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Twenty years of fusion experiments in TJ-II

CIEMAT Fusion Group next to TJ-II in 1997. (Photo: E. Poveda)

CIEMAT’s TJ-II Fusion experiment have completed twenty years of operation from the first high temperature plasmas that were achieved in December in 1997.

During those twenty years, the TJ-II device has contributed successfully to science by incorporating a unique set of measurement and instrumentation systems for model validation and essential theory for confinement fusion plasma physics. As a result of this strategy, the results obtained from TJ-II have contributed to crucial subjects, such as physics of transporting impurities, control of instabilities generated by energetic particles, physics of self-organization in systems not in equilibrium, and coupling between neoclassical and turbulent transport mechanisms, which have led to publications in the most prestigious physics journals, such as “Physical Review Letters” and “Nuclear Fusion”.

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Fusion for Energy celebrates its 10th anniversary

On Thursday the 30 of November, Fusion for Energy (F4E) celebrated its 10th anniversary with an event attended by 500 people in Barcelona.

Fusion for Energy (F4E) is an organization located in Barcelona, Spain. It was created in 2007 under the Euratom Treaty by a decision of the Council of the European Union in order to meet three objectives: providing Europe’s contribution to ITER, supporting fusion research and development initiatives, and contributing towards the construction of demonstration fusion reactors.

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At the EUROfusion General Planning Meeting of Medium Sized Tokamaks

Dr. Mervi Mantsinen and Dani Gallart at the entrance hall of JET facilities at Culham, UK.

The General Planning Meeting (GPM) of the Medium Sized Tokamaks (MST1) was organized this year at at the JET facilities, Culham, UK. The meeting started with an overview of the present status of AUG (Garching, Germany) and TCV (Lausanne, Switzerland) tokamaks. They were followed by a presentation on MAST-U (Culham, UK) which will be back in operation next year with the new and exciting Super-X divertor. It will be able to drastically reduce the divertor heat load from particles leaving the plasma.

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Tokamak Energy, a private fusion venture

Tokamak Energy is a privately-funded company grown out of Culham Centre for Fusion Energy (CCFE), UK, in 2009 to design and develop small spherical tokamaks to produce neutrons for a range of scientific applications. Currently, it embarks on the quest for a compact solution for fusion providing energy into the grid by 2030.

Tokamak Energy collaborates with Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), Imperial College of London, University of Oxford and University of Tokyo, amongst other institutions. As a private venture, its developments are covered by over 20 families of patent applications.

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Spanish company will assemble the ITER vacuum vessel

ENSA plant located in Maliaño (Cantabria). Photo: ENSA

The international ITER project, whose objective is to demonstrate the viability of nuclear fusion as a source of energy, has chosen to use Spanish technology for the assembly of its vacuum vessel. The different vacuum vessel components will be assembled at the ITER site in Caradache (France) by the Spanish company Equipos Nucleares (ENSA).

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Interview of Johannes Schwemmer, Fusion for Energy Director

Johannes Schwemmer.

La Vanguardia, a Spanish newspaper, has published an interview with Johannes Schwemmer, Fusion for Energy (F4E) Director. F4E is the agency in charge of managing the ITER project (Reactor International Experimental Thermonuclear) with headquarters in Barcelona, where it employs more than 400 people.

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