

tium. while scientific fusion experiments usually use with

deuterium plasmas, Jet is the only currently operating

device that has used tritium in the past and which has

another deuterium-tritium experimental campaign

planned for 2015.

f

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in July, ipp greifswald received the first of five auxiliary

coils that princeton plasma physics laboratory (pppl)

have had manufactured for wendelstein 7-X. “i am very

relieved that the coil has survived the 7,000 kilometre journey

from pennsylvania without damage”, said Konrad riße, who is respon-

sible for the auxiliary coils in the wendelstein 7-X project. from september onwards, one coil after

the other, each weighing more than a ton, will be attached to the outer vessel.

The IPP coil team (Konrad Riße 2nd from left) takes delivery of the first auxiliary coil. (Photo: IPP, Anja Richter-Ullmann)

FUSION in europe | Moving Forward | Associates |

us participates inwenDelstein 7-X

The five shop window-size coils are designed to helpwith precise adjustment of the magnetic fields on theplasma edge. They ensure that the outer contour of theplasma maintains exactly the shape required for subse-quent experiments. The basic data for the componentscame from the IPP; engineers and scientists fromPrinceton took over the construction and supervisedindustrial production. Hutch Neilson, the director ofadvanced projects at PPPL, pointed out: “The U.S. IPPpartnership in Wendelstein 7-X is the best route to dis-covering how to use three-dimensional magnetic fieldsto maintain a high-performance plasma in a steady-state without overheating the surrounding walls.” Hecontinued: “ In return for the contribution of scientifictalent and equipment such as the trim coils, the U.S. iswelcomed as a partner in the Wendelstein 7-X research,with the opportunity to advance U.S. stellarator goalsusing the unique, world-class Wendelstein 7-X facility."

The 4.3 million dollar investment is the largest contri-bution to the USA’s scientific cooperation on Wen del -stein 7-X. Overall, the USA is investing more than 7.5million dollars in its construction. In addition to the fu-sion laboratory at Princeton, the institutes in Oak Ridgeand Los Alamos are also contributing by planning partsof the wall covering and by supplying measuring instru-ments for the observation of the plasma. In return, theparticipating U.S. institutions become partners in theWendelstein 7-X research programme. This German-American cooperation is one of a total of nine projectsunder the U.S. Department of Energy’s “InnovativeApproaches to Fusion” programme. �

Isabella Milch, IPP More information: http://tinyurl.com/ipp-pppl-w7xhttp://tinyurl.com/pppl-w7x

13

Handling plasma exhausts is, today, considered to beone of the most important unsolved problems on theroad to a fusion power plant. In a fusion reactor, mag-netic fields keep the plasma away from the reactor wallin order to allow the high temperatures needed for fu-sion reactions to be achieved. The most promising mag-netic field configuration so far forms two open magneticfield lines which guide the outer – cooler – plasma layerto a dedicated area, the divertor, where it is removed.Designing materials that are strong enough to withstandthis heat flux is an important challenge in fusion re-search. The snowflake technique has the potential toreduce the heat at the divertor by 50 percent. It thusopens up a way to create heat loads that can be toleratedby existing materials. The snowflake divertor employs a more advanced mag-netic field configuration which produces four 'legs' –open magnetic field lines – instead of the usual two,linking the hot plasma to the divertor. The plasma isflared at the divertor surface and the residual heat fluxper wall area is reduced. The name “snowflake” stemsfrom the six fold pattern formed by the magnetic fieldlines. The theory of the concept was developed by LawrenceLivermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and the first

| Moving Forward | Associates |

snowflake configuration in fusion plasmas was

then created at CRPP in the tokamakTCV. TCV is a worldwide unique toka-

mak in terms of its flexibility to shape the plasma. It isequipped with 16 independent magnetic coils and iscapable of implementing innovative configurations suchas the snowflake. The snowflake divertor concept hasalso been implemented at the Princeton Plasma Physics(PPPL) tokamak NSTX. Both experiments confirm thatthe technique is a valid concept enabling the reductionof the heat load at the divertor. Since 1963, the R&D 100 award has been internation-ally recognised as a benchmark for excellence in variousareas of industry and science. An independent panel ofexperts, along with the US R&D magazine annually se-lects the 100 most significant technological advances.In the past, it has been awarded to inventions such asthe halogen lamp, the fax machine, or, more recently,HD television. �

Contact: Dr. Yves Martin, CRPP, [email protected]

More information:CRPP: http://tinyurl.com/epflrd100LLNL: http://tinyurl.com/llnlrd100PPPL: http://tinyurl.com/ppplrd100

scientists from the swiss associate

crpp, lawrence livermore national

laboratory and princeton plasma

physics laboratory received the re nowned

r&D 100 award 2012

for developing the

snowflake power

divertor. the technique could be

the solution to one of the

biggest obstacles on the

road to fusion power. Illustration based on Image from EPFl

snowflaKes SpREADThE hEAT

EFDA congratulates Dimitry Ryutov (LLNL), Vlad Soukhanovskii (LLNL, on assignement at PPPL) and F. Piras, S. Codea, B. Duval and J.-M.Moret (CRPP), Jon Menard and Egemen Kolemen (PPPL) and Joon-Wook Ahn (Oak Ridge National Laboratory, on assignment at PPPL).

14

FUSION in europe | Community | People |

Sources for thermal energy conversion have beendeveloped for more than a century, resulting inhighly efficient power plants with diminishing

needs with regard to cost, material, personnel andspace. Electricity has become accessible for more andmore people and processes, and has brought increasedwealth with it.

But in the light of continuously rising energy de-mands and the associated increase in gas emissions,societies are compelled to look towards renewable en-ergy sources. In industrialised nations, however, thesesources alone will not be sufficient in the long run.Additional power sources will also be required.

Fusing hydrogen nuclei yields an energy output thatis magnitudes higher than the oxidation of hydrogenor carbon atoms that takes place when burning fossilfuels or biomass. The technological effort needed tocreate fusion power will be significantly higher thanthat for chemical heat production, but the balance whencompared to other electricity production techniquespromises to remain overwhelmingly positive. Even thesafety measures required for fusion power plants willnot question this positive balance. At no time does afusion device contain amounts of energy that couldpossibly destroy the system or cause catastrophes if theplant was externally damaged. Moreover, the fusionprocess does not produce long-lived radioactive waste.

Some people may, however, believe that the devel-opment of fusion has already taken too long and theythus doubt its success. But the scientific progress is im-mense and the construction of fusion experiments hasresulted in numerous technological solutions and ex-periences, which provide a strong case in favour ofcontinuing the research.

In Germany, we are currently witnessing the con-struction of the world’s largest stellarator fusion exper-iment, Wendelstein 7-X. Companies from Germany,France, Italy, Austria and Switzerland have developedtechnologies and solved problems that have neverarisen before. Examples include the uniquely shapedsuperconducting coils by Babcock Noell and Ansaldo,microwave tubes by Thales Electron Devices whichsupply one million watts to heat the plasma, or thewall elements from Plansee SE which are designed towithstand ten million watts of heat per square metrewhen Wendelstein 7-X is operating.

The success and progress of German and Europeanfusion research, along with our concern regarding thelong term safety of energy supply in an industrialisedsociety, has led us – a group of senior representativesof German industry, research and politics – to formthe friends of fusion. In view of both the opportunitiesthat lie in fusion, and the long way still to go, we aimto regularly inform the industry, the scientific commu-nity and the public about the progress and issues en-countered in fusion research. We want to achieve awider understanding of and support for German fusionresearch activities. Our motivation is a strong convic-tion that an industrialised society should promote thedevelopment of complex technologies for energy pro-duction. We know from experience that mastering suchenergy conversion processes will give us global com-petitive advantages that will be hard to catch up with.

Fusion power plants will be some of the most chal-lenging of energy production facilities. Today, powerplants built in Germany are among the world’s best.But will Germany be able to maintain its leading posi-tion if its annual spending on fusion research amountsto only 0.5 % of the subsidies that flow into electricityproduction from renewable energies? �

DR hAnS-DIETER hARIg

studied mechanical engineering inhannover and Berlin and receiveda doctorate at the university ofgrenoble. from 1995, he worked atthe nuclear research centre ingrenoble and was involved in theconstruction of the high-flux reac-tor at institut laue-langevin. he

subsequently joined the nuclear research centre in Jülich(now forschungszentrum Jülich) as assistant to the execu-tive board. after three years in Jülich, he started working inthe electricity industry and remained in the field until his re-tirement in 2003. in his last position, he was chief executiveofficer of the german energy company e.on energie ag.hans-Dieter harig is a member of several boards of directorsand advisory boards in energy, industry or science and alsoworks as a consultant. harig is member of the advisoryboard of Max-plank-institut für plasmaphysik.

fusion in europe invites: haNS-dIETER haRIg

WHY AN INDUSTRIALISED SOCIETY SHOULD PROMOTEFUSION RESEARCH

| JETInsight |

EFDA provides the work platform to exploit JET in

an efficient and focused way. More than 40 Euro -

pean 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 Euro -

pean 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 re-

quired to realise the given scientific goals.

THE JOINT EUROPEAN TORUS, JET

The JET vessel in May 2011, featuring the complete ITER-like Wall (Picture: EFDA)

EUROPE’S LARGEST FUSION DEVICE – FUNDED AND USED IN PARTNERSHIP

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FUSION in europe | JETInsight |

July marked the end of the first

period of Jet operation with

the all-metal iter-like wall. the

machine is now going into a period

of maintenance and will be ready to

restart experiments in 2013. the

eleven months of operation have

been a busy and challenging time.

the scientists at Jet have gathered a

lot of valuable data. training has also

been a big feature of the operation

since control room staff were learn-

ing how to run the machine under

the new conditions. covering ten or

twelve operational shifts per week

has been something of a challenge.

JETEXPERIMENTSta K e a

B r e a K

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| JETInsight |

Operating JET with an all-metal wall (as opposed to theprevious carbon wall) required the development of dif-ferent recipes to create, maintain and ramp down theplasma. By the end of the campaign, the heating andcurrent drive systems had been routinely operating athigh power. The neutral beam injection systems, in par-ticular, had reached a record power of 25.8 mega watt.High plasma current operation (at up to 3.5 mega -ampere) had also been demonstrated successfully. Thehigh plasma energy required mitigating disruptions –plasma events that cause large heat loads at the vesselwall. One solution is to introduce a large puff of gas atprecisely the correct moment to spread the heat of theplasma more uniformly over the inner wall, thus pre-venting excessive heating of small areas. This ‘disruptionmitigation valve’ is now operating routinely and reliablyto do that.The main reason for interrupting JET experiments is theremoval of some of the 4500 new wall tiles for analysis.These tiles had been marked with special layers of beryl-

lium, molybdenum and tungsten. Careful laboratory ex-amination of the marker layers will reveal which areashave been eroded by interaction with the plasma, andwhere that eroded material is deposited. One might thinkof this as being similar to erosion of part of a coastlineby the action of the sea. The material that is removedfrom one place is washed along the coast and depositedsomewhere else. A good understanding of this processin a tokamak can help us to make predictions regardingthe lifetime of the plasma-facing components, and to es-timate the amount of tritium that would be retained andburied under deposited layers.While the machine is out of action, there is an opportu-nity for other equipment to be maintained and for a par-allel programme of work to be carried out which aimsto improve the performance of the machine. Altogether,this work will ensure that JET keeps its leading positionin magnetic confinement fusion research for years tocome. �

Nick Balshaw, CCFE

(Picture: EFDA)

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FUSION IN EUROPE | JETInsight |

“We have ticked all the boxes for ITER” saysGuy Matthews, project leader for theITER-Like-Wall at JET. Sebastijan

Brezinsek, who leads the JET Task Force responsiblefor the exploitation of the new wall, agrees: “We had tolearn how to operate JET with the ITER-Like Wall” hesays. “We have proved in the last experimental cam-paign that we can operate in the baseline H-mode sce-nario with high reproducibility, low disruption rate, andwithout tungsten events at all, even though operationis quite different to thecarbon wall.” Brezinsekcontinues to explain:“The operational win-dow for good confinedH-mode is quite nar-row, but we have learn -ed how much fuellingand central heating isrequired to keep the di-vertor cool while stillmaintaining a minimumnumber of ELM eventsto flush the tungsten im-purities.”

However, the cleanerplas ma – without thecarbon impurities thatwere ubiquitous with the previous wall tiles – has led tosome unexpected behaviour. In the standard mode ofoperation, known as baseline, the confinement is not asgood as in the best carbon references. Surprisingly,though, in the more advanced “hybrid” mode, the con-finement with the ITER-Like Wall is comparable to thatachieved with the carbon wall. ITER, however, will needto operate in both scenarios. “We will have to look intothis,” says JET Close Support Unit operation groupleader George Sips. “The confinement is probably lessgood because there is no beneficial radiation from thecarbon in the plasma edge. Nobody would have expectedthat we need to make the plasma dirty to make it work

JET researchers are pleased as the 2011–2012 experimental period concludes

ENCOURAGING WORKFOR ITER

better!” Initial experiments involving the seeding of theplasma with nitrogen to increase radiation appear toaddress the problem, but more experiments are neededto fully understand the situation.

Experiments finished with a two-week campaign inwhich 150 identical pulses were produced over and overagain, in order to build up a total of 900 seconds ofstable operation – the equivalent of one pulse at ITER.As well as proving that plasma could be held stable in a

tokamak for thatlong – these experi-ments are designedto test the materialsof the ITER-LikeWall, to see howthey behave duringlong term operation.Various tungstenand beryllium tileswill be removedfrom the vessel dur-ing the currentmaintenance shut-down period andanalysed closely.“We have alreadymeasured the gasbalance, but this will

give us a complementary information about the long-term fuel retention and help us to understand whichmechanisms are responsible,” says Sebastijan Brezinsek.

These significant results for ITER come as the interna-tional organisation formalises its collaboration with JETby means of the IEA implementing agreement onCooperation on Tokamak Programmes. Even before ex-periments had finished, the ITER Director General vis-ited JET, to discuss future experiments, such as a delib-erate melting of a number of tungsten tiles to see howthis affects operation. �

Phil Dooley, EFDA

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| JETInsight |

JETGUESTbOOK

� Tonči Tadić from Croatia’s Ruđer bošković Institutein Zagreb visited EFDA and JET. He came for discus-sions about possible collaborations within theEURATOM Programme on the basis of Croatia joiningthe EU in 2013. The country is interested in participatingin European fusion research activities. Tadić, who cameon assignment for the Croatian Government, gave apresentation on Croatian fusion-related research activ-ities and met with EFDA Leader Francesco Romanelliand EFDA Senior Advisor Duarte Borba. The initialideas for collaboration that were formed during thetalks include areas such as materials sciences and nu-clear technology. �

� ITER director general Osamu Motojima visited JET for talks with EFDA Leader Francesco Romanelli. Thetwo Leaders wish to enhance the collaboration of their programmes (see report on page 3). With Motojima-sanwere David Campbell, ITER Director of Plasma Operation, and ITER Senior Scientist Alberto Loarte. �

From left: Duarte Borba, Tonči Tadić, Francesco Romanelli (Picture: EFDA)

From left: lorne Horton, Martin cox (ccFE), ITER DG osamu Motojima, Franscesco Romanelli, David campbell (ITER) (Picture: EFDA)

Some of the around 920 visitors who paid a visit to JETfrom June through august:

� 107 school students, along with 11 teachers, visited Jet and ccfe

� 222 university students came for summer schools and tours of Jet and ccfe

� 180 scientists and engineers from several institutions came for tours and discussions

� 3 filmcrews took footage of Jet

FUSION in europe | Community | In dialogue |

J E T I N S P I R E S

(Picture: EFDA)

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Tsinghua University, including electri-cal engineering, bioscience, mathemat-ics, physics and computer science.Tsing hua University is often ranked asthe first or second best university onmainland China in many national andinternational rankings. CCFE head of communications, Chris

Warrick, introduced the young visitorsto fusion before they went on a tour of JET. Apart fromthe machine itself, the remote handling unit raised muchinterest: “The arm is so long, I'm amazed it never fallsdown” exclaimed Qui Fan. �

… concluded Zheng Ze, one of twen -ty one distinguished Chinese studentswho visited Culham as part of a studytour to the UK. Zheng Ze and hiscolleagues are among China’s bright-est science and engineering students– each of them had been the best oftheir province in their final scienceand engineering exams. Now they arestudying a range of scientific and en-gineering disciplines at Beijing’s

“JET Is vERy IMPoRTanTFoR THE FUTURE WHEnTHE FossIl FUEls aREUsED UP” …

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| Community | In dialogue

Y O U N G TA L E N T

In July Azza Faiad from Egypt, prize winner in theEuropean Union Contest for Young Scientists visitedJET. Azza and seven colleagues were top-ranking

students from a total of 87 science projects in 37 coun-tries. EIROforum, the partnership among Europe’seight largest international laboratories, awarded eachwinner a week’s stay at their institutions. Azza’s projectex plored the methods of reprocessing plastic waste intousable hydrocarbons using catalytic cracking. Azza was accompanied by Nourwanda Sourour, aneighth term Gas and Petrochemicals Engineering stu-dent, who also acted as mentor to Azza’s project.Freelance journalist Rasha Dewedar also joined theduo to report on their life-changing experience. The three toured the various facilities at JET, had a goat the in-vessel training facility and took the opportu-nity to chat with researchers about their careers. “It isthe first time that I have seen such a huge collabora-tion!” said Azza. “People from all over Europe worktowards one goal, like one family.” About her meetingwith JET scientist Joelle Vallory, Azza wrote in herreport: “It was so inspiring to hear her story, she is anexceptional role model. On this visit, were givenenough motivation to pursue our dream and believingthat everything is possible and could be conducted bystrong will and creative thinking.” �

From left: Rasha Dewedar, nourwanda sourour, azza Faiad (Picture: EFDA)

azza Faiad (left) and nourwanda sourour (Picture: EFDA)

From left: nourwanda sourour, Rasha Dewedar, azza Faiad (Picture: EFDA)

“ o U R T I M E a T J E TG a v E U s E n o U G HM o T I v a T I o n T oP U R s U E o U RD R E a M s ”

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FUSION in europe | NewsFlash |

NEWSFLASHFusion: the energy of the universe – second editionFormer CCFE scientists Gary McCracken and Peter Stott have updated their bookFusion: The Energy of the Universe, originally published in 2005. The book is anessential reference title on the subject of fusion research and covers the basic prin-ciples of fusion energy from its history to the present day.

The new edition includes a brand new chapter on ITER. A second new chapterabout inertial confinement programs also discusses the National Ignition Facility(NIF, US), Laser Mégajoule (LMJ, France), Fast Ignition Realization EXperiment(FIREX, Japan), and the High Power laser Energy Research facility (HiPER, pro-posed, Europe). The book’s chapter on fusion power plants has been expanded

and now includes descriptions of the projected designs of the demonstration fusion power plant DEMOand the Laser Initial Fusion Energy project, LIFE.

More information: http://tinyurl.com/stott-mccracken

Where is Fusion Expo?

19 September – 5 October 2012

SOFT 2012 Conference, Liège, Belgium

http://www.efda.org/fusion-expo

Contact: Tomaž Skobe, [email protected] travelling exhibition financed by EFDA.

Contact

EFDA JET Fusion Fusion Expo News Multimedia Collaborators

Careers Links FAQ’s Glossary User’s web page

www.efda.org

be a part of the discussion!All articles published in Fusion in Europe are open for comments online.

What else would you like to know about Fusion?Check out our Frequently Asked Questions or ask a question yourself.

Fusion numbersExplore some of the scales at work in fusion.

do you need information material?In our download centre, you can find posters, brochures and videos in mostEuropean languages.

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 sciencesAUS TR I A

association EURaToM –University of latvia

L AT V I Alithuanian Energy Institute

L I THUAN I A

Ministry of Education and Research ROMAN IA

Ministry of Education, science, cultureand sport

S LOVEN I A

centro de Investigaciones EnergéticasMedioambientales y Tecnológicas

SPA IN

swedish Research councilSWEDEN

centre de Recherches en Physiquedes Plasmas

SW I T Z ER L AND

Dutch Institute for FundamentalEnergy Research

THE N E THER LANDS UN I T ED K I NGDOM

EURaToM Hellenic RepublicGRE E C E

Wigner Research centre for PhysicsHUNGARY

F4E , SPA INFRANC E

Dublin UniversityI R E L AND

agenzia nazionale per le nuovetecnologie, l’energia e lo sviluppo

economico sostenibileI TA LY

University of TartuE S TON I A

Finnish Funding agency for Technologyand InnovationF I N L AND

commissariat à l’énergie atomique etaux énergies alternatives

FRANC E GERMANY GERMANYMax-Planck-Institut für Plasmaphysik

GERMANY

BE LG IUMBulgarian academy of sciences

BULGAR I AUniversity of cyprus

C YPRUS

Institute of Plasma Physicsacademy of sciences of the

czech RepublicC Z E CH R EPUBL I C

Technical University of DenmarkDENMARK

University of MaltaMALTA

Institute of Plasma Physicsand laser Microfusion

POLANDMinistère de l’Energie

LUX EMBURG

Instituto superior TécnicoPORTUGAL

comenius UniversityS LOVAK I A

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EUROPEAN FUSION DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENT ISSN 1818-5355