News – Page 27 – Fusion Group

Innovation and economical opportunities in Fusion

May 9, 2019May 10, 2019

Last Tuesday the 11th edition of KIMconference took place at the L’Auditori Cuatrecasas in Barcelona. With the title “KIMconference2019 Tangibilizando la innovación“, the event attracted entrepreneurs, politicians, private and public sector including fusion experts to discuss and learn about innovation.

The conference had a dedicated section in the field of fusion energy. The first talk of this section was given by Dr Carlos Hidalgo from CIEMAT. He introduced the topic of fusion to the audience and the great scientific and technological challenges that have to be overcome in the coming years. In the second talk, Dr Victor Sáez from Fusion for Energy focused on the contracts won by European companies for the ITER construction. So far, about 6.000M€ have been invested on contracts and about 2.000M€ more will be spent in the coming years.

Hosting a visitor from Culham Centre for Fusion Energy

May 6, 2019May 17, 2019

Last week our group welcomed David Taylor for a two week visit to BSC. David comes the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy (CCFE), the UK’s national laboratory for fusion research based at the Culham Science Centre in Oxfordshire. It is owned and operated by the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA).

Sharing the Need to Know

April 26, 2019April 27, 2019

On Friday April 26, our group leader Mervi Mantsinen joined the fellow ICREA Research Professors and ICREA administrative staff at the ICREA annual meeting, the ICREA calçot-free Calçotada 2019. The event took place in the emblematic premises of the Moritz Brewery in the heart of Barcelona.

ICREA stands for the Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies. It is a foundation supported by the Catalan Government and guided by a Board of Trustees. Each year ICREA launches a competitive Senior call to choose researchers through a robust, merit-based process that relies on the opinions of independent, high-profile experts who look for quality and excellence, creativity and talent.

CONICET scientist performs a stay at our group

April 12, 2019April 12, 2019

From February to August 2019, the Fusion group is receiving the visit of a scientist from Argentina, Dr. Alejandro Soba of the National Atomic Energy Commission of Argentina (CNEA) and National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET). The objective of Dr. Soba’s stay is to develop a neutron transport deterministic module for the in-house code ALYA.

Code Camping at ITER

April 6, 2019April 8, 2019

From the 1st to the 5th of April, our group has participated in the Code Camp of the EUROfusion “Code Development for Integrated Modelling” (WPCD) Work Package at ITER Headquarters in St. Paul-lez-Durance (France).

WPCD develops generic and flexible sophisticated workflows for fusion physics applications, aiming at providing a validated modular suite for the simulation of complete plasma discharges of any existing and future tokamaks, including JET, JT-60SA, ITER and DEMO.

Getting ready for new experimental campaigns at JET

March 22, 2019March 22, 2019

Mervi Mantsinen and Dani Gallart at JET.

The Joint European Torus (JET) is getting ready for a new campaign with deuterium (D) fuel mixture at the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy (CCFE), UK. After this D campaign, a tritium (T) campaign is planned to follow. These campaigns are made in preparation for the eventual D-T campaign with a fusion reactor relevant 50%-50% D-T fuel mixture. It will be the second D-T campaign at JET; the first D-T campaign at JET was carried out in 1997. The production and physics of born alphas (He-4) at 3.5MeV due to D-T fusion reactions will be tested and assessed with the ITER-like-wall made of beryllium (Be) and tungsten (W).

As high-performance discharges are sought, the control of high-Z impurity transport will play a key role during this campaign. One of the main goals is to keep the impurity accumulation at the plasma core low. In this regard, large efforts have been carried out by the experimental and modelling team during the preparation of these campaigns.