EUROPEAN FUSION DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENT ISSN 1818-5355

EUROPEAN FUSION DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENT

EFDA GETS READY FOR ITERNEW ORGANISATION APPROVED

Final push For pump down – JET shuTdown updaTE

nEw Chairs For TransporT TopiC al Group appoinTEd

Fusion Expo in ViEnna and BraTislaVa

1 | 2011

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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contents FUSION in europe№ 1 | 2011

Moving Forward3 efDa gets ready for iter

Associates4 studies for the post-iter era

EFDA5 supporting young scientists

6 positive predictions for the Jet iter-like-wall

JETInsight7 the Joint european torus

8 final push for pump down

9 who will tell the jokes now?

10 relearning how to run Jet

CommunityPeople

11 europe must prepare for iter

12 new chairs appointed

In dialogue14 physics is fun!

16 energy exhibition toured german and austrianrivers

16 an investment for our children

17 nothing ventured, nothing gained …

Miscellaneous18 newsflash

18 Jet guestbook

Title pictures: EFDA; Ralph P. Schorn/FZ Jülich; Ilja Hendel/Wissenschaft im Dialog

FUSION in europe | Contents |

5Studies for the post-ITER era

10Relearning how to run JET

16Energy exhibition toured German and Austrian rivers

imprintFUSION in europe

issn 1818-5355

for more information see the websites:

www.efda.org

www.jet.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: christine.rueth@efda.org

editors: petra nieckchen, christine rüth

subscribe at newsletter@efda.org

© Francesco Romanelli (EFDA Leader) 2011.This newsletter or parts of it may not be reproduced withoutpermission. Text, pictures and layout, except where noted, courtesy of theEFDA Parties. The EFDA Parties are the European Commission and the Associatesof the European Fusion Programme which is co-ordinated andmanaged by the Commission.Neither the Commission, the Associates nor anyone acting ontheir behalf is responsible for any damage resulting from theuse of information contained in this publication.

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| Moving Forward |

From left to right: Duarte Borba, Gianfranco Federici, Francesco Romanelli, Lorne Horton, Head of Public Information Petra Nieckchen and Head of Administration Catherine Soltane

FRANCESCO ROMANELLI

EFDA gets ready for ITERin March 2010, Francesco Romanelli took on the dual position of EFDA Leader and EFDA

Associate Leader for JET. at the beginning of 2011, the efDa steering committee approved

the new efDa organisation designed to live up to the challenges of the iter era.

Three Departments are now in charge of the im-plementation of the EFDA programmatic activi-ties: The JET Department headed by Lorne

Horton, the ITER Physics Department led by DuarteBorba and the Department for Power Plant Physics andTechnology which is headed by Gianfranco Federici.The activities of the two support units, Administrationand Public Information, are located at both the Culhamand Garching sites.

Three main objectives. The new organisationaims to achieve the three main objectives of Europeanfusion research: Secure ITER oper-ation, Lay the foundation of a fusionpower plant and Prepare “Gener -ation ITER”, which implies estab-lishing the next generation of fusionscientists. These objectives wereidentified in the roadmap proposedby the CCE-FU Working Group on JET and theAccompanying Programme. CCE-FU is the ConsultativeCommittee for EURATOM on fusion research.

Fusion research in Europe faces serious constraintsin resources due to the cost of ITER construction. Europemust make the most efficient use of these resources as ispossible in order to achieve a successful research pro-gramme preparing for ITER. The Asso ciates cover awide area of topics in fusion research, and with its neworganisation, EFDA provides the framework to promote

the synergy of these competences on a few goal-orientedactivities. These will increasingly rely on ImplementingAgreements which cover significant areas of work andrequire the reciprocal and sustained commitment of theAssociates and the European Com mis sion. JET is a livelyexample for the successful cooperation of Europe’s fu-sion laboratories towards a common goal.

The challenges of the ITER era. Europe mustobtain a full scientific return from the large investmentsmade in the ITER construction. This requires appropri-ate preparation by the European facilities and a coordi-

nated approach to the ITER Or ga -nization in order to define the ITERresearch strategy. We also must laythe foundation for a power plant now,to make full use of the expertise aris-ing from the ITER construction andto realize fusion as an energy source

as quickly as possible. As the ITER con struction drawsupon large amounts of human resources, manpower inthe Associates will be limited thus calling for an in-creased integration of the individual Associates. Withits new organisation, EFDA is well set up to facilitatethis process.

EFDA gets ready for ITER

“ Europe must make

most efficient use of

its resources.”

FUSION in europe| Moving Forward | Associates |

The seven metre long and three tonheavy linear machine produces a cy-linder-shaped plasma which features

reactor-like heat and particle fluxes. In thenew device, samples of wall materials are ex-posed to plasma conditionswhich will be relevant tosubsequent power stations.The plasma, as well as thesample surface, is analysedbefore, during and after thisexposure. Linear plasma de-vices are well suited for PWIstudies, because they can beoperated in steady state andtheir set-up is less complexthan that of tokamaks. Theyalso enable more accuratemeasurements of the plasmaand the wall surface. Inorder to also investigateneu tron-activated or toxicwall materials, a second, si-milar experiment calledJULE-PSI will be installedinside Jülich’s Hot Cells. It isexpected to start operatingin 2015.

Unique centre ofcompetencesJULE-PSI at For schungs zen -trum Jülich is one of severallinear devices for Plasma WallInteraction studies under con-struction or planning in Eu -rope. VISION I at the Bel gianNuclear Research Centre SCK-CEN also started in January2011 and will operate with tri-tium plasmas at moderatepower as of 2012. MAGNUM-PSI at the FOM In sti tute forPlasma Physics in The Nether -lands began its pilot phase inspring 2009. It features ex-tremely high particle and heatfluxes and densities thus simu-

lating conditions even for wall areas that arein touch with the plasma, such as the divertor(see Fusion News May 2009). All three institu-tions pool their resources in the TrilateralEuregio Cluster (TEC), forming a unique world-wide centre of competence for Plasma WallInteraction studies addressing the needs of post-ITER installations.

Contact:ralph p. schorn; fusion@fz-juelich.de

Forschungszentrum Jülich

Studies for the post-ITER era

The powerful plasma of a

fusion power plant erodes the

surface of the reactor wall and

the resulting debris can reduce

the plasma performance.

Plasma Wall Interaction stud-

ies investigate these effects un-

der reactor-like conditions:

Highly energetic tritium-deu-

terium plasmas operated in

long pulses or steady state.

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Picture: First plasma hitting a test target inside the PSI-2 (Picture: FZ Jülich)

in January 2011, the first plasma

lit up in the plasma wall inter -

action (pwi) experiment psi-2 at

forschungszentrum Jülich.

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| Moving Forward | EFDA |

Max-Planck-Institut für Plasmaphysik (IPP) · Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter (FOM)

Supporting young scientists

efDa conducts training program-

mes designed to foster the next

generation of fusion researchers.

every year, up to ten post doctoral re-

searchers are supported by efDa fel-

lowships which can last for up to two

years. recently, an efDa fellow instal-

led a two-dimensional electron cyclo-

tron emission diagnostic on asDeX

upgrade.

“This is a totally new way of looking at many plasma instabilities.It gives us a lot of puzzling but interesting information” says IvoClassen on the subject of his findings with the new diagnostic.

Fusion plasmas are prone to developing instabilities and manyof them can seriously harm the plasma or even the reactor wall.It is therefore vital to learn as much as possible about the natureof these structures. An electron cyclotron emission (ECE) diag-nostic is a good tool for studying plasma instabilities. A diagnosticof this type measures the radiation that the plasma electrons emitas they gyrate around magnetic field lines. From the data it ispossible to derive the plasma temperature with good spatial res-olution throughout the entire depth of the plasma. Instabilitiesappear as fluctuations of the measured temperature.

Ordinary ECE diagnostic systems measurealong one line through the plasma. Their datadoes not show the full shape of the observed in-stability. The two-dimensional diagnostic used onASDEX Upgrade now covers an area of 10 by 40centimetres with very high resolution. “Manystructures, like plasma edge instabilities or Alfvénmodes only reveal their full structure if measuredin two dimensions. Moreover, we can now deter-mine their position very accurately” explains IvoClassen who is affiliated with the Dutch fusionresearch institute FOM which also built the diag-nostic. Classen did his Ph.D with the system whichwas originally installed on the TEXTOR tokamakin Jülich. Between 2008 and 2010, he was fi-nanced by an EFDA Fellowship to install the sys-tem at ASDEX Upgrade. His work brought aboutconsiderable interest and resulted in invited pa-pers to the High Temperature Plasma Diagnosticsconference 2010 and the EPS conference 2011.Ivo Classen continues to work at IPP on the ECEdiagnostic and is currently investigating Alfvénmodes.

Two-dimensional ECE is quite unique: thetechnique is a joint development of the Universityof California, Davis, USA; Postech, Korea andFOM, The Netherlands. Today three of the world’smajor tokamaks are equipped with it: DIII-D inSan Diego, USA, KSTAR in South Korea and AS-DEX Upgrade in Garching, Germany.

reference:Classen et al. “2D electron cyclotron emission imaging at ASDEXUpgrade”, rev. sci. instrum. 81, 10d929 (2010) Contact:ivo Classen, ivo.classen@ipp.mpg.de

Alfvén modes appear as temperature fluctuations around a magnetic surface.(Picture: Ivo Classen, IPP)

“The EFDA Fellowship

worked out really well for

me. Throughout the two

years, the EFDA support

was very uncomplicated.”

IVO CLASSEN, FOM RESEARCHER

AND FORMER EFDA FELLOW

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FUSION in europe | Moving Forward | EFDA |

Probably the most positive news reported at themeeting concerned the JET ITER-Like-Wall,which will consist of beryllium and tungsten. One

of its critical issues is the fact that tungsten atoms re-duce the plasma performance when they enter theplasma centre. Two independent simulations now pre-dict that the plasma core is well screened from tungstenat very low fuelling rates.

PWI models develop rapidly. The meeting alsoconcluded that simulation tools are developing with gi-ant leaps and moving towards a comprehensive model-ling of PWI issues. Several models were presented,

which connect to other plasma models, calculate severalplasma particles simultaneously, or integrate the CAD-models of the vessel walls into their calculations. Thisis an important step forward, as the plasma wall inter-action effects have until now been just one of many un-certainties in plasma modelling. They have been reliablyapproximated since the current experiments do not chal-lenge the walls to their limits. Due to the extreme heatand particle loads expected in ITER, designers will, forthe first time, depend on data from the most sophisti-cated plasma models.

Urgent issues. The experts also identified topicsthat require urgent attention: The boundary conditionsat the wall need to be improved by combining the mod-els with data from experiments and chemical simula-tions. Important are also the flows in the outermostplasma layer which tends to peel off and flow to the di-vertor or the limiter of the tokamak. At the moment,most codes are unable to represent the flows measuredin this layer. Some codes appear to overcome this issuefor limiter tokamaks, but have thus far failed to give re-alistic flow patterns for divertor tokamaks.

Markus Airila, VTTContact: Karl Krieger, EFda pwi Task Force leader; krieger@ipp.mpg.de

EFDA Task Force

Positive predictions forthe JET ITER-Like-Wall

Discussing deposition on plasma-shadowed surfaces: Raina Kurki-Suonio (Aalto University), Markus Airila (VTT) and Andrey Litnovsky (FZ Jülich).(Picture: Ane Lasa, University of Helsinki)

from 31 January to 2 february, 32 experts

in Plasma Wall Interaction (pwi) and

plasma edge physics gathered in terva-

niemi, finland to discuss computer simu-

lation tools. the meeting was organised

by two EFDA PWI Task Force special

expert working groups and hosted by

the Association EURATOM-TEKES.

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| 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, JETEurope’s largest fusion device

The JET Vessel in February 2011 (Picture: EFDA)

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FUSION in europe | JETInsight |

The last component to be delivered for the installa-tion of the ITER-Like-Wall (see Fusion News De-cember 2009) was the high vacuum feed-through.

This device feeds the cables of the JET in-vessel instal-lations through a vacuum port to the external controlsystems. Now, more than 80 percent of the tile assem-blies have been installed in the machine and the finalpush is underway.

Surprises in the wallAfter removing the old, carbon wall in August 2010,the inside of the machine was surveyed in detail (FusionNews September 2010). Many of these areas were lastseen in the early 1990s when the JET Mark II divertorwas installed. The survey revealed many ‘anomalies’ ordiscrepancies between the actual measured geometryof the machine and the configuration as shown in theCAD model of JET. Since the design of new ITER-Like-Wall components was based on the CAD information,they needed to be modified to make them fit-for-

for pump downin february, the last components for

the installation of the Jet iter-like-

wall were delivered. with these

components, the extensive upgrade

referred to as enhancement pro -

gramme 2 is coming to an end. the

machine is scheduled for pump

down in early May and the first ex-

perimental campaigns are to begin

in early august 2011.

Shutdown update

FINAL PUSH

(Picture: EFDA)

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| JETInsight |

purpose. Consequently, the shutdown critical path,which had always been defined by the time requiredto install the ITER-Like-Wall, had to be lengthenedto include the design, procurement and assemblywork associated with resolving the anomalies. Thesemodifications are now almost complete so that thecritical path is once again set by the installation ac-tivities and with the pump down scheduled for thebeginning of may.

Upgraded heatingThe second major enhancement to JET’s capabilitiesis the upgrade of the neutral beam heating systemwhich increases its maximum power by more than50 percent. The system heats the plasma by injectinga beam of high-speed neutral atoms. Since the higherpower beams dissipate more heat, several compo-nents along the beam have been upgraded. In partic-ular, two new, actively-cooled liners have been in-stalled in the vacuum vessel ports through which thebeams are injected into the plasma.

New diagnosticsThe final pillar of the enhancement is a suite of newand upgraded diagnostics, which serve two purposes:The interaction of the new wall with the more ener-getic high performance plasmas as produced by theupgraded machine must be diagnosed carefully toprevent damage to the wall. The systems also increaseJET’s capabilities for diagnosing deuterium-tritiumplasmas. These will ultimately be employed to fullyexploit the new wall. Several systems were alreadyavailable before the shutdown and the remainderhave now either been set up or will be installed beforethe experiments start.

The next experimentsIn parallel to the completion of the shutdown, exten-sive planning is underway to define the first experi-mental campaigns with the new wall. A detailedrestart plan and experimental timeline have been pre-pared, covering the period from the end of the shut-down up until February 2012. A formal Call has beensent to the EU Fusion Associates asking for their par-ticipation in the project.

Lorne Horton, Head of JET-Department, EFDAmore information: JET shutdown weekly: http://tinyurl.com/jetshutdownJET iTEr-like-wall: http://tinyurl.com/jet-ilw

The same thought crossed the minds of many col-leagues as they bid a fond farewell to Phil Morgan,who retired on 11 February after almost 29 years

at JET. Phil started his Ph.D. on laser diagnostics inCulham in 1967 and continued working in that field.Apart from six years spent at CRPP Lausanne,Switzerland, Phil has been part of the JET team untilthe present. But he's not quite leaving for good yet, he'llbe back to help set up his diagnostics when JET restartsin August.

WHO W I L L T E L L THEJOKES NOW?

“Phil is a true Welshman. Whenever he signed afarewell card, he would write his message in Welsh andnobody could understand it. He used to go back toWales frequently to visit his mother and would alwaysbring Welsh cakes for the office. With his very cheerfuldisposition he brightened up our day.”

KATE BELL, PHIL MORGAN’S SECRETARY

“In the 1990s, JET operated six days a week runningtwo shifts per day. Phil was the best man to have inSaturday evening shift in a rather empty control room.He would often have us all in stitches with his greatsense of humour. ”

COSTANZA MAGGI, JET PASSIVE SPECTROSCOPY SECTION GROUP

“Phil always appeared to me to be a rock of kindnessand wisdom with an inherent ability to produce anappropriate story from up his sleeve on any and alloccasions. “

MANFRED HELLERMAN, FORMER LEADER OF THE CORE SPECTROSCOPY GROUP AT JET

(Picture: EFDA)

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FUSION in europe | JETInsight |

Picture: Franz Pfluegl – Fotolia.com

Control Room

Relearninghow to run JETWith the new ITER-Like-Wall in place, JET becomessomething of a toddler who needs a lot of supporttaking its first steps. Scientists and engineers awaitthe first experiments with both excitement and a littletrepidation. Precautions have been taken in form ofnew diagnostics and re-organisations in the controlroom.

Acrowd is expected to gather in the JET controlroom when experiments start in August 2011.Everyone is eager to see the ITER-Like-Wall in

action. Many of its tiles are made of beryllium, which isprone to melt under excessive heat loads. The scientistsand engineers will have to proceed step-by-step, learninghow the upgraded machine will react.

Preparing experiments. Isabel Nunes, one of theSession Leaders at JET, is looking forward to the bigday: “After having spent months on preparations, I amreally eager to see things in action.” The Session Leaderplays a central role in the experiments: They design theplasma pulses to achievethe experimental goals asdefined by the ScientificCoordinator. This meanssetting the plasma param-eters such as magneticfield, plasma current, orgas, planning the se-quence of steps from thestart through to the end ofthe pulse and defining the required heating power.Together with the Additional Heating Pilots, the SessionLeader discusses the best strategy for when and how toapply the heating systems. The Diagnostic Coordinatorrequests all the diagnostics necessary for a planned ex-periment. During the experiment, they monitor the op-eration of the diagnostics to ensure the best quality ofthe experimental data. Elena de la Luna, one of JET’sDiagnostics Coordinators, can’t wait to get started: “Wewere really busy getting all diagnostics ready and cali-brated. Now we are looking forward to the beginning ofthe experimental campaign.”

Bearing ultimate re-sponsibility for the ma-chine, the Engineer inCharge has to approve all

experimental plans.

In the control room. To begin the experiment, thePower Supply Engineer starts JET’s two flywheel gener-ators to build up power for the plasma pulse. The CO-DAS Duty Officers make sure that the computers andsoftware are ready. A two and a half minute long count-down begins, urging all coordinators to ensure that theirsystems are ready. Once that is confirmed, the Engineer

in Charge starts the pulse. “Thisreally is the best part of my job”says Nick Balshaw, one of JET’sEngineers in Charge. It is fantasticwhen we get the machine run-ning”. The Session Leader andScientific Coordinator stand or sitin the front centre of the controlroom with the Engineer in Chargeto their right. To their left, a new

diagnostics unit has been set up: it comprises severalcameras, whose measurements are used to create, inreal time, a temperature map of the vessel. This infor-mation is integrated into the tokamak control system. Ifnecessary, it will automatically adjust the plasma positionand heating requests in order to avoid overheating thewall. To the left of the new unit is the area occupied bythe Diagnostics Coordinators. With the new set-up, allteam members can easily communicate in the event ofunexpected occurrences. And, being a scientific experi-ment, new effects are bound to come up, often offeringnew, exciting insights into the physics of fusion plasmas.

“Running JET is like

playing with the best

toy in the world. ”NICK BALSHAW, ENGINEER IN CHARGE

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| Community | People |

Max-Planck-Institut für Plasmaphysik

Europe must prepare for ITER

� Sibylle, where do you see the main challenges forEuropean fusion research? First of all we must build ITER. Secondly, we mustensure a research programme which prepares for itsexploitation – despite the financial constraints weface due to the cost of ITER construction. I will bealmost ready to retire when ITER starts deuterium-tritium experiments in 2026. We must foster a nextgeneration of fusion researchers who will be capableof using ITER when the time comes. In addition, wemust explore the potential of the stellarator conceptfor a fusion reactor. Within the upcoming eighthframework programme we need to secure the re-sources required to meet these challenges.

� Can fusion research attract the attention of sufficientyoung scientists?Yes, I think so. In Germany I see an increased inter-est as a result of ITER. The start of the ITER con-struction has drawn more students into my universitylectures. IPP has no difficulties recruiting young sci-entists.

� What is the role of IPP within European fusion re-search? IPP is Europe’s largest fusion research institutewith two big experiments that are open to theEuropean fusion community. We have the mostmodern tokamak experiment that scales directlyup to JET and to ITER and is very flexible. We cantest operation scenarios for ITER with relativelylow effort and transfer potential solutions to JET.Furthermore, we are building the first optimisedstellarator in Greifswald, which will start operationin 2014.

� How do you judge the EFDA Leader’s plan to start conceptstudies for a fusion power plant now? We must think beyond ITER. It is also clear that wecannot spend much in the way of resources on thistopic now. Starting out with just a small, effectivegroup within EFDA which is supported by theAssociates, is the right idea.

more about sibylle Günter:http://tinyurl.com/ippguenter

on 1 february 2011 Sibylle

Günter assumed office as

scientific Director of ipp at

garching and greifs wald. she

succeeds günther hasinger,

who headed ipp between

2008 and 2011. sibylle günter

is a professor of theo retical

physics and has been with ipp

for fourteen years now. she

is head of research unit of

ipp and Chair of the EFDA

Steering Committee.

Picture: IPP

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FUSION in europe | Community | People |

Clemente Angioni obtained his PhD degree at CRPP, EPFL Lausanne, Switzerland, underthe supervision of Olivier Sauter at the end of 2001. His research was then dedicated to the neoclassicaltransport and electron heat transport modelling in plasmas of the EPFL tokamak TCV as well as theintegrated modelling of sawtooth oscillation in both TCV and JET plasmas. After his PhD, he completeda Post Doc on experimental and theoretical aspects of particle and heat transport at IPP Garching,Germany, with a Marie Curie Individual Fellowship supervised by A.G. Peeters. Since 2004, he hasbeen working as a staff scientist in the theory division at IPP Garching. In 2008, he became Vice Chairof the EFDA Transport Topical Group.

During the meeting which tookplace in october 2010 in lisbon,the efDa steering committeeappointed new leaders andchairs for most of the taskforces and topical groups.

here we introduce the newchairs of the transport topicalgroup. in the next issue we willcontinue with the plasma wallinteraction and integratedtokamak Modelling task forces.

“I hope that the EFDA Transport

Topical Group, which promotes col-

laborations towards the achieve-

ment of important research goals,

will be a helpful organisation for

my colleagues in the European fu-

sion transport community.”

EFDA Transport Topical Group

New Chairs appointedComputer simulation of microturbulence in tokamak plasma.

(Image: General Atomics, J. Candy, R. Waltz)

Chair:

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| Community | People |

Volker Naulin studied theoretical physics at HeinrichHeine University of Düsseldorf, Germany, working on struc-ture formation in magnetised plasmas. In 1996 he transferredto Risø National Laboratories, Denmark, under a Marie CurieFellowship where he joined the fusion plasma activities, andbecame a Senior Scientist two years later. He has been teach-ing at universities in Kiel, Innsbruck, Nancy, Düsseldorf, andat the Danish Technical University. Under the Sino Danishagreement for graduate education he is responsible for edu-cational activities on the subject of “Fusion Energy”.

Dr Naulin’s work focuses on plasma turbulence andtransport using numerical simulations. He is active in thefields of structure formation, drift-turbulence, and turbulencespreading. He is primarily interested in the interaction be-tween edge and scrape-off layer plasma and has developedseveral numerical codes to simulate plasma turbulence inthe edge gradient region and the scrape-off layer.

In 2003 he became Deputy and, subsequently, Leader ofthe EFDA JET Task Force Transport. He is a reviewer fornumerous funding bodies and member of the scientific com-mittees of several international conferences.

“I consider the most important

task of the Topical Groups to be

bringing together the expertise of

the outstanding, excellent re-

searchers we have in Europe, with

the aim of more efficiently tackling

the many open questions along

the path towards a working fusion

power plant.“

Vice Chairs:

Paola Mantica started researching into plasmaphysics in 1985 at the “Istituto di Fisica del Plasma”, NationalResearch Council (IFP-CNR), in Milano, Italy. Her workwas dedicated to experimental studies of transport processesin plasmas. Her particular interests lay in the application ofperturbative methods to the study of electron heat transportand the development of the associated analysis and modellingmethodology. She has worked on several tokamaks, i.e.THOR (Italy), DITE (UK), RTP (The Netherlands), AUG(Germany) and JET (UK). In 2003, she became a SeniorResearcher at IFP-CNR. Since 2000, she has also been work-ing intensively on JET, coordinating several experiments onheat and momentum transport of electrons and ions. Between2001 and 2004 she was Deputy Leader of the EFDA-JETTransport Task Force and was Leader from 2004 to 2007. In2008, she became one of the EU representatives in theTransport & Confinement Group of the InternationalTokamak Physics Activity (ITPA). She currently coordinateswork on scenario simulations for design activity of the FASTsatellite tokamak. She has been Chair of the EFDA RemoteParticipation User Group since 2009.

“The Transport Topical Group aims

to promote joint work on a few key

issues and create a lively environ-

ment for collaborations and discus-

sions, even beyond the European

context, in order to guide the indi-

vidual initiative of each scientist

towards the common goal.”

14

FUSION in europe | Community | In dialogue |

Institute of Plasma Physics and Laser Microfusion

Physics is fun!Teachers do their best to prepare physics ex-

periments that grab attention, induce curiosityand excitement as well as giving students the

opportunity to feel like a scientist. Quite often, however,schools are faced with limited resources and visiting aresearch laboratory can be a great alternative. An evenbetter solution is one that forges continuous cooperationbetween schools and scientific institutes, since the ex-citement of a single event soon wears off.

Teachers are multipliersTherefore, in 2007, the Polish Association IPPLM es-tablished a programme for the benefit of science teach-ers at middle and high schools. The project provides tu-torials and support, distributes fusion materials fromboth EFDA and IPPLM, holds annual meetings andorganises visits to national or European fusion researchfacilities. The impact on fusion communication istremendous: During their professional life, a singleteacher reaches out to several thousand students.

For the first meeting held in June 2008, in excess offorty teachers visited IPPLM, toured the institute andattended lectures. After talking to researchers, teachersfelt sufficiently at ease to proceed with more frequentcontact. As a result, a stream of invitations came fromschools, asking scientists to give talks. At the same time,several school groups visited the institute. Teachers alsoemphasised the importance of meeting colleagues toexchange ideas, discuss the problems encountered inschool and share possible solutions.

Aschool programme introdu-

ced by IPPLM Warsaw

brings fun into the physics classroom.

helena howaniec, a former physics

teacher, and now the associate’s pu-

blic information officer, has been the

guiding force behind establishing

this project. with great enthusiasm

she arranged for teachers and stu-

dents to visit Jet, creating many

enthusiastic ambassadors for fu-

sion. here she describes how these

events have boosted the motivation

of all participants.

A

“ I feel like a star now, everybody asks me aboutmy impressions of Oxford and the research units Isaw. When I talk about JET and show pictures, theclassroom falls completely silent. Everybody listensand nobody rushes for a break at the end of the les-son as is usually the case.” TEACHER

15

| Community | In dialogue |

A visit to JETSoon the idea was born to visit a fusion machine. Sincethere are no fusion machines in Poland as yet, the pro-gramme needed to approach research laboratories inother European countries.

After a great deal of preparation, numerous emailexchanges, and lots of anxiety and worry, 45 teachersarrived in Oxford in March 2009. Three days were spentat JET, Oxford University and the Rutherford AppletonLaboratories. Chris Warrick, Head of Public Affairs atCCFE, warmly welcomed the group to a number of lec-tures and conducted a tour of the various JET facilities.

Boosted confidenceThe visit was a milestone: Teachers felt proud to be partof the programme. Their confidence increased alongwith their credibility to students, as they were able togive “real” scientific examples.

They also realised that the students themselveswould benefit considerably from such an adventure.Consequently, a national competition was establishedto find the most talented pupils. Twelve winners, ac-companied by their teachers, went to Oxford in June2010. The visit was reminiscent of the first, but the

young participants made it very special: Watching ‘sci-ence in action’ literally mesmerised them and they wereable to see the kind of opportunities that are open tothem. Even during the visit, some students contemplatedstudying physics and later applied to the PhysicsDepartment of Oxford University. The inspiration hadcome at the right time, as the teenagers had to startthinking about their future professions. Only careful at-tention – by teachers, friends or family – can identifyand foster a passion for science that might otherwisego unnoticed.

Wendelstein 7-X is nextFollowing the success of the ‘Oxford adventures’,IPPLM’s Director and Head of Research Unit, AndrzejGałkowski maintained his enthusiastic support for theprogramme. In cooperation with Beate Kemnitz, PublicRelations Officer at IPP in Greifswald, Germany, an-other competition was started this year. In June 2011,the winners will visit the Wendelstein 7-X stellarator tocatch a final glimpse into the vessel before it is fully as-sembled.

Helena Howaniec

Contact: helena howaniec, helena.howaniec@ipplm.plDetailed accounts of the two visits to JET can be found in Fusion News, May2009 and September 2010.

“ So far, I have only seen pictures of re-search labs in science books, not quite believingthat they really exist. Until now, I had not theslightest idea of how researchers do science.”STUDENT

“ At school I always perceived physics as verythorough, extremely complicated and maybe a littleboring. But now, to my surprise, I see that physicscan be a hobby that gives a lot of satisfaction.”STUDENT

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FUSION in europe | Community | In Dialogue |

Association EURATOM Comenius University

An investment for our childrenFusion Expo draws over 20,000 visitors

“Fusion research is a big, but necessary investment for our children”concluded many visitors of the Fusion Expo, which was held in Bratislava,Slovakia, between 5 January and 18 February. The exhibition was hostedin the Avion Shopping Park and attracted more than 20,000 people.“The shopping centre is well-known for running science programmesfor schools on a regular basis” explains Viera Haverlíková, a ComeniusUniversity scientist, who coordinated the exhibition. She and her col-leagues enhanced the Fusion Expo with a range of special programmes:

Visitors were able to discussvarious fusion related topicswith scientists and severalhands-on plasma and mag-netic experiments were per-formed. Additionally, visit-ing school students were

able to participate in a moderated discussion game about future energyresources. The programme drew almost 3,500 school students and, onaverage, classes stayed for almost three hours. Teachers pointed out thatthe event was an important opportunity to show pupils what sort oftopics are tackled by science today. Many of the teachers found that theexhibition raised questions even in students, who are normally not inter-ested in physics.

Having fun with the plasma ball: Dušan Čaplovič,chairman of Slovak parliament Committee onEducation, Science, Youth and Sports.(Picture: Michal Matejka)

Forschungszentrum Jülich · Max-Planck-Institut für Plasmaphysik

Energy exhibition toured German and Austrian rivers

MS Wissenschaft on the river Rhine in Bonn(Picture: Ralph P. Schorn, FZ Jülich)

“Coordinating Fusion Expo

brought a lot of inspiration for

the future – we are already

thinking about the next event”

VIERA HAVERLÍKOVÁ, ASSOCIATION EURATOM CU

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| Community | In Dialogue |

Austrian Academy of Sciences

Nothing ventured, nothing gained …… concluded one Fusion Expo visitor when considering the cost offusion research. A field report by the organisers.

Between 1 and 10 March 2011, Fusion Expo openedits doors at the Vienna University of Technology.During ten exciting days, we welcomed around 40

school classes and a total of 2,000 visitors, among themlots of university students. The many young people thatcame to the exhibition really made it a success. Our youngestvisitor came in his buggy and the oldest with her walkingstick. The pensioner stayed for almost three hours, talkedto all guides and loved the interactive 3D-film. As far as weknow, there was only one disappointed visitor – he wantedto register for the Nobel Prize.

On the first day, after assembly, one of the porters ofthe University revealed that he had already been followingfusion for a while: “Where did you find such a great exhibi-tion? Please stay longer!” Unfortunately we could not staylonger. Hosting Fusion Expo is an interesting and great ex-perience. It takes a lot of preparation, but all in all it isgreat fun.

Anna Kantner, Monika Fischer

“I was really baffled that

fusion can produce such

an incredible amount of

energy. I had considered

nuclear fission power large,

but now fusion strikes me

as much more impressive.”

SCHOOL GIRL

From 18 May to 7 October 2010 about 105,000people – most of them young people and schoolclasses – visited the “MS Wissenschaft” which is

an exhibition ship operated by the German public rela-tions organisation “Science in Dialogue” under the um-brella of the Federal Ministry of Education and Science.Travelling all of the major rivers in Germany andAustria, the ship toured 43 cities, from Berlin to Vienna,and addressed almost all aspects of our energy future.Fusion research, which works towards providing anearly unlimited source of energy, was also on board:

Confining a fusion plasma. Forschungszentrum Jülichexhibited an “Interactive tokamak”. This portable edu-cation device simulates a fusion plasma using a smallglass ring which contains a mixture of helium and argongas. A hidden electromagnetic ring antenna ignites theplasma. Special care has been taken to make the devicerobust to ensure a “steady state operation in a rough

environment”. Visitors can simulate the plasma con-finement by rotating a set of four very strong permanentmagnets along the inner side of the glass ring. The effectwill be enhanced in the future by implementing evenstronger magnets.

What does it take to build a fusion power plant?Visitors were able to explore the questions researchneeds to solve in order to realise fusion power by playingan interactive computer game, which IPP supplied. Theyoung players had to match the plasma particle move-ments to the frequency of heating waves in order toraise the plasma temperature. They created fusion bycapturing quickly moving deuterium ions and, in theend, they built a complete fusion power plant. Theguides on board the ship and the organisers gave thegame top marks, because “it was very useful, attractiveand understandable”.

Ralph P. Schorn, Christine Rüth

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FUSION in europe | NewsFlash |

NEWSFLASHAnnouncements� 5th Karlsruhe International School

on Fusion Technologies 201119–30 September 2011

Invited are students of engineering andphysics from technical high schools and uni-versities, and PhD students and post-docs inrelevant subjects. Leading scientists from KITas well as international Partners will give anoverview on key fusion technologies and theircurrent status. http://summerschool.fusion.kit.edu/

� Integrated Tokamak ModellingCode Camp11–22 July 2011 in Prague

The EFDA Integrated Tokamak ModellingTask Force (ITM-TF) periodically invitesmodellers, which contribute to ITM-TF, tomeet and work together in “Code Camps”.The next one will focus on Plasma Controlissues and core transport modelling – mostlythe adaptation of physics modules for theuse with the European Transport Solver(ETS) – as well as validation and verificationof the ETS.Participation is supported by EFDA mobil-ity – please see www.efda-itm.eu/

JETGUESTbOOKSome of the nearly 600 visitors to JET this quarter:

� sinichi ishida, project leader of Jt-60sa, a major fusion experiment built byeurope and Japan

� sixteen engineers from the swedish forsmark nuclear power plant.

� twenty people from the french institut de radioprotection et e súreté nucléaire (irsn), one member of the french itfirm gfi informatique and two people from the iter international organization

� Mark venables, editor of the engineering & technology magazine published by the institution of engineering andtechnology, iet.

Where is Fusion Expo?26 June–2 July, 2011:2011 EPS Conference,Strasbourg, Francehttp://www.fusion.eu/

Agreement for FusionTechnology Centresigned

On 24 January 2011, the Spanish Centre for Energy, Environment and Technology(CIEMAT), the Polytechnic University of Madrid and the Universidad Carlos IIIde Madrid signed an agreement to regulate their cooperation in the research project“National Centre for Fusion Technology – TechnoFusión” and to create theTechnoFusión foundation. TechnoFusión is a nationally funded materials research facility exclusively dedicatedto the needs of fusion science. When completed, the centre will offer, for the firsttime, all the necessary infrastructures and expertise for fusion materials researchin a single location: A production area for manufacturing new materials, extensivecharacterisation and irradiation facilities, laboratories for Plasma Wall Interactionas well as for liquid metal technologies and for remote technology and computersimulation areas. TechnoFusión is one of the outstanding scientific-technical installations plannedfor Spain. The agreement is a significant step towards its realisation, as it definesthe administrative framework and thus how the facilities will be built. Within thenext three years, several million euros will be invested – the exact amount iscurrently being defined. Start of operation is planned for 2015-2016, provided theavailability of the budgetary resources. The total investment for the infrastructurescould reach about 80 Million euros. Contact: Angel Ibarra, Association EURATOM-CIEMATangel.ibarra@ciemat.es, http://www.technofusion.es

A travelling exhibition financed by EFDA. Contact: Tomaz Skobe, tomaz.skobe@ijs.si

27 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(MedC)

ROMAN IA

Ministry of Higher Education, Scienceand TechnologyS 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

FOM – Foundation for FundamentalResearch on Matter

THE N E THER LANDSCulham Centre for Fusion Energy

UN I T ED K I NGDOM

EURATOM Hellenic RepublicGRE E C E

Hungarian Academy of SciencesHUNGARY

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 a l’Energie AtomiqueFRANC E GERMANY

Karlsruhe Institute of TechnologyGERMANY

Max-Planck-Institut für PlasmaphysikGERMANY

Laboratory for PlasmaPhysics ERM/KMSBE LG IUM

Bulgarian Academy of SciencesBULGAR I A

University of CyprusC YPRUS

Institute of Plasma PhysicsAcademy of Sciences of the

Czech RepublicC Z E CH R EPUBL I C

Risø DTU National Laboratory DENMARK

University of MaltaMALTA

Institute of Plasma Physicsand Laser Microfusion

POLAND

Ministère de l’EnergieLUX EMBURG

Instituto Superior TécnicoPORTUGAL

Comenius UniversityS LOVAK I A

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