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.
Mobile World Congress (MWC25), one of the world’s leading technology events, closed on 6 March after four days of ground-breaking innovations and discussions about the future of technology. As in previous editions of the event, the Barcelona Supercomputing Centre (BSC) had a major presence, showcasing its latest research and pioneering technologies.
As part of MWC, BSC hosted a 100m² stand in 4YFN (Four Years From Now), the dedicated space for tech startups. Throughout the event, the BSC stand served as a dynamic hub for researchers, investors and companies, hosting a packed agenda of conferences and presentations. The Fusion Group’s participation underlined BSC’s commitment to cutting-edge research and its contribution to the quest for sustainable energy solutions.
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 28 to 30 January, our group leader Mervi Mantsinen attended the 32nd European Fusion Programme Workshop in Granada, Spain. More than a hundred experts in fusion physics and technology took part and shared their progress and visions within the European Fusion Programme.
This year’s theme was “Nuclear Engineering and Physics for Fusion Power Plants”, and key topics included “Materials Testing”, “Fuel Cycle and Shelter”, “Fusion Reactor Life Cycle and Safety” and “Towards Fusion Power Plants”. Participants also had the opportunity to visit the University of Granada-DONES Research Centre in Escúzar, Granada.
Nuclear fusion is going from strength to strength, with several technological breakthroughs in recent years, including the ability to build high-temperature superconducting (HTS) magnets that can generate high magnetic fields with almost no energy loss. This is important not only because it increases the obvious net energy production, but also because it may be possible to build more compact magnetic fusion devices such as tokamaks and stellarators. The dimensions of these machines are much smaller than those of ITER, and this has attracted the attention of industry in a variety of ways, from larger and more experienced companies focused on manufacturing, to a proliferation of start-ups focused on novel reactor designs and software modelling.
Part of the industry is developing artificial intelligence (AI) solutions to fusion problems. Two of these companies, digilab and Next Step Fusion, have recently visited the Fusion Group at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center headquarters.