What Do Fusion and Food- Packaging Have in Common? Along Comes a Spider
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FUSION IN EUROPE NEWS & VIEWS ON THE PROGRESS OF FUSION RESEARCH Hijacking a Jet: how Culham was chosen Page 26 WHAT DO FUSION AND FOOD- PACKAGING HAVE IN COMMON? ALONG COMES A SPIDER 4 2017 FUSION IN EUROPE 4 2017 The cover shows a painting from the artist Sarah Mon- Contents crieff. The painter has joined the Research Units Culham Centre for Fusion Energy 4 Six postdocs connect tokamak and stellarator (CCFE) during an Open Day and has 6 Win-win: real-time collaboration between pictured the Joint ITER and JET European Torus in a very colourful 8 A lot of good neutron science way. 10 What do fusion and food-packaging have in Picture: private/Ray Francis common? Johannes Schwemmer ITERsection became the Director of Fusion for Energy (F4E) in 2016. The organisation 13 We need to act as one! manages the European 16 Along comes a SPIDER industrial involvement in ITER and has just celebra- Young Faces ted its 10th anniversary. In an interview Johannes 19 Fusion en Marche! Schwemmer discussess synergies between Alternative Fusion Concepts 13 EUROfusion and F4E. 22 Helion Energy Picture: Fusion for Energy Impressions 24 Impressions Community 26 Hijacking a jet: how Culham was chosen 26 28 JET as a pictorial record The Boeing ‘Landshut’ has been hijacked by terrorists in 1977. It is said that the attack has had an impact on the Outlook 2018 final location of the Joint European Torus. Due to the 40th anniversary Fusion in Europe has dived into the archives in 30 ITER on track/Upgrade for Compass/EURO- order to find out the truth of it. fusion in China Picture: DPA Bildarchiv EUROfusion © Petra Nieckchen Imprint Programme Management Unit – Garching FUSION IN EUROPE Boltzmannstr. 2 This newsletter or parts of it may not be reproduced ISSN 1818-5355 85748 Garching / Munich, Germany without permission. Text, pictures and layout, except phone: +49-89-3299-4128 where noted, courtesy of the EUROfusion members. The EUROfusion members are the Research Units email: [email protected] of the European Fusion Programme. Responsibility editors: Petra Nieckchen, Anne Purschwitz for the information and views expressed in this newsletter lies entirely with the authors. Neither Subscribe at [email protected] the Research Units or anyone acting on their behalf For more information see the /fusion2050 @PetraonAir is responsible for any damage resulting from the website: www.euro-fusion.org @FusionInCloseUp @APurschwitz use of information contained in this publication. FUSION IN EUROPE | Moving Forward | EUROfusion | I am increasingly convinced that we, in Europe, benefit Tony Donné, from the most coherent and best coordinated research EUROfusion programme in the world. As Programme Manager, I have Programme Manager the unique ability to compare fusion research worldwide. I have heard many scientists from other countries say that they envy us for being able to follow a competitive outline which focuses on very clear priorities. Our plan enables scientists and engineers, from 30 national re- search laboratories and well over 150 universities, to work to gether towards the same common goal. The basis for this is the European Fusion Roadmap which defines the main challenges that will need to be tackled in the coming years. It also describes a detailed research plan. Since its publication in 2013, we have made very good progress on many topics. The change from carbon to metal walls has led to a considerable reduction in hydrogen retention and dust production – very good news for ITER because this implies fewer openings for cleaning. Moreover, our scientists have developed new operational Apart from the above alignment of the TBM and BB recipes in order to reach high performance with metal programmes, we are also collaborating closely with F4E, walls, and they have discovered that fast ions have a stabi- for instance, in the Broader Approach (Japanese Torus lising effect on turbulence – again good news. 60 Super Advanced, DEMO, the International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility and various ITER-related The initial campaigns of the Wendelstein 7-X stellarator topics). Additionally, in 2017, F4E has joined EUROfusion exceeded expectations. The new systems enginee ring in EIROforum. F4E is now a member of the consortium approach adopted in the predesign phase for the first which comprises the eight largest European research demonstrational fusion power plant DEMO is a major step institutes. Indeed, I am pleased to announce that this forward and has given the fusion community many new edition features an interview with F4E Director Johannes insights. All of these efforts and successes would not have Schwemmer on the occasion of the celebration of the 10th been possible without the dedicated staff of EUROfusion anniversary of the organisation. and its beneficiaries. Realising fusion electricity is by far one of the biggest We are now in the process of updating the fusion roadmap. challenges on the path of mankind. We will best be able to The revision will be an evolution of the old one but with reach the final goal if we all cooperate. My wish for 2018 is even more coherence between the missions. Important that we continue the good work and achieve many positive is the enhanced consistency between ITER and DEMO results. activities: In 2017, EUROfusion, Fusion for Energy (F4E) and several research institutes undertook a major effort to align the European ITER Test Blanket Module (TBM) and the DEMO Breeder Blanket (BB) programmes. This has led to much stronger synergies between F4E and the EU- ROfusion activities, a direct outcome of our well organised Tony Donné fusion programme. EUROfusion Programme Manager 3 FUSION IN EUROPE he Max Planck Institute for Plasma TPhysics (IPP) in Germany offers unique possibilities. It features not one, but two of the most advanced fusion experiments available. The Greifswald branch hosts the stellarator Wendelstein 7-X and the Garching institute operates the tokamak ASDEX Upgrade. Why not make use of the best of both worlds? For the first time in history, the institute has offered six post- doc positions with the intention to create synergies between tokamak and stellara- tor research. SIX POSTDOCS CONNECT TOKAMAK AND STELLARATOR The announcement from the Scientific Board TWO TEAMS, ONE GOAL of IPP arrived just in time for tokamak ex- “We were kicking around ideas regarding pert Rachael McDermott and her stel- how to develop the systems to better meet larator colleague Oliver Ford. Rachael the goals of our spectroscopy groups”, in Garching and Oliver in Greifswald says Rachael. “If we had the dedicated were about to purchase new cameras to manpower we would be able to create observe the plasma inside both exper- something specific in a more efficient iments. Those cameras came with soft- way and would not have to rely on com- ware which was not ideal for the needs of R mercial products that are designed for a ac ha te the two research teams. el iva more general audience.” Mc : pr Dermott. Picture 4 FUSION IN EUROPE | Research Units | EUROfusion | D e a at rre riv n M e: p cDonald. Pictur EUROfusion’s roadmap brings together tokamaks and stellarators. Sharing of ideas and people between the two areas benefits both. A good example of this is the work being done on the Wendelstein 7-X stellarator in support of ITER. The new postdoc programme is a great way to encourage even more collaboration. Darren McDonald from EUROfusion’s ITER Physics Department Rachael and Oliver used the newly created re- JOINING THE PATHS search opportunity to launch a call for a post- Developing proper software is not the only doc. He or she would become one of the six thing that researcher Rachael is interested in. ambassadors who, from next spring onwards, “What will be really exciting to see, is how the will travel and work in both the toka mak and two different groups of researchers tackle the stellarator worlds. The person will receive same problem”, she says. “We usually have the equal training at ASDEX Upgrade as well as same objectives, but we reach them via differ- Wendelstein 7-X between 2018 and 2020 and ent paths. Exchanging and interacting here will help to create resources that benefit both might create the best solution.” groups. It is not only the creational aspect that looks CREATING EXTRA SPACE promising: “The new postdoc will be in an “By allocating postdoc resources to such col- optimum position to benefit from ASDEX laborative projects, we have created space for expertise, and transfer this knowledge to the special projects to flourish. We were very im- Wendelstein 7-X team. We in Garching have pressed by the quality of the proposals that years of practice in running, for example, we received in response to this call”, says visible spectroscopy diagnostics and in inter- Thomas Sunn Pedersen, Director of the Stel- preting the measurements. This will be very larator Edge and Divertor Physics Division in useful when the stellarator systems come on- Greifswald. line”, says Rachael. n 4 5 FUSION IN EUROPE WIN-WIN: REAL-TIME COLLABORATION BETWEEN ITER AND JET Adam is part of the team which delivers CODAS. This “I would say one of the nicest part of our ITER soft- COntrol and Data Acquisition System uses a real-time ware is the real-time communication, a combination of network which interconnects more than 100 systems re- networks and software”, says Anders Wallander, Head ceiving data from and feeding data into the Joint European of ITER’s Control System Division. Imagine you need to Torus (JET). The device’s communication system was due run a unique fusion machine which needs to manage the for an upgrade so that it would accept current state of the input of 170 different plant systems and, moreover, make art communication.