On 11-15 March our group leader, ICREA Research Prof. Mervi Mantsinen visited the JET tokamak at Culham, United Kingdom, to take part in the Analysis and Modelling Meeting of the EUROfusion Work Package Tokamak Exploitation (WPTE). In total, approximately 85 fusion scientists from all around Europe participated in this meeting in person.
In the realm of computational research, a new tool for HTS simulation has emerged: MAGNET. MAGNET stands as a revolutionary module designed for simulating the magnetic behavior of High Temperature Superconductors (HTS). Embedded within the renowned Alya suite, a software developed by the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) and optimized for High-Performance Computing (HPC), MAGNET has recently undergone benchmarking that unveils its potential.
Alfvénic instabilities driven by energetic particles pose a challenge to the efficient operation of magnetic confinement fusion devices. These modes can dispel fast ions leading to the introduction of significant heat loads onto plasma facing components and degradation of overall plasma confinement. One class of Alfvénic instabilities known as reversed shear Alfvén eigenmodes (RSAEs) are of particular risk in devices with reversed shear rotational transform profiles. Reversed shear configurations have recently been of interest because of their enhancement to confinement quality. With this in mind, further study of RSAEs is necessary.
A recent study examines heat transport in stochastic magnetic fields, focusing on an-isotropic temperature diffusion. This research dives into the differences between parallel and perpendicular thermal conductivity.
The Fusion Group has been working hard to improve our understanding of the deuterium-tritium (D-T) plasmas carried out at JET during late 2021. These experiments broke the world fusion energy record and are providing us with invaluable physical insight in preparation of ITER’s experiments.
Our research has culminated in two recent papers published at Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion. One tackles the optimization of the H and 3He minority heating schemes for D-T, while the other describes a recent upgrade we developed for the calculation of the diffusion operator. A brief overview is given together with their links to the journal version as follows.
Building on the work described in our previous posts (please see links below), we have continued developing NEUTRO, the neutronics module in Alya. The latest advancements are portrayed in the article entitled “Validating NEUTRO, a deterministic finite element neutron transport solver for fusion applications, with literature tests, experimental benchmarks and other neutronic codes” that has been recently published in Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion (PPCF).
Neutron damage to fusion reactor materials and tritium self-sufficiency are two significant challenges that need to be solved for fusion to be a viable energy source integrated with the electricity grid. The development of future fusion reactors requires a thorough understanding and the ability to predict these processes, which in turn means highly demanding simulations need to be performed to assist in the analysis of the consequences of neutrons interacting with the vast array of reactor components.