Reviewing Status of Fusion – FEC in Geneva

Issued by the EFDA Close Support Unit Garching, Germany www.efda.org Newsletter Volume 2 December 2008

EFDA during FP7 – reinforced coordination Part 2

SOFT conference in Rostock

Report of the Fusion Facili- ties Review Panel presented Fusion in the heart of Paris How can plasma be created in a microwave oven? And how can you 50 years of tokamaks get people interested in fusion? Fu- sion researchers demonstrated both at the European City of Science event in Paris where the European Wendelstein 7-X Fusion Community participated taking shape with great success. See page 3.

Reviewing status of fusion – FEC in Geneva

The International Atomic Energy Agency Another striking feature of the conference JET on track this year held its biennial Fusion Energy was that ITER, the embodiment of inter- for a promising future Conference (FEC), often cited as the “main” national cooperation on fusion, has started conference on fusion, in the Palais des Na- providing a powerful drive for physics tions in Geneva, Switzerland. The FEC always and technology R&D all over the world. provides a good opportunity to review the The vast majority of tokamak results status of fusion research in the world. 50 presented at the conference aim at sup- years ago the same building hosted the his- porting ITER design choices, developing torical 2nd International Conference on the modes of plasma operation applicable Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy, where on ITER or addressing ITER relevant physics leading countries in fusion research re- issues. (Continued on next page) vealed their program and opened the way to fruitful international collaboration.

And indeed, 50 years later, the most striking feature of the 22nd FEC was the success of this international collaboration, which resulted in tremendous scientific and technical progress. This is clearly shown by statistics: the 22nd FEC was attended by 761 participants from 42 countries; the contributions included 116 oral presentations and 507 posters. In a special evening session the conference organizers celebrated the anniversary by looking back on the history of 50 years of magnetic confinement fusion research. FEC inGeneva Reviewing statusoffusion- crucial role inthenextfewyears. preparation atJETisexpectedtoplaya done. TheITER-likewallexperimentin Germany), butmore workneedstobe cently experiencedonASDEX-Upgrade, ing (thefirstfulltungstenwallwasre- erosion and fuelretention lookspromis- formance withmetalwallstoreduce operating conditions.Inparticularper- required towards afullsetofITER-like requirements, althoughmore workis demonstrating plasmasthatmeetITER Blanket, Vacuum Vessel andCryopump. of theDivertor, First-Wall, Shielding typing inpreparation fortheconstruction tant progress was alsoreported onproto- Tore Supra(France)andJET(EU).Impor- cepts are beingsuccessfullytestedon tion (3600s);ITER-likeantennacon- specifications exceptforthepulsedura- 170 GHz,1MW, 800s,reaching ITER with aJapanesegyrotron operatingat margins; aworldrecord wasobtained coils havebeenqualifiedwithadequate required forthelarge superconducting ing: theNb-Ti andNb3-Snconductors construction were reported on,includ- design were introduced. updates willhaveontheITERbaseline Review andtheimpactstechnical preparation, theoutcomeofDesign progress including theongoingsite various talks.Anupdateontheproject’s Several tokamakswere reported as NewsKey testsinthepreparation ofITER The statusofITERwaspresented in on fusionhonoured New imagefilm Klaus Naumann andIPP’s JuliaSieber. presented theaward tofilmproducer Communication, Dr. Gerhard Dotzler, dent oftheAssociationforAudiovisual niversary. AtagalaeveningthePresi- Association (ITVA) tomarkits25than- section oftheIntegratedTV & Video The prizewasconferred bytheGerman international fairoftheimagingbranch. Award 2008atPhotokina,theleading EFDA, waspresented withtheFuture 2100”, produced byIPPonbehalfof vances, whichshouldincrease opera- (MHD) instabilitieshasseenfurtherad- time control ofmagnetohydrodynamics theoretical analysisandmodelling.Real ments (e.g.DIII-D,USandJET, EU), events onITER,supportedbyexperi- dence incontrolling andmitigatingsuch particular, anincreased levelofconfi- or mitigatetransientevents,with,in of momentumtransportintheplasma. efforts are nowtargeting thedescription tions ofITERperformance.Significant was reported toconfirmformerpredic- wide workonheatandparticletransport thermal insulation)isgrowing. World- turbulent transport,thusimproving (phenomena infusionplasmasreducing strated; theevidenceofzonalflows critical temperature gradientwasdemon- imental validation.Clearevidenceof transport haveseenprogress andexper- devices. Theory-basedmodelsforparticle performance ofmagneticconfinement tum, remains akeytopicrelated tothe planned forITER. ing Nb3Snsuperconducting coilsas 2008). Thislatestisthefirsttokamakus- KSTAR inKorea (firstplasmainJune na (firstplasmainSeptember2006)and started operationrecently, EASTinChi- New superconducting tokamakshave dling andheatingsystemstechnologies. ticular withlocalizedheat/particlehan- remain forlongpulseoperation,inpar- tive operationoftokamaks,butissues nificant advances,withfullynon-induc- The fi Progress hasbeenachievedtoavoid Transport ofparticles,heatormomen- Steady-state operationhasseensig- lm, “Energy oftheFuture. Fusion Isabella Milch plasma foreseen in2014. struction isongoodtrack,withfirst ing stellaratorW7-X(Germany)con- pressure operation.Thesuperconduct- exploring waystowards highplasma experiments foreseen afewyearslater. fusion energy/laser energy totarget) 2010, andhighgainG~10-20(G= tritium experimentsare fore-seen in September 2008.Thefirstdeuterium- completed with4.2MJlaserobtainedin National IgnitionFacility(NIF)isalmost sented attheconference. IntheUS (FIREX II)andEurope (HIPER). gain experiments are projected in Japan ~5kJ lasersforheating.Future high- 10-30 kJlasersforcompression and fast ignitionconceptwillbetested with (OMEGA-EP) and will startsoon on to ignite.“Sub-ignition”experiments energy required tobringthetarget duces therequirements intermsoflaser technique, thisapproach drasticallyre- reported; compared tothedirect drive perimental andtheoretical projects gressing steadilywithseveralex- ener Review Panelpresented Report oftheFusionFacilities http://ec.eur The report canbefoundon European fusionexperts. research communityandfour non- European membersoutsidethefusion under construction.Itcomprisedfive or view allsignificantfacilities,existing for commercial exploitation,andtore- make fusionenergy to production ready to developavisionoftheR&Drequired 2013) bytheEUCommissionwassetup search FrameworkProgramme (2007- ginning oftheSeventhEuropean Re- appointed inDecember2007atthebe- ber. Thisindependentpanelofexperts Hartkopf, attheCCE-FUon30Octo- ed bythechairmanofpanel,Pr. T. European Commission.Itwaspresent- nalised anddelivered itsreport tothe requirements. plasma pressure operationaboveITER tional margins andallownormalized erating innearly ducting helicaldeviceLHD,Japan,op- progressing steadily, withthesupercon- Inertial fusionresults were alsopre- The FastIgnitionSchemeispro- The FusionFacilitiesReviewPanelfi- The stellaratorsresearch lineisalso gy EFDA FusionNews under Fusion/Publications. opa.eu/r the facilitiesinUS 1 / Japan (LFEX).The 4 esear hour pulsesand ch/ EFDA Fusion News

SOFT conference in Rostock

The 25th Symposium on Fusion Tech- exchange between industry and re- C.E.O., Dr. Claude Jablon

nology (SOFT 2008) in September 2008 search was also the objective of a from the Comité Industriel News presented a survey of the most recent panel discussion entitled “ITER and ITER, Kurt Ebbinghaus from Deutsches progress in fusion research. It was Industrial Development”. Chaired by ITER-Industrie-Forum, and Philippe held in the hanseatic town of Rostock, Harri Tuomisto from the Finnish Garderet, the Scientific Vice President situated on the Baltic coast in north- power and heat company Fortum, of AREVA, discussed industrial invol- eastern Germany. More than 680 Didier Gambier and Maurizio Gaspa- vement in fusion technologies and scientists and engineers from all over rotto, Director resp. Chief Engineer of in the implementation of ITER. the world – from 28 countries – attend- F4E, Hans-Dieter Harig, former EoN Isabella Milch ed this important forum of fusion technology and presented a total of 535 contributions. The traditional conference takes place every second year, hosted by a different country each time. Fusion in the heart of Paris This year’s organizer of the conference, the 25th event in this series, was the This November European science Having acquired stand number 1 Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics moved to Paris for three days. To cele- which was right at the main entrance of at Greifswald. brate its presidency of the European the building, the fusion area was contin- Union, the French government organ- uously full during the event. By listening The objective of the SOFT is to ised a huge fair for European scientific to the presentation and spectacular ex- exchange information on design, con- organisations to introduce themselves periments performed by Danish col- struction and operation of fusion ex- to the public. Held in the heart of Paris leagues, or by talking to the fusion periments and on the technology for in the grandiose Grand Palais, just a experts, the visitors were able to get a present and future fusion machines and minute’s walk from the Champs Élysées, memorable impression of the European power plants. With the start of the ITER the event was very successful attracting efforts in fusion. project, fusion research is now making a more than 42 000 visitors. big step forward. Accordingly, ITER with The international team consisted of its demanding requirements was a ma- The European Fusion Research Com- Jean-Marc Ané, Gloria Falchetto jor topic – more than 50 percent of the munity was represented at the event by (CEA), Fernando Meo, Søren Korsholm, oral presentations were referring to the an enthusiastic and really international Martin Jessen (Risø DTU) and Örs test reactor. team. Based on the itinerant EFDA ex- Benedekfi (EFDA). hibition Fusion Expo, now managed by A Fusion Technology Forum with 38 the Slovenian Association, the stand exhibitors supplemented the scientific was supported by the Danish Fusion sessions bringing together industry, and Plasma Road Show developed by research laboratories and institutions Risø DTU. French and Italian colleagues active in fusion technology. Promoting also manned the stand. EFDA Fusion News EFDA during FP7 – Reinforced coordination Tony Donné Tony Donné obtained his PhD degree in 1985 in the of physics and technology field of nuclear physics at the Free University of in EU laboratories Part 2 Amsterdam. He then moved to the FOM Institute for Plasma Physics, where he started as post-doc on the Diagnostics Topical Group Rutherford scattering diagnostic for TEXTOR. In 1986 he became leader of the TORTUR tokamak group and It is widely recognized that improve- from 1988 till 1998 he headed the diagnostics division ments in diagnostic capabilities are very of the Rijnhuizen Tokamak Project. In 1997 he moved important for further understanding of to TEXTOR in Germany, first as head of the diagnostics the plasma processes and their control. group of FOM at TEXTOR and from 2004 as ‘Chef This is the reason why research in diag- de Mission’ of the FOM-team at TEXTOR. In 2006 he nostics has to be a continuous process, became deputy head of the fusion research department both by the refinement and improve- of FOM Rijnhuizen. Tony Donné has been involved in diagnostics for ITER for a long ment of existing techniques and by the time. During the ITER EDA phase he coordinated the work in Europe in the field of development of new concepts. microwave and far infrared diagnostics. In 1999 he became chair of the ITER Experts Working Group on Diagnostics and later from 2001 till July 2008 was chair of the Diagnostics can be grouped into three ITPA Topical Group on Diagnostics. Additionally he chaired the JET Diagnostics Ex- major families, depending on their role: pert Group for EP2. Since 2001 he has been a member of the Science and Technol- measurements required for machine ogy Advisory Committee (STAC). He has published about 140 papers in refereed protection; measurements required to journals and approximately 250 conference proceedings. infer physical processes and parameters; and measurements for plasma control. plasma is characterized by strong elec- ing diagnostics on ITER arise mainly One intrinsic difficulty in the develop- tromagnetic fields. All these can be de- from the conditions under which it has ment of a diagnostic research program tected using a wide range of different to operate, especially the relatively high is the extremely wide range of parame- techniques. levels of neutron flux and fluence. New ters which need to be measured. phenomena which are expected to oc- Among the most important ones are the In some cases the same measurement cur in future experiments (radiation in- Focusplasma on current, density and tempera- can be exploited for different purposes duced conductivity, radiation induced ture as well as neutron flux. There are such as physics studies, machine protec- absorption and luminescence in optical almost one hundred physical parame- tion, control. Therefore the diagnostics materials, activation, transmutations...) ters that are routinely diagnosed in fu- are operated with different time resolu- can change the physical properties of sion experiments. These parameters tion, spatial resolution, dynamic range, the component/sensor. Other effects, can be deduced by detecting fields, par- sensitivity, accuracy etc. optimized for like tritium retention in the materials, ticles and radiation coming from the different functions. Nowadays we have can be a safety issue. Burning plasma plasma. The plasma emits particles and hundreds of diagnostics at our disposal. experiments are extremely demanding radiation with a huge variability: for ra- The ambitious goal of controlling the also in terms of engineering of the diation we have microwaves, infrared, fusion plasma therefore benefits from diagnostic systems: integration on the visible and ultraviolet light, soft-X rays, these continuous diagnostic develop- machine, accessibility and maintenance. hard-X rays and gamma rays; for parti- ments. For example, due to the high neutron cles we have D, T, He neutrals, alphas, fluences some components are difficult impurities and neutrons escaping from For future burning plasma experi- to access either for maintenance or the core with energies ranging from keV ments, like ITER, the demands on diag- repair. to MeV or low energy electrons or ions nostic performance become much more at the plasma edge. In addition the stringent. The difficulties of implement- There are many areas in the field of diagnostics that require further R&D: fast detection of MHD instabilities, fusion product measurements, real time diag- Marc Beurskens nostics for plasma control and radiation Marc Beurskens got his PhD at FOM, the Netherlands. resistant detectors are only a few exam- He worked from 1999 to 2003 at JET as a long term ples among the most crucial ones. FOM secondee and as a UKAEA contractor. After spending 2 years again at FOM, Dr Beurskens returned Developments consistent with the re- to JET in 2005 and now works for UKAEA. He has ex- quirements for DEMO (the first electric- perience on JET in a wide variety of roles such as diag- ity producing fusion power plant which nostician and scientific coordinator. Dr Beurskens was will be built after ITER) represent an ex- closely involved in the development of the new JET cellent opportunity to launch an ambi- high resolution Thomson scattering system and is now tious program on diagnostic research, also involved in the design of the ITER LIDAR system. stimulating a relevant step forward, in He manages to be active in both the areas of diagnos- terms of new concepts, extremely ad- tic development (on JET, the EFDA DTG and the ITPA vanced performances and highly inte- Topical Group on Diagnostics) and in the study of edge pedestal physics on JET and grated sets of diagnostics. In order to within the ITPA Topical Group on pedestal and edge physics. He is the author of over face all the challenges ahead, a great ef- 90 scientific publications. fort will be required to coordinate the research on diagnostics. EFDA Fusion News

To integrate the research activities of Heating and Current Drive Topical Group field lines, but it could be a match the different laboratories and help EFDA with another frequency like the in the definition of research guidelines Magnetically confined plasma devices lower hybrid resonance frequency and future work programs, EFDA has for fusion research rely more and more on or the Alfvén resonance frequency. created the Diagnostics Topical Group. flexible heating systems able not only to The Topical Group is led by Tony Don- heat the plasma and to increase plasma Even if today the performances né (chairman), helped by Andrea Murari current but also to condition the plasma of the H&CD (Heating and Cur- and Marc Beurskens (deputies). parameters with the view of achieving rent Drive) systems suffice to safe, high performance and plasma puls- reach high plasma performance, The topical group activities include es of long if not continuous duration. several issues have still to be con- both diagnostics developments for fur- sidered. For example, in contrast ther and more detailed physics studies, Indeed, passing electric current through to present experimental devices, in order to improve the knowledge ba- the plasma generated by induction as in all the plasma facing equipments, sis; and specific developments aiming at a tokamak alone is not sufficient to like the antennas, have to be pro- performing the required measurements achieve the temperatures required for tected from the neutron flux rein the difficult environments posed by positive energy balance (an ion temper- sulting from fusion reactions. The future fusion devices such as ITER. In ature of ~ 100 million degrees is need- neutron flux will reach values particular, as an example of the activi- ed while the ion temperature reached much higher than in the present ties to be carried out in the framework by inductive current is in the range 10 JET tokamak (UK) while the pow- of this Topical Group, the creation of to 20 million degrees). Different meth- er flux, which is today less than 15 three expert groups on relevant sub- ods have been developed to overcome MW/m2, will reach 24 MW/m2 in jects, common to most of the tech- this difficulty. One of these methods, ITER and possibly more in the niques, is foreseen: Methodologies for the injection of neutral particles (NBI demonstration reactor DEMO.

Also, due to the greater plasma volume in a reactor, the need for Andrea Murari power capabilities will also Dr Andrea Murari received his B.A. degree in applied strongly increase. For instance, electronics and M.S. degree in plasma engineering in ITER is designed in its first phase 1989 and 1991, respectively, from the University of with 20 MW electron cyclotron, Padua, where he obtained his PhD degree in nuclear 20 MW ion cyclotron and 33 MW power plants from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering negative ion based neutral beam. in 1993. After experience in private companies (in the This has triggered significant R&D fields of laser diodes and vacuum technology), he has on the three heating systems. A mainly worked on measurement techniques and tech- main goal in terms of electron wave nologies for nuclear fusion experiments. He has in- heating has recently been achieved stalled various diagnostic systems on several European thanks to the successful new 170 experiments and, between 1998 and 2002, he was re- GHz gyrotron. Major difficulties sponsible for the support to all the diagnostics of the for the ion cyclotron wave heating RFX experiment in Padua. Dr Murari is presently the Leader of the Group on JET Di- system and the lower hybrid system agnostic and CODAS (Control and Data Acquisition Systems) in the JET Close Sup- for ITER still have to be solved. port Unit. He is the Scientific Coordinator of all JET diagnostic upgrades for the next One is the coupling of the waves framework programme and in January 2008 he was nominated co-chair of the EFDA with the plasma in the large gap Topical Group on Diagnostics. He has been a member of the Eiroforum thematic between the antenna and the working group on measurements since 2003. In August 2008 he was appointed the plasma; another is the stability of coordinator of the European delegation to the ITPA Topical Group on Diagnostics. the coupling during large magnetohydrodynami- cal edge events like the feedback control, Calibration tech- heating) allowed the Princeton tokamak Edge Localized Modes niques, Data and error analysis. The first PLT (USA) to reach an ion temperature which transport large one is to promote the development of of the order of 70-80 million degrees as amount of particles and integrated control systems, incorporat- early as at the beginning of the eighties. energy. Such problems are ing sensors, hardware, software and ac- Plasma-wave interaction is another way well identified and han-

tuators, with a particular emphasis on to transfer energy, leading to an in- dled with great attention Focus on the algorithm, related to more powerful crease in temperature and momentum in the EU and elsewhere. In particular, and complex modelisation of the plas- (causing faster rotation) of the plasma. ITER-like antennas are undergoing tests ma. The second one arises from the ne- The principle is to launch electromagnet- at Tore Supra, France, and JET. cessity to develop accurate and reliable ic waves via antennas or wave guides in calibrations for many diagnostics, in such a way as to fulfil inside the plasma In 2007 EFDA set up physics activities particular for future burning plasma ex- some plasma wave interaction condi- together with the Heating and Current periments, and to standardise these tions. The condition could be the Drive Topical Group (H&CD-TG) to fos- techniques. The third group will face the matching of the wave frequency with ter the collaborative activities amongst important issue of improving data analy- one of the naturally existing frequencies the Associations with the view of solving sis capability. Different statistical meth- in the plasma, such as the ion cyclotron the most urgent and important tasks re- ods will be considered, after a proper frequency or the electron cyclotron fre- quired to insure the success of ITER and evaluation of the error bars and uncer- quency, which are both related to the to prepare the ground for an efficient tainties related to the measurements. particle gyration around the magnetic and cost effective fusion power plant. EFDA Fusion News

The duties of the H&CD-TG are mul- tiple, ranging from advising the EFDA Alain Bécoulet leader, to assisting in the resolution of Alain Bécoulet is a former student of the Ecole Nor- physics and technology issues, in partic- male Supérieure in Paris. “Professeur Agrégé” in ular in terms of performance and relia- Physics since 1986 he finished his PhD work in CEA bility of the H&CD systems. The TG, in Cadarache in 1990 on the Hamiltonian approach of close collaboration with Fusion for En- the wave-particle interaction in tokamak plasmas ergy (F4E), prepares the EU Fusion and its application to ion cyclotron resonant heating. Community to support ITER and DEMO He then took responsibility for the Ion Cyclotron H&CD physics in the short term but al- Physics studies in CEA. His next interest was linked so in the long term as in the case of the to advanced tokamak studies, when he took the lower hybrid current drive system. The leadership of the JET task force on Advanced Sce- TG also works in close collaboration narios in 2000-2001. He then became leader of the with the EFDA Integrated Tokamak new European Task Force on Integrated Tokamak Modelling Task Force in promoting ex- Modelling between 2003 and 2006, setting up the periments and modelling activities. overall activity in Europe and the necessary connections with the other ITER part- ners. He took over the Chairmanship of the European Topical Group on Heating and The annual activities of the H&CD-TG Current Drive in October 2007. He has been leading the Plasma Heating and Con- are proposed by the TG-Chairman, assist- finement division in the”Institut de Recherche sur la Fusion par confinement Mag- ed by the Scientific and Technical Board, nétique” at CEA Cadarache since 2004. including representatives of F4E. The Chairman of the group is Alain Bécoulet.

The main activities of the Heating and pulse operation. Coordinated studies Technology related activities are Current Drive Topical Group for the will be performed to determine the best needed for making the H&CD systems years 2008 and 2009 can be summa- combination of H&CD to be used dur- ready for safe operation of the toka- rized as follows: ing the early evolution of the plasma. mak. In particular, improvement, qualification, and compatibility of arc Burning plasmas, that is plasmas in which Wall conditioning, in particular using detection systems, which will be stud- fusion reactions are taking place, will be the ion cyclotron heating scheme, is ied, are important for protecting the Focussimulated on experimentally using heating needed in order to control and eventu- heating systems against failure. Other and current drive tools, eventually includ- ally modify the composition of the gas safety operation issues will be con- ing helium injection. The objective of this trapped in the plasma facing materials. sidered, for example those related to research is to prepare the path for high This is particularly important for avoid- the overheating of the machine structures.

The mission of the H&CD-TG also ex- tends to ITER upgrades and to DEMO, in particular the possibility of using the lower hybrid current drive system in large reactors.

This structure of the H&CD-TG activities coincides with the proposed or- ganization of future EFDA activities in terms of 7 R&D missions that have to be accomplished for a successful approach to a fusion energy source based on magnetic confinement. These missions include, among others, physics activities related to burning plasmas or Tore Supra’s ITER like ICRF antenna long pulse and steady operation but also engineering type of activities power steady state plasmas in reactor ing impurity flow from the walls to the necessary to achieve reliable tokamak relevant conditions. Controlling plasma plasma or for avoiding uncontrolled operation. termination is also important in order to changes in, for example, hydrogen and avoid electromagnetic forces which are helium composition of the plasma dur- As can be concluded from the list too strong acting on the device structures. ing its evolution. Experimental work on of activities, the H&CD systems take Experiments on plasma termination will be this subject is in progress. an important share in the EFDA work- performed using radio-frequency waves. programme. Indeed, plasma operation Specific studies will also be performed to always requires one or more H&CD The way the plasma is generated in a test different techniques such as gas puff- systems: assisted plasma initiation to tokamak constrains its later evolution. ing allowing the radio frequency waves save magnetic flux, heating or/and One reason is that the magnetic field propagating from the antennas to be current generation all along the plasma flux consumed during plasma start-up coupled to the plasma when the distance pulse in order to help sustain high per- cannot be quickly replaced and must between the antennas and the plasma is formance or assisted termination to therefore be saved to allow for long as large as will be the case in ITER. avoid loss of control. EFDA Fusion News 50 years of tokamaks

From the historical point of view, the Fusion research was launched in the atures in T-2 plasmas. In the early year 2008 seems more than symbolic to U.S.S.R in the 1950s under the expert 1960s, two smaller tokamaks TM-1 and start the construction of ITER. The supervision of I. V. Kurchatov. In the TM-2 were built, both with major radius whole fusion community celebrated 50 LIPAN Institute in Moscow (nowadays 40 cm, to provide more detailed insight years of the first open fusion conference the Kurchatov Institute) the fusion sec- into specific problems of experimental (the 2nd International Conference on tor was headed by the young and research. TM-1 is probably the oldest the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy in charismatic L. A. Artsimovich. Like in the tokamak still in service, as its main com- Geneva, 1958). It is also 40 years ago other institutes, also in LIPAN priority was ponents form the basis of the Golem fa- that the IAEA Novosibirsk conference originally given to pinch experiments. cility at the Technical University in marked a turning point of fusion re- Future tokamaks were developed in a Prague, currently under construction to search with the reported success of rather small laboratory under the enthu- become a new plasma hands-on exper- tokamaks, see e.g. siastic leadership of N. A. Yavlinskij. Quite iment for students. http://www.jet.efda.org/pages/ naturally, a few other facilities preceded multimedia/yop/nov05.html. T-1 in order to validate the basic ideas of In the following machine T-3 (commis- toroidal magnetic confinement set in the sioned in 1962), the major radius was Indeed, many tokamaks have been work of I. E. Tamm and A. D. Sakharov, increased to one meter in order to allow built since then all around the world to who introduced the field helicity in plas- for full ionisation of major impurities in culminate in the present ITER design. ma in order to close the particle drift tra- ohmically heated plasmas. The choice In this article we would like to recall jectories. Among these facilities, the was right, full ionisation minimised radi- the first ten years of tokamak studies machine TMP with ceramic vessel and ation losses and T-3 achieved macro- during which the team of the Kurchatov strong toroidal field is often mentioned scopically stable plasmas with the then Institute in Moscow fostered tokamak as the direct predecessor of tokamaks. record temperatures of 1 keV (10 mil- R&D from the first device T-1 to the When N. A. Yavlinskij tragically dies in lion degrees). This result was confirmed success of its bigger, more advanced an airplane accident in 1962, the results by the Thomson scattering system im- History version T-3. of tokamaks are already so prominent ported and operated by a team of Bri- that L. A. Artsimovich himself assumes tish scientists in 1969. This led to a real In the evening talk of the IAEA Fusion leadership of the laboratory, including worldwide “tokamania”. Energy Conference in Geneva (see oth- the brand new T-3 machine which later er article in this issue) this year, given by allows for the tokamak breakthrough. What determined the success of the the current director of fusion research at Kurchatov team? And did it surprise its the Kurchatov Institute Prof. V.P. Still, it is the tokamak T-1 that can be members? “For sure I would not say Smirnov, the year 1958 was mentioned considered the first experiment proving that it came as a surprise. Our determi- as the year when the tokamak programme started. “I would definitely agree that 1958 is the year of birth of tokamaks, because T-1 started operation then” says Prof V.S. Strelkov from the Kurchatov Institute, who personally participated in the tokamak T-1 work. “One can even find this facility mentioned in the proceedings of the 1958 Geneva conference as ‘Experimental arrangement 5’, however without men- tioning any results, because the facility was only about to start operation.”

T-1 was the first toroidal facility with a steel vacuum vessel that satisfied the Past and present: the first tokamak T1 (left) and tokamak Golem (right) based on TM-1 from the early 60s Kruskal-Shafranov stability condition. The condition requires that the safety factor q is bigger than one, i.e. the pitch angle of the magnetic field helicity needs the Kruskal-Shafranov stability condi- nation was based on the results of our to be very low – in practice it means that tion. Results also indicated that the experiments. We could see that unlike in the toroidal field must be strong, which main power losses were due to the ra- pinches, our discharges were stable. We distinguishes tokamaks from the then diation of impurities and not anomalous worked, analysed results and progressed popular toroidal pinches like ZETA in diffusion. As the level of impurities was without really paying attention to the Harwell. The tokamak T-1 major and high, the next step T-2 (of the same size, claims that the Bohm diffusion, predicting minor radius were 62.5 cm and 24 cm, commissioned in 1959) had for the first extremely high losses of heat of plasmas, respectively, with the main toroidal field time a system for vacuum vessel baking. may be universal,” pointed out Prof. V. approximately one tesla. Interestingly, The system heated the vessel in be- S. Strelkov from the Kurchatov institute. the word ‘tokamak’ – a Russian abbre- tween experiments in order to release viation of Toroidal Chamber with Mag- residual impurity gases attached to the Scientific team of tokamak T-1: G.G. netic Coils - was coined probably the vessel surface. This procedure – stan- Dolgov-Saveljev, V.S. Muchovatov, V.S. same year by I. N. Golovin, head of a dard in all tokamaks today - clearly led Strelkov, M.H. Shepelev and N.A. neigbouring laboratory. to less impurities and increased temper- Yavlinskij. Jan Mlynár and Milan Ripa EFDA Fusion News Wendelstein 7-X taking shape

The first milestones in the assembly of the Wendelstein 7-X fusion device at the Greifswald branch of Max Planck In- stitute of Plasma Physics (IPP), Ger- many, have been reached with the completion of the first of five modules of the large-scale experiment: one-fifth of the inner core of the device is now ready. Construction of the complex device will take about another six years. Wendelstein 7-X will then be – next to the Large Helical Device in Japan – the world’s largest fusion device of the stellarator type. With discharges lasting up to 30 minutes it is to demonstrate the stellarator’s essential property – continuous operation at reactor relevant plasma parameters.

The components Industrial production of the essential components for Wendelstein 7-X is almost complete. Manufacturing of the core of the device – 50 complex shaped, helium-cooled superconducting magnet coils about 3.5 metres high – has been finished. They were produced by a nents. An equal number of ports pro- nal alignment of these modules on the German-Italian consortium headed by duced and supplied by the Romabau machine base, the successive connec- Babcock Noell GmbH in Würzburg and Gerinox company in Switzerland con- tion of the modules and the set-up of ASG Superconductors S.p.A. in Genoa. nect these openings with the outer wall the periphery, including electrical con- In order to vary the magnetic field, a of the cryostat. nections and cooling system. second set of 20 planar, likewise superconducting coils, are superposed on the The assembly A major task concerning the first mag- stellarator coils. The manufacturer, Tes- The assembly of Wendelstein 7-X is net module during recent months was la in the UK, has delivered all 20 planar organized in six stages making use of the manufacturing and installation of coils. More than half of the 70 coils have the five-fold symmetry of the magnetic the support brackets and clamps of the been successfully tested under cryo- field structure. Five almost identical superconducting bus, which is provided genic and high voltage conditions, modules are pre-assembled before be- by Forschungszentrum Jülich, and the demonstrating superconductivity at full ing joined into a torus in the experiment design and manufacturing of the cryo- current and the ability to withstand the hall. In the first stage the coils are pipes. Because of limited space inside voltage required in case of quench. A threaded onto the vacuum vessel and the cryostat and the calculated move- Associations massive ring-shaped support structure, joined to the central support ring, while ment of the coils and structures for the already half completed by the Spanish installing the mechanical support ele- different magnetic field load cases, a company ENSA, will hold the coils in ments between the coils. This work is very complex collision analysis has been their exact positions. done separately for each half module. required. Assembly trials for the holders For this stage two assembly rigs Ia and of the superconducting bus have turned The entire coil configuration will be Ib are used, allowing parallel assembly out to be very time consuming. Coun- enclosed by a cryostat 16 metres in of two half modules simultaneously. termeasures, to avoid delays during diameter. Two of its five sections have The half modules are then joined to- these working steps, require an increase already been finished by MAN DWE in gether to form a full magnet module in in design, manufacturing and assembly Deggendorf, Germany. A refrigeration assembly rig II. On this rig the prepara- capacities. plant will later provide cold helium to tions for the installation of the super- cool the magnets and supports to the conducting bus and of the cryo-pipes Parallel to the advancing assembly in temperature of a few Kelvin needed for the liquid helium supply also take Greifswald, the first half shells of the to achieve superconductivity. Inside the place. cryostat vessel have been delivered. coils the plasma vessel has a peculiar In a first step to prepare the cryostat shape matched to the twisting of the In September 2008, the first of five for the final assembly, experts from plasma contour, designed to provide modules moved on from assembly rig II MAN DWE are applying the thermal optimised confinement and stability. to rig IIIa inside the torus hall (see pic- insulation to the cryostat which is Its 20 sections were likewise produced ture), where the superconducting bus required to reduce thermal radiation by MAN DWE. More than 250 openings and cryo-pipes are being installed. From to the cold structures. After enclosing are engineered in the vessel to allow now on work can progress on three the magnet modules with the lower the plasma to be observed and heated magnet modules in parallel. Subsequent and upper half shells of the cryostat ves- and for cooling tubes to penetrate assembly stages are the completion of sel the port installation can start. for cooling the plasma facing compo- the five single magnet modules, the fi- Isabella Milch EFDA Fusion News

Youth festival in Hungary – can introduce themselves and their communicating fusion to activities. Since 1999 the FINE (Youth for Nuclear Energetics), the young people youth section of the Hungarian Nuclear Society has been pitching Prof. Friedrich Wagner Is it possible to talk about fusion and a tent and providing information retires science in the middle of a youth music about nuclear energy. In 2005 festival? Young Hungarian fusion scien- PhD students from the Hungarian Professor Dr. Friedrich Wagner from tists think that the answer is definitely Euratom Association HAS joined the Max Planck Institute of Plasma yes. That is why for the last 4 years they the work to show a possible fu- Physics (IPP), Greifswald Branch, retired have been attending the “Sziget” (Is- ture of nuclear technology. at the end of November. Professor land in Hungarian) Festival which cele- Wagner (born 1943) discovered in 1982 brated its 15th Anniversary last year. “In the young generation there on the ASDEX tokamak (IPP-Garching) Evolved from a local event into one of is a well observable demand for the High-Confinement Regime, later the major international musical and cul- information about the latest re- called H-Mode, a plasma state with tural festivals in Europe, Sziget has today sults of research including fusion” confinement properties about twice as a reserved place in the Summer calen- – explains Dániel Dunai, a young effective as in former modes of opera- dar of many young European people. fusion scientist of HAS who at- tion. He was able to show that under tended the event. “This year certain conditions self-organised trans- It is hard to define what makes the Sziget about 1000 young people partic- port barriers form at the plasma edge. extraordinary among the many music ipated in the program. Our visi- The thermally insulating layer ensures festivals around Europe, but its atmos- tors filled out a test with the help good plasma confinement, a very im- phere is surely unique. It might come of a fusion brochure, which then portant discovery in the development of partly from the locale itself, since it is or- was corrected and explained by an fusion research. This achievement gave ganised on an island of the Danube in the expert. The questions were de- new momentum to the research which heart of Budapest. Or partly from the signed to give a short in- was facing serious difficulties at the end programme since besides concerts in all troduction on matters of the 70s due to the fact that thermal music styles there are movies, perform- from fusion reaction to insulation inevitably diminished as the ances, talks, dances, etc., all together the future reactor, and temperature approached ignition con- more than a 1000 events. But the am- pointed to the impor- ditions. bience is made mostly by the people at- tance of ITER and its European tending the festival who come from all site. Many young teachers also Friedrich Wagner was appointed proj- over Europe; this year 371000 visitors visited our tent and received in- Assoc ect head of the ASDEX experiment in per day attended a week-long fiesta. formation materials. The informal 1986, and two years later Scientific Fel- discussion we had with our visi- low and Director at IPP. This was fol- One unique feature of this festival is tors proved to be a very effective lowed by his appointment as project the Civilian Island, a separated place in tool in disseminating information head of the Garching stellarator Wen- the area where non-profit organisations on fusion”- he adds. delstein 7-AS. In 1992 Wagner and his team also succeeded in developing the So what is fusion? Filling out test on nuclear energy by not typically science oriented H-mode on this stellarator, proving this young people at Sziget Festival. Photo by Dávid Légrády regime to be a universal plasma state.

From 2003 till 2005 Friedrich Wagner was in charge of the construction of the follow-up experiment, Wendelstein 7- X, at the Greifswald branch of IPP, whose spokesman he was from 1999 till 2007. In 1999 he was appointed Profes- sor of Physics at the Ernst Moritz Arndt University in Greifswald and in 2007 became President of the European Physi- cal Society.

Professor Wagner has been awarded the Stern-Gerlach Medal 2009 by the German Physical Society (DPG) for his work in high-temperature physics and fusion research. EFDA Fusion News

New Director and ed the Leibniz Prize of the German Re- magnetohydrodynamic stability of high spokesperson at Max Planck search Foundation in 2005. temperature fusion plasmas. In 2000 she was appointed Scientific Member of Institute of Plasma Physics Since then he has played a key role in the Max-Planck Society and Director at the development of future X-ray obser- the IPP, currently heading the tokamak On 1 November 2008 Professor Dr. vatories such as eROSITA, Simbol-X and theory division. Since 2001 she has Günther Hasinger took up his appoint- XEUS/IXO. These will serve to clarify been teaching as adjunct professor at ment as Scientific Director of the Max the early development of Black Holes Rostock University and in 2006 was Planck Institute of Plasma Physics (IPP) at and galaxies as well as the nature of made honorary professor at the Techni- Garching and Greifswald. He succeeds Dark Energy and Dark Matter. At IPP he cal University Munich. She has been a Professor Dr. Alexander M. Bradshaw, will contribute not only his experience in member of the IPP directorate since who has headed IPP since 1999. At the heading major international projects, 2007. Prof. Günter is now chairing the same time Prof Sibylle Günter was ap- but also concrete research methods: for Topical Group on Energetic Particle pointed as IPP’s spokesperson in the example, plasma physics will benefit Physics in the International Tokamak group of the Heads of the Research Unit. from his application of X-ray diagnos- Physics Activities (ITPA) and has recent- tics, so important to his previous work, ly been elected to chair the European After studying physics Günther Hasin- in conjunction with astrophysics groups. High Performance Computer for Fusion ger, born in 1954 at Oberammergau, did board. Since 1 November she has been his PhD at Ludwig Maximilian’s Univer- When Dr. Hasinger gave his speech of representing the IPP in the EFDA Steer- sity (LMU), Munich, and Max Planck introduction to members of the IPP on ing Committee as Head of Research Unit.

Loss of Prof Skalny´

On 17 October 2008 the scientific community lost a great friend and col-

league with the sudden and unexpect- ed death of the Head of the ^ Slovakian

Association, Professor Jan Dusan Skalny´. The^ professional career of Jan

Dusan Skalny´ was entwined with the Comenius^ University in Bratislava. Jan Dusan started his career as a researcher Dr. Hasinger and Dr. Zohm playing the guitar at the IPP meeting. and scientist in 1966 at the Department of Experimental Physics. Initially fo- Institute of Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE), 10 December, one of his lesser known cused on high pressure discharges, he Garching. He then joined MPE, where skills was exposed. He and his colleague later extended his interest to electron he was concerned with the EXOSAT, Hartmut Zohm performed a live rendi- and ion processes related to electric dis- GINGA and ROSAT X-ray satellites. In tion of a rock song by guitar, theme: charges and plasma. His career, which 1995 Günther Hasinger took his lectur- plasma! Indeed, he has been playing in- had been restricted during the Commu- ership qualification at LMU, Munich. struments like bass guitar and flute for nist era in former Czechoslovakia, de- Associations After research spells in the USA he was a long time. As part of an established veloped rapidly after the fall of the iron given a chair at the University of Pots- Oberammergau family he made it onto curtain in 1989. In 1991 he obtained the dam in 1994. At the same time he was the stage (albeit in crowd scenes) in the position of associated professor and in appointed as a Director at the Astro- world-renowned Passion play in 1970 1998 full professorship in Plasma physical Institute Potsdam (AIP); from which takes place there every ten years. Physics at the Comenius University. 1998 he was spokesman for the Board. More time on stage followed, particu- During the period 1996 - 1999 he was In 2001 he was finally made a Scientif- larly in the 70s, with performances in head of the Department of Plasma

ic Fellow and Director of the X-ray and “Saffran”, a German rock band playing Physics at the same university. Gamma Group of MPE at Garching. progressive rock. Instead of following a ^ career in music however, Günther Jan Dusan was an open, friendly per- Günther Hasinger ranks among the Hasinger took up studies in physics… son. He was ready to help and collabo- world’s leading capacities in the fields of rate with colleagues from home and cosmology and X-ray astronomy – the Sibylle Günter studied physics at the abroad. He actively contributed to sev- investigation of outer space in X-ray University of Rostock, where she did her eral European and international projects light. With ROSAT he was able to show PhD in 1990. After working in the US at and played a key role in the formation

that cosmic background X-radiation, a the University of Maryland and Nation- of the Slovak-Euratom Association. very old and puzzling phenomenon, is al Institute of Science and Technology ^ emitted by massive Black Holes in the (NIST) in 1994, she defended her habil- Jan Dusan’s personality, joy of living centres of distant galaxies. Thanks to his itation thesis on optical properties in and enthusiasm for science made his decisive contribution to this research, it dense plasmas in 1996. In the same year friendship a rewarding and memorable is now known that these Black Holes she moved to IPP Garching, and experience. He will be sorely missed. constitute the seedlings of galaxies and changed her research field from the motors for their development – results study of quantum statistics of cold for which Günther Hasinger was award- dense plasmas to the investigation of EFDA Fusion News

New HoA in Romania, new Fusion in Dutch current research in the field is HRU in Belgium and France secondary schools established by using data and examples from international fusion Dr. Florin Spineanu was appointed The Dutch association EURATOM- experiments such as TEXTOR, Head of the Fusion Research Unit of the FOM has produced a teaching module MAST and JET to perform calcu- Association EURATOM-MEdC at the to bring fusion research into the class- lations and make predictions. In Steering Committee Meeting in 8 Octo- room. The module was recently certified one (optional) activity, students ber 2008. Florin Spineanu has graduat- by the Dutch Ministry of Education and come to the FOM-Institute for ed from the Faculty of Physics (1977) is now an official (elective) part of the Plasma Physics Rijnhuizen, the and the Faculty of Mathematics (1986) new subject “Nature, Life and Technol- Dutch fusion lab, and perform of the University of Bucharest, Romania ogy” (NLT) in the Dutch curriculum. measurements on the plasma wall and obtained his PhD in 1992. He has NLT aims to increase the interest in interaction experiment Pilot-PSI done basic research on the statistical science and technical subjects in sec- with their home-made spectrom- physics of anomalous transport, insta- ondary schools by involving pupils in re- eter. bilities and transport in thermonuclear search, showing the cross links between plasma, including numerical simulations. different disciplines and stressing the The module was developed by In recent years he has focused on coher- applications of science in society. Erik Min (chief editor) and Amy ent structures and organized flows, using Shumack from FOM-Rijnhuizen, particularly powerful methods of field The module challenges students in the in close collaboration with sec- theory formalism and integrability theory. last years of secondary school to design ondary school teachers Lieke He is currently working on the theory of their own fusion reactor, capable of pro- Heimel and Peter van Soest. Be- L to H transition, Edge Localized Modes ducing enough energy to power the city fore certification, the module was and density pinch in various regimes of of New York. They are guided through tested in several schools. Judging tokamak. F. Spineanu has published 65 seven design steps to accomplish this. by the reactions, students are very papers in international refereed jour- After a brief overview of the field of alter- keen on learning about this fasci- nals, many in collaboration with groups native energy, the module features diverse nating subject. from France, Belgium, Italy, Japan, USA. subjects such the physics of magnetic confinement, plasma heating and choices Plans exist to translate In November 2008 Prof. Dr. Ir. Michael of wall material. Students are encouraged the module into English Van Schoor was appointed Director of to make their own design choices such for use by EFDA. the Belgian research unit LPP as the fuel to use or the choice between ERM/KMS. Prof. Van Schoor is a poly- a divertor or a limiter, and defend them For more information, please contact technical engineer by training and is a on the basis of physical arguments. Erik Min, Public Information Officer Assoc former Air Force Officer. In 1990 he was at the FOM-Institute for Plasma appointed at the Physics Department of Included are ample exercises and Physics Rijnhuizen. the Royal Military Academy in Brussels hands-on activities. A strong link with [email protected], +31 30 6096 836. and became involved in fusion research, where he did research work on topics like edge turbulence, plasma rotation, JET on track and requested the Com- biasing and confinement. He became for a promising future mission “to investigate professor in 2003 and is now also head the possibility of making of the Physics Department. With the year coming to an end JET adequate resources avail- has many reasons to be looking back in able within the fusion Dr Gabriel Marbach was appointed delight. To start with, 2008 marks an programme budget”. Head of the Research Unit at CEA on 1 anniversary year for the JET Experiment. This will entail exploiting November 2008. Dr Marbach graduat- Indeed, on the 25 June 1983 the first JET beyond the currently ed from Ecole Centrale de Paris as a me- plasma was achieved. The continuous foreseen horizon of 2010, chanical engineer in 1972 and he also success of the Experiment since then up to 2014/15. More- got a degree in solid and material made it possible to gather together over, later in the year, the physics. He received his PhD in materi- many of the key players from day one Facilities Review Panel al behaviour in Orsay in 1976. After for a joyful celebration exactly 25 years (see our other article in starting work for CEA, Dr Marbach later. The 25 June 2008 went down in this issue) recognised JET headed a group in charge of develop- history as a day when JET’s present as “the most relevant de- ment and operation of fuel for fast young scientists had the opportunity to vice for support to ITER breeder reactors between 1978 and meet and exchange with many of those until new devices with 1988. Then he was the leader of the in- who contributed to the milestones set improved capabilities strumentation and design laboratory for by JET in international fusion research. become available” and fast breeder reactors until 1995. From concluded that “JET 1996 to 2000 he was involved in the co- On the other hand, it was also an ap- needs to operate until 2014/15 ordination of technical and safety activ- propriate occasion to look into the future at least and would benefit from JET ities for fusion at the nuclear reactor with a certain degree of confidence. In an early installation of an Elec- division at CEA and contributed to the fact, at its meeting in Ljubljana back in tron Cyclotron Resonance Heat- ITER project as a European expert for March, the EFDA Steering Committee ing System. Depending on the nuclear integration and safety. Dr Mar- unanimously approved a resolution that JT60SA schedule JET operation bach was Deputy Head of the Depart- recognised “the scientific need for full for a few further years should be ment of Controlled Fusion Research exploitation of the JET Enhancement foreseen.” from 2001 to November 2008. Programme 2 and for tritium operation” (Continued on next page) EFDA Fusion News

The remarkable scientific capabilities of JET, recognised by these positive rec- ommendations, have been extensively exploited during 2008 in a scientific programme devoted to the consolidation of ITER design choices and the qualification of ITER regimes of operation. These regimes of operation, referred to as plasma scenarios, are the sequence of operational events applied to prepare

JETand then initiate the plasma, raise the plasma current to the required value, apply the auxiliary heating and current drive during the burning phase and finally extinguish the plasma discharge safely.

A tokamak, like JET and eventually ITER, uses a transformer such that the EFDA Associate Leader for JET, Francesco Romanelli, welcomes the guests at the celebration secondary current (the plasma current) of the 25th Anniversary of JET’s first plasma. is driven inductively by continuously increasing/decreasing the current in the primary circuit. This feature effectively limits the pulse length (it ends when the tion in fusion power plants. In ITER, ful- and a decrease of the induced power poloidal field coils have reached their ly non-inductive operation (i.e. without loads on the plasma facing components. maximum achievable currents). For this transformer flux consumption) is envis- reason, in ITER, the baseline plasma sce- aged for up to 3000s at a reduced These are just a few examples of the nario (referred to as ELMy H-mode) is plasma current of 9 million Ampere many achievements made by JET in envisaged to operate for a duration not (compared to the 15 million Ampere 2008. Work is still ongoing to complete exceeding 500s at a plasma current of current capability). To compensate for the comprehensive set of experiments 15 million Ampere. the reduction in energy confinement as- planned before and in preparation for sociated with reducing the plasma cur- the future ITER-like wall which will build During this year’s experimental cam- rent, the ITER steady-state scenario the very core of the JET programme in paigns a substantial part of the ITER must achieve improved energy confine- support of ITER and whose installation plasma scenarios development activities ment by a factor of 1.5 compared to the will start during the Summer of 2009. at JET has been dealing with the devel- standard confinement projection for the Richard Kamendje & Petra Nieckchen opment of the tokamak concept to- baseline scenario. Crucially, JET results wards steady-state operation, based on have demonstrated that substantially ISSN 1818-5355 “advanced tokamak” (AT) plasma sce- improved confinement is achievable on narios. The objective of the AT research a large tokamak (so far up to a factor is to provide a candidate plasma sce- 1.4), thereby increasing confidence of For more information see the websites: nario applicable for continuous opera- the successfully operation of this sce- http://www.efda.org nario on ITER. http://www.jet.efda.org http://www.iter.org However, resolving the issues associated with the performance of plasma EFDA Close Support Unit - Garching scenarios is not the entire story. In real- Boltzmannstr. 2 ity, due to the expected large amount of D-85748 Garching / Munich - Germany energy stored in ITER plasmas and future fusion power plants, plasma sce- phone: +49-89-3299-4263 narios must be compatible with power fax: +49-89-3299-4197 load limits imposed by first wall materi- e-mail: [email protected] als. This is currently a very active field of editor: Örs Benedekfi research in which JET has been at the layout: SGW forefront of integrating ITER scenarios with relevant first wall materials. Tran- © Jérôme Paméla (EFDA Leader) 2008. sient power loads are, for instance, in- This internal newsletter or parts of it may duced on plasma facing components by not be reproduced without permission. a phenomenon which occurs at the edge Text, pictures and layout, except where noted, of the plasma: Edge Localized Modes courtesy of the EFDA Parties. A view into the JET vacuum vessel using a (ELM). In 2008 JET experiments have The EFDA Parties are the European Commission and the Associates of the European Fusion wide-angle infrared camera system. The investigated different active techniques Programme which is co-ordinated and managed by system allows the observation and measur- for reducing ELM induced power loads the Commission. ing of the temperature increase of plasma on plasma facing components. These Neither the Commission, the Associates nor any- facing components following transient techniques are based on applying a per- one acting on their behalf is responsible for any damage resulting from the use of information con- power loads induced, for instance, by Edge turbation to the plasma, which results in tained in this publication. Localised Modes such as in this picture. a frequency increase of the ELM events