Harnessing the energy produced in nuclear fusion reactions is an ongoing grand challenge. Recent Nature Physics Insight focuses on the achievements made so far and the trials ahead, highlighting that at the core of nuclear fusion lies some fascinating physics.
The quest for Fusion Energy has been approached through decades in different manners. Most of the contributions are done by the governmental sector, National Laboratories and Universities given that its duration is expected to be long and therefore not so well suited for normal investors.
This scenario has recently started to change with the Venture Capital, where investors are free to speculate in high-risk and high-compensation projects, as explained by BBC Future its recent article.
Using an advanced plasma global code called XGCa, researchers at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have confronted the conventional view of the so-called bootstrap current with results clarifying the origin of the current at the tokamak edge.
A hearing on Fusion Energy Science took place on 20th April 2016 in the house of representatives in United States.
The Director-General of the ITER, Bernard Bigot, the Director of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Stewart Prager, and a Physics Division scientist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, Scott Hsu, were present in the event in order to discuss the challenges and prospects of fusion research.
Last week, on 13 April 2016, our Fusion group member Shimpei Futatani visited the INRIA Sophia Antipolis, Nice, France, to participate the 2nd JOREK General Meeting.
Shimpei presented his recent work of the ELM triggering by a pellet in ASDEX Upgrade plasma. The visit was not only for the presentation, but also for the useful discussions with the fusion scientists and the mathematicians from all around Europe who work on the JOREK code.
The 3rd BSC International Doctoral Symposium organized by the Barcelona Supercomputing Center will be held on the 4th, 5th and 6th of May. This event is mainly focused on PhD and Postdoc students who are given an opportunity to show their research work and share their ideas with a broad audience.
Divided in poster sessions and talks, the event promotes the communication between the participants, who normally have different backgrounds, facilitating the interest and learning of other research topics.