Our research group welcomes Juan Manuel Sanchez Melian as a new Master’s student to carry out his MSc thesis research project in our Fusion group. His six-month internship will give him the opportunity to gain first-hand experience of working with one of the world’s most powerful supercomputers, the MareNostrum 5. Furthermore, his research will focus on the timely and critical topic of nuclear fusion.
A few days ago, the Open Day of the Computer Applications in Science and Engineering Department (CASE) at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) brought together students and experts to explore the power of high performance computing (HPC) and its impact on cutting-edge research. It was a fantastic opportunity for students to interact with the CASE researchers, experience the vibrant diversity of BSC, and imagine what their future in HPC and science at BSC could be.
Our group leader, Mervi Mantsinen, and master’s student intern, Irene Agudo, actively participated in this event. Their involvement highlighted the growing role of women in science and HPC, and inspired the next generation of researchers to pursue careers in HPC and scientific discovery.
On February 12, the French experimental reactor WEST (W-Tungsten Environment in Steady-State Tokamak), one of the EUROfusion consortium medium size Tokamak facilities, set a new world record by sustaining plasma stability for 1337 seconds—over 22 minutes. This milestone, announced by the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), marks a significant step because maintaining plasma stability for extended periods is one of the most significant obstacles in bringing fusion power to commercial viability.
This new record surpasses the previous benchmark set by China’s EAST (Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak), which managed to sustain plasma for 1066 seconds on January 20. WEST’s world record has exceeded the recent achievement of the Chinese reactor by 25%.
From 27 to 28 November, our Fusion Group had the honor of hosting the 2nd Annual Meeting of the EUROfusion HPC Advanced Computing Hubs (ACHs) at Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC), Spain. After a successful virtual first meeting, this event marked a significant return to in-person collaboration, bringing together around 29 researchers, 26 attending in person and 3 connecting virtually, from the five Hub centers: BSC-CIEMAT (Spain), EPFL (Switzerland), IPPLM (Poland), IPP Garching (Germany), and VTT (Finland).
In the context of the EUROfusion consortium, a programme has been established with the objective of coordinating theoretical and advanced simulation activities in order to address some of the inherent challenges associated with fusion research. This initiative is designated “E-TASC,” an acronym for “EUROfusion-Theory and Advanced Simulation Coordination.” The E-TASC is structured around two interrelated components: (1) specific projects, designated as Theory-Simulation-Verification-Validation (TSVV) Tasks, facilitate fundamental research in science, engineering, and technology that addresses pivotal questions pertaining to the fusion roadmap missions; and (2) Advanced Computing Hubs (ACHs) which provide scientific computing, data management, code integration, and/or software engineering support for the TSVVs and contribute to the development of a new portfolio of EUROfusion Standard Software for the R&D program in support of ITER, associated facilities, and DEMO design.
The EUROfusion E-TASC General Meeting was held between November 11 and November 16 at the Max Planck Institute of Plasma Physics in Garching, Munich, Germany. The Max Planck Institute of Plasma Physics is one of the largest fusion research centers in Europe.
Hi! I’m Diego Bonato, and I have joined the Fusion group to carry out my master’s thesis! My internship will last 6 months, from September 2024 to March 2025, and it’s funded by FuseNet. I will be supervised by Alejandro Soba and Eduardo Cabrera.
During my stay at BSC, I will be working on the development of a Deep Learning model to accelerate the solution of Maxwell’s equations in the context of High Temperature Superconductors (HTS) simulations. This tool will help improve the performance of MAGNET, a package developed in the Fusion group, which simulates HTS in various scenarios. This will be crucial to study the next generation of fusion reactors.