On 14 October, the Spanish National Fusion Strategy Planning Meeting was held at the CDTI headquarters in Madrid. The meeting brought together most of the fusion stakeholders in the Spanish fusion ecosystem, from research institutions such as CIEMAT or BSC to companies in the fusion sector. With all the relevant advances in fusion that have accelerated the path towards its commercialisation, many countries are either reviewing or creating their own strategy. This was therefore a very timely meeting to define the role that Spain intends to play in the near future, at a time when private investors and industry are closer than ever to fusion.
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).
On November 21st and 22nd, our team members Pau Manyer and Hernán Domingo had the pleasure of attending the 5th Fusion HPC Workshop, each giving a contributed talk to share their work.
This year, the workshop featured over 30 talks on computer applications using High-Performance Computing (HPC) in the field of fusion research, and more than 320 participants from 44 countries following the online event.
The campus of the Max Planck Institute of Plasma Physics in Garching, Germany, served as the venue for the EUROfusion E-TASC General Meeting.
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.
On September 20th, a member of our Fusion Group, Hernán Domingo Ramos, successfully defended his Master’s Thesis. His work on numerical simulations of electromagnetic (EM) waves using the finite element method (FEM) in plasma environments, was presented to the steering committee of the European Master of Science in Nuclear Fusion and Engineering Physics, which awarded him with the mention Très Bien, equivalent to outstanding distinctions.
