Our Fusion Group’s project on Tungsten modelling by Linear Scaling DFT granted by RES

We are pleased to announce that our group has been awarded a new project at the Spanish Supercomputing Network (RES). RES will provide over 2 million CPU/h for the next 4 months (November 2020 – February 2021), with a likely extension for a second 4-month period (until June 2021) making a total of 4,397,000 CPU/h. We will use the RES top-quality resources in MareNostrum 4, equipped with 165,888 Intel Xeon Platinum 8160 cores, 2.10GHz with Intel Omni-Path.

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FusionCAT Annual Meeting 2020

The FusionCAT Annual Meeting 2020 took place today, and it counted with the participation of almost 40 researchers from different backgrounds, institutions and expertise. The main development areas of the project were explained and the current status of the ongoing research was presented. Comments, questions and constructive criticism were exchanged during the discussions, helping reach the overall conclusion that the FusionCAT project is progressing well and according to schedule. Each of the groups in the consortium achieved the technical objectives that were agreed upon, and, at the same time, participated in creating an active nuclear fusion community in Catalunya.

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Barcelona fusion experts collaborate with the FuseNet Teacher Day

The first-ever edition of FuseNet Teacher’s Day, a Europe-wide webinar dedicated to promoting Fusion in high-schools, was held last Friday, October the 2nd. The event brought together teachers from all around Europe, scattered into 18 local sessions across 16 European Countries. Our BSC Fusion group, in cooperation with Fusion for Energy (F4E), the b_TEC Foundation and the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), organized the Barcelona local session under the umbrella of the FusionCAT project.

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FUSION CODES II: our new research project funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation

We are pleased to announce that our group has been awarded a new research project within the State R&D Program Oriented to the Challenges of the Society 2019 in Spain. It was one of the almost 3000 projects financed by the Ministry of Science and Innovation with a total program budget of 363.13 M€.

Our new project FUSION CODES II is a continuation of our earlier FUSION CODES project (2016-2019) by three more years. As its predecessor, it is directed towards contributing to the development of nuclear fusion as a safe, clean, and virtually limitless energy source for future generations. In particular, it is directed towards ITER, an international nuclear fusion R&D project, which is currently building the world’s largest experimental tokamak nuclear fusion reactor in southern France. ITER aims to demonstrate that fusion energy is scientifically and technologically feasible. It is the bridge towards DEMO, a first fusion energy plant that will demonstrate large-scale production of electricity.

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Fusion research contributions by Unique Scientific Infrastructures in Spain

Three of the 29 Unique Scientific and Technical Infrastructures (ICTS) in Spain: Alba synchrotron, TJ-II heliac fusion reactor and MareNostrum supercomputer.

The Unique Scientific and Technical Infrastructures (ICTS) in Spain are facilities, resources and services for the development of top-quality cutting-edge research as well as communication, exchange, and preservation of knowledge, technology transfer, and promotion of innovation. They are either unique or exceptional in their fields, have a high cost of investment, maintenance, and operation, and are of a strategic importance that justifies their availability to all actors in the field of R&D&I.

For example, the Gran Telescopio de Canarias (the Great Telescope of the Canary Islands) is used, among others, to monitor potentially dangerous asteroids and the ALBA synchrotron is used to study the material’s internal structure. They all share three fundamental characteristics: they are infrastructures with public ownership, unique and open to competitive access.

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