this issue

Fusion News
Issued by the EFDA Close Support Unit Garching, Germany
www.efda.org
Newsletter Volume 4
May 2010
Francesco Romanelli
new EFDA leader
EFDA Integrated Tokamak
Modelling Task Force
Major upgrade to MAST
diagnostic
Agence ITER France –
ITER’s home support
The joy of being part of
Fusion Expo
On March 23rd, the EFDA Steering Committee appointed Francesco Romanelli to the role of EFDA Leader.
For the time being, he will also remain the EFDA Associate Leader for JET. Fusion News talks to him about his
future plans (page 2). (Photo: JET)
Beryllium Handling Facility
established at KIT
EFDA during FP7 – Reinforced
coordination of physics and
technology in EU laboratories
Part 6
Integrated Tokamak Modelling Task Force (ITM-TF)
The path that leads toward using fusion
as a sustainable source of energy for the
future goes via the exploitation of the
next generation of fusion devices, and
in particular, ITER, which is designed to
demonstrate the scientific and technical
feasibility of fusion. In order to predict
ITER performance in terms of energy
production and to guarantee optimal
operation, high level physics modelling
and simulations are required.
FN1001_12S.indd 1
Modelling of a tokamak experiment is
necessary to fully comprehend the experimental results, furthermore, benchmarking models against each other (for
verification) and the experiment (for
validation) increases their prediction
capability in view of the realisation of a
fusion reactor.
Continued on page 9.
27.04.10 11:08
News
EFDA Fusion News
Francesco Romanelli new
EFDA leader
Francesco, what is your strategy for
EFDA?
EFDA should implement goal-oriented
activities in which the resources of a
single Association are sub critical and
the coordination role of EFDA is able to
bring obvious added value and also facilitate and promote the emergence of
scientific excellence. JET is an example
of an activity that could not be performed without EFDA coordination, but
we need to look towards future activities
in other areas, such as DEMO and the
satellite programme.
Which DEMO related tasks do you see
implemented under EFDA?
Europe needs to start working on the
conceptual study of DEMO as soon as
possible. Other ITER partners have already established much clearer ideas on
what DEMO should be like. The conceptual design activity for DEMO should
be carried out within the EFDA system,
along with the qualification of the main
technologies and pre-qualification of industry. At a later date, the engineering
design activity, such as prototype building, and the construction of the machine
should be carried out by F4E.
Can you specify the tasks of EFDA within the satellite programme?
European scientists should start getting
involved in the preparation of the JT60SA exploitation right now. Construction is obviously under the responsibility
of F4E, but the preparation of the exploitation should be carried out under
EFDA. The possible construction of a
European satellite is a related factor. Following on from the results of the Group
of Experts on the Satellite Tokamak,
EFDA will have to investigate the feasi-
F4E News – the Fusion for
Energy newsletter
With updates on scientific and technological progress, articles about current procurements, as well as news
bility of such a device. These are the two
areas in the satellite programme that
EFDA should be addressing.
It sounds as if you are foreseeing a larger EFDA in the future?
Yes, we should increase the activities
within EFDA, focussing on issues where
the role that EFDA plays is essential because it brings added value as a result of
coordination, which is the case in areas
where a single Association is sub-critical.
Where do you see the future challenges
for EFDA?
The future challenges for EFDA lie in the
ability to mobilise a significant amount
of resources from the European Commission and the Associations in order to
achieve well defined goals. The original
spirit of EFDA implies that Associations
and the Commission jointly define the
fields in which they wish to invest and
agree on the resources that all partners
are prepared to make available in order
to achieve this goal. EFDA has been successful in achieving this with JET and
the High Performance Computing Implementing Agreements and should be
capable of doing so in the areas that I
have mentioned above.
How do you see the future cooperation
of F4E and EFDA?
There should be a lot of synergies between F4E and EFDA. EFDA is prepared
to help F4E with all the support that
might be required for when it comes to
the construction of ITER. The important
point is that we see EFDA and F4E as
complementary organisations in which
F4E has the duty of bringing forward
project oriented activities, such as the
ITER construction, and in which EFDA is
capable of conducting goal oriented activities with a more programmatic value.
What challenges and opportunities lie
on events and publications, Fusion for
Energy’s newsletter, F4E News, was
launched in December last year. F4E
News aims to inform the fusion community, energy and the environment policy
makers, industry and small and medium
enterprises about Europe’s contribution
to ITER and the progress of the project.
F4E News is published quarterly and is
currently available electronically. Issues
are sent via email to subscribers or can
be accessed from the F4E website www.
fusionforenergy.europa.eu. In future,
paper versions of the issues will also be
available.
FN1001_12S.indd 2
in your current position as both EFDA
leader and Associate Leader for JET?
I think the opportunities are very important because holding both positions
means that I can ensure maximum integration within the EFDA programme.
There are a number of examples in all
programmatic areas where EFDA is active and in which we need to maximize
synergies with the view to maintaining
a single forum for programmatic discussion within EFDA.
At the next meeting of the Steering
Committee you will propose a new
structure for the EFDA top management
– what are your objectives?
I think the important point is the effectiveness of the organisation. Even more
important is that both Associations and
the European Commission are willing to
invest both financial resources and good
scientists and engineers in EFDA thus
leading to projects within the EFDA system. With good organisation and good
people in place, I think the challenges
can easily be solved.
Speaking of good people: Does fusion
attract enough young scientists?
The scientific challenges posed by fusion
are certainly attractive to scientists. EFDA
has an ambitious programme designed
to train around forty young professionals per year by means of fellowships and
goal oriented training. It is necessary to
do this because we need to educate the
generation that will be first in line to exploit ITER and then build DEMO.
More information about Francesco
Romanelli can be found here:
http://www.efda.org/news_and_
events/latest_news.htm#4
http://www.efda.org/news_and_
events/downloads/efda_newsletter/nl_2006_04.pdf
To find the most recent issue of F4E
News, please visit:
http://fusionforenergy.europa.eu/
f4enews/march2010/
Want to subscribe? Send an email
to [email protected] and specify whether you want your copy of
F4E News in an electronic or paper
format.
Have you got an idea for an article or
would you like to publicise an event in
the calendar? Contact Samina Shamsie,
email: [email protected]
Samina Shamsie, F4E
27.04.10 11:08
EFDA Fusion News
The joy of being part of
Fusion Expo
Saša Novak, a member of Fusion Expo
Team in the Slovenian Fusion Association and a materials scientist at the
Jožef Stefan Institute, recounts her personal excitement at being involved in
management and hosting Fusion Expo.
Every time Fusion Expo is on the road,
one of my favorite tasks is clicking on
the yellow star in the morning. That
takes me to www.fusion-expo.si a site
which is regularly updated by Melita
Lenošek, the project leader and the
main driving force of the Fusion Expo
team. On the first day I usually see that
the truck has just arrived safely on site
or I fi nd pictures of the team unloading the boxes. A day or two later, I am
looking at pictures of bright faces and
happy smiles, people wearing ties and
skirts, and I am wondering who might
be in the fi rst row: A minister for science or perhaps a city major or a dean?
Is this lady a journalist? No, that’s probably the one who holds a microphone.
I can easily recognise the organizer by
his or her most enthusiastic smile. Oh,
yes, and here are Melita and the boys
who just fi nished another great job.
They have changed out of their “Fusion
Expo Team” t-shirts into smart jackets
and they seem happy, too.
Over the next days, I frequently click
on the yellow star for news. Sometimes
I find reports in journals, a link to a TV
broadcast of the event or a new set of
pictures. These I like the most. I enjoy
looking at the photos of young children
working hard to produce more energy
on the bicycle than their schoolmates.
I like seeing the blue reflections of the
plasma tongues in the visitor’s admiring faces and a crowd of hands reaching
out to touch the plasma ball. And I relish
looking at a group of people of all different ages deep in thought standing listening to a guide who cannot and doesn’t
even try to hide that he enjoys his role
guiding people through the exhibition.
What can be better than sitting at the
computer, seeing that everything goes
well? Being aware that as I watch, more
and more European citizens understand
the concept of using fusion as an energy source for the future and more
and more people are telling their friends
about the construction of ITER? What
can be better than knowing that more
and more journalists understand our
quest and may be in a position to write
about fusion? That more and more poli-
FN1001_12S.indd 3
ticians are considering fusion a viable
option and might one day join in with
a supportive statement at the right occasion?
Oh yes! For me, even better than just
observing the “reports” from the exhibitions around Europe, is playing an active
role by hosting such an event. I can tell
you: it is a fantastic feeling, taking one last
look around the hall on the evening of the
opening ceremony: is everything ok, who
is in the audience, is the director here, how
many journalists have come? And finally to
signal: Let’s start! It’s nice secretly observing the effect that the work we have put in
has on the faces of our guests during the
ceremony. And after all, it’s a pleasure taking pictures during the event and uploading them to the web page, knowing that
somewhere else someone might click on
the yellow star to follow the Fusion exhibition from their computer.
There are a number of people who
know exactly what I am writing about.
Last year’s hosts will probably have very
fresh memories of the excitement of
hosting the Fusion Expo: Prof. Gulbinski
in Koszalin, Prof. Dabrowski in Szczecin,
Prof. Broda in Lodz, Dr. Jarozs in Katowice, Dr. Boilson in Dublin and Ms.
Whelan in Cork.
Let us know if you would like to share
the joy.
Fusion Expo dates:
27th September – 1st October
2010: Oporto, Portugal
(simultaneously with SOFT2010)
18th October – 15th November:
Brussels, Belgium
EU fusion research
website relaunched
The EU fusion website has
been fully updated as part
of the relaunch of the energy research website of the
European Commission. The
most significant change is
the recently introduced discussion platform enabling
visitors to voice their ideas
and comments on nuclear
research in Europe and on
fusion in particular. The site
also offers researchers 200
pages containing complete information with
regard to all of
the funding opportunities in the
energy and nuclear energy fields
at EU level. Don’t forget to
keep a close eye on the
fusion subpage, as
it will soon host
video footage
from a subsidiary
event at the Copenhagen climate
conference focusing
on low carbon technologies. There, Prof.
Sir David King, Director, Smith School of
Enterprise and the Environment, UK, and
former chief science advisor to the UK
government, gave a speech on “the future of fusion power and its role in fighting climate change”.
Thanks to Dr. Takis Ageladarakis,
EU Commission, for his input
EU energy research page:
http://ec.europa.eu/research/energy/index_en.cfm
Fusion subpage:
http://ec.europa.eu/research/energy/euratom/fusion/index_en.htm
27.04.10 11:08
Associations
EFDA Fusion News
Beryllium handling facility
established at Karlsruhe
Institute of Technology
In January 2009, the Karlsruhe Beryllium Handling Facility (KBHF) was
founded as part of the cooperation between Goraieb Versuchstechnik (GVT)
and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). Located at KIT’s North Campus, the laboratory is unique in Europe
for handling and processing beryllium.
It offers a user facility which enables the
construction of various experiments,
beryllium storage facilities as well as a
laboratory for beryllium alloys. KBHF
is qualified to handle large amounts
of the hazardous material and plans
to set up a small scale production line
for beryllium alloys. KBHF maintains
close contact with Brush Wellmann Inc.
(BWI), the market leader for beryllium
and beryllium products. KIT, KBHF and
BWI are preparing a cooperation contract that will – among several other aspects – enable the production of larger
amounts of special beryllium alloys if
necessary.
Beryllium is both an attractive and
nasty substance: lighter than Aluminium, harder than steel and robust up to
high temperatures. However, it is also
highly toxic: beryllium dust can harm
human skin and lungs badly, its effects
occurring sometimes only decades after
the exposure. Once manufactured into
FN1001_12S.indd 4
Handle with care:
KBHF’s Beryllium
storage facility
BELLA
(Photo: A. Goraieb,
KBHF).
a solid work piece, beryllium is as harmless as any other piece of metal, but
processing needs to be handled with
the greatest of care. At the moment,
the main consumers of beryllium are
the military, aerospace and electronics
industries – the latter using mostly beryllium-copper alloys. The lightweight
metal is a very attractive substance for
use in fusion reactors. Its hardness, its
high melting point of 1284 °C and its
low atomic weight make it an almost
perfect material for the reactor’s first
wall (See FN December 2009). Furthermore, beryllium acts as a neutron multiplier when hit by fast neutrons from
the fusion reaction, transforming into
helium plus two neutrons. One of the
two current concepts for tritium breeding blankets is therefore based on beryllium pebbles (See FN May 2009).
KBHF’s roots go back more than 16
years, when Aniceto Goraieb was about
to finish his diploma thesis investigating
the thermal conductivity of beryllium.
The facility at which he conducted the
experiments closed down and he was
forced to set up his own beryllium laboratory on the premises of Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe. As other materials
researchers turned to him seeking advice and support, his lab slowly became
a beryllium handling and consulting
enterprise, building up in-depth expertise on this hazardous material. Today,
Goraieb Versuchstechnik (GVT) is the
only organisation in Europe that plans,
constructs and conducts beryllium experiments. It cooperates closely with
fusion research at KIT, for instance, by
developing fabrication techniques for
beryllium-titanium pebbles as potential
components for the tritium breeding
test blanket modules. GVT manages the
KBHF and advises other organisations
when it comes to setting up their own
beryllium facilities. Since 2003, GVT has
been developing new beryllium alloys in
cooperation with KIT. These so-called
beryllides are still widely unknown and
offer a huge potential for future materials. Hence, GVT plans to set up a labscale production facility within KBHF,
which enables the handling of around
100 kg beryllium powder. KBHF aims
to drive the development of beryllium
technologies and has initiated workshops about “Beryllium Opportunities
on New Developments” (BeYOND),
bringing industrial and scientific partners together. The first workshop was
held on the 13th of November 2009 at
KIT. The next workshop will take place
as a satellite meeting of SOFT 2010 in
Porto, Portugal on October 1st 2010.
Thanks to Dirk Radloff, KIT and Aniceto
Goraieb, GVT for their input
For more information, please see:
http://www.kbhf.org/index.html
http://www.kit.edu
www.versuchstechnik.de
27.04.10 11:08
EFDA Fusion News
One of the last coils is placed onto W7-X’s plasma vessel (Photo: C Rüth, EFDA)
All coils put in place at
Wendelstein 7-X
On March 24th, Professor Thomas
Klinger, scientific director of Wendelstein 7-X, announced the completion
of an important project milestone: The
last coil had been threaded onto the
plasma vessel.
The Fusion News team was fortunate
to have visited the site the week before. Here is a personal account from
what can only be described as an impressive construction site.
The scene is a Wednesday morning in
the assembly hall of the Wendelstein
7-X (W7-X) project at IPP Greifswald:
While the visitors are still overwhelmed
by the sheer size and complexity of the
construction site, a camera team is busy
setting up its equipment to produce 3Dfootage of the installation of one of the
last coils onto the plasma vessel. Finally
the star of the film – a strangely shaped
non-planar superconducting coil – is
lifted up by the crane, turned around,
given one last clean and hoisted over
to the other side of the hall. One can
virtually feel the quiet routine of the
workers pervading through the room as
they thread the 3.5 metre high and six
ton heavy coil onto the plasma vessel
with, in some places, mere millimetres
to spare. Next door in the torus hall, the
fi rst of fi ve modules that make up the
entire plasma torus has already been
FN1001_12S.indd 5
given the outer steel shell with as many
holes as a piece of Swiss cheese. The
magnets and inner vessel have vanished
inside the steel shell and, after all of
the ports have been fixed to the holes,
the device will look like a huge, ringshaped object with innumerable legs
sticking out in all directions. Dr. Wegener, who oversees the entire assembly,
outlines the complexity
of the construction: The
machine weighs 725 tons,
has a diameter of 16 metres
and features 254 ports. Each
of its five modules contains 1000
main components. When the
device is finally commissioned in mid
Large copper mirrors guide the ECRH system’s powerful microwaves through free air
(Photo: Anja Richter Ullmann, IPP)
27.04.10 11:08
EFDA Fusion News
Associations
2014, around 700,000 man hours will
have gone into the construction project.
The first plasma is expected to be generated in 2015.
The next day we find ourselves in a long
hallway which serves as a wavechannel
for the electron cyclotron resonant heating (ECRH) system’s microwaves: What
is a familiar sight from optical benches,
i.e. mirrors sending light along certain
paths, occurs here at a considerably
larger scale. Copper mirrors and polarisers combine ten microwave beams,
each with one megawatt of power and
around 10 cm in diameter, into two large
beams and send them into the plasma
vessel. The ECRH system benefits from
the new site, as the buildings could be
adapted to suit to its needs, whereas
most fusion experiments are restricted in
space and need to make use of less effective waveguides rather than sending
the microwaves through free air. ECRH
is intended to be used as the main heating system for Wendelstein 7-X, just like
at ITER. Hence the Greifswald team also
conducts tests and experiments for ITER.
It is currently testing a fast beam switch
that ITER will need to prevent the formation of instabilities.
Further information can be found in
the latest W7-X Newsletter:
http://www.ipp.mpg.de/ippcms/
eng/for/publikationen/w7xletters/
index.html.
Learning from Wendelstein 7-X
On March 17th and 18th, the JT60SA and W7-X teams met in Greifswald to exchange ideas and hear
about the lessons learned during
Wendelstein’s construction phase.
Nine of the thirteen visitors came
from the JT-60SA group in Garching, while four came from Japan. Dr.
Manfred Wanner, Seconded National
Expert of IPP at the JT-60SA team
and responsible officer for cryogenics, had been working in the W7-X
project from 1996 until end of 2007.
He initiated the meeting with the intention to support the young JT-60SA
team to learn from the experiences
gathered from the W7-X. Dr. Rem
Haange, technical director at W7X, chaired the sessions of the event.
The timing was well chosen, as one
of the last coils was being installed
on W7-X, thus giving the JT-60SA
team a chance to still see all stages of
the assembly processes. At the meeting, the W7-X team provided a deep
MAST’s Thomson scattering diagnostics has been upgraded from four to eight lasers (Photo: CCFE)
FN1001_12S.indd 6
insight into their experiences with
the organisation and management of
such a complex scientific project, focussing, on lessons learned during the
design, construction as well as testing
and assembly of the superconducting coils. The team also touched on
the overall assembly process, providing first hand information on issues
such as special vacuum techniques and
metrology. Furthermore, it provided
detailed information on the organisation of the assembly process, including
documentation, quality management
and processing orders for main components, and problems that had to be
solved, such as the practical handling
of tolerances or suitable welding techniques. Other topics of the meeting
included the construction of the supply systems such as the helium refrigeration plant and the power supplies
for the superconducting coils. The JT60SA team was very grateful for the
open and fruitful discussion that has
helped to establish valuable contacts
between both teams and uncovered
interesting aspects that are of interest
to both projects and that will be discussed subsequent to this meeting.
Thanks to Manfred Wanner for his input
Major upgrade to MAST
diagnostic
The MAST experiment, located at Culham Centre for Fusion Energy (CCFE),
now has the world’s most advanced system for recording the plasma temperature and density profiles.
Thomson scattering is used to obtain
local measurements of electron temperature and density inside the hot plasma
– which can reach over 20 million °C
in MAST – by measuring the scattering of light from laser beams fired into
the plasma. This is done by imaging
the laser beam in the plasma into optical fibres via a large collection lens.
(Figure 1). The fibres transfer the light
from each spatial location to a respective spectrometer. While the previous
system imaged 30 – 50 mm of laser light
into one spectrometer, the large lens of
the upgraded system collects enough
light to image 10 mm of laser light per
spectrometer, leading to a higher resolution. With this new diagnostic, MAST
measures at 130 spatial points using
27.04.10 11:08
EFDA Fusion News
Figure 1: The MAST Thomson scattering diagnostics system. Eight Nd:YAG
lasers follow a beam path through
the plasma (yellow).”. A large lens
(orange) collects light coming from
the laser. Depending on their exact
location along the laser beam, the
light beams reaching the lens are
directed into individual optical fibre.
That way data from 130 separate
locations at a resolution of only 10 mm
can be recorded. The system employs an
additional lens (green) to measure at the plasma
edge. (Picture: CCFE)
The new collection lens at MAST’s Thomson scattering diagnostics weighs 100 kg and is the largest
of its type in any fusion experiment (Photo: CCFE)
130 spectrometers. The diagnostic can
now perform high resolution measurements over the whole radius of the
plasma, while previously this resolution could only be obtained at the outer
edge of MAST.
One of the system’s primary goals is to
measure the size and structure of magnetic islands that affect the confinement
of the plasma and reduce the fusion energy output. This can now be achieved
at high resolution and thus detailed profiles of the evolution of many plasma
phenomena have already been recorded.
The upgrade has also improved
the temporal resolution by increasing the number of lasers used
from four to eight, effectively dou-
FN1001_12S.indd 7
bling the number of time points in
a measurement burst during a MAST
plasma pulse. A ‘smart’ triggering device can now synchronise the lasers to
the exact time of specific ‘events’ during
the pulse, such as the formation of the
plasma or the injection of fuel pellets.
Researchers from the University of
York’s Plasma Physics and Fusion Group,
in collaboration with CCFE, will exploit
the upgraded system to confirm the
theoretical principles of plasma behaviour. They are now able to run experiments on MAST directly from York, using a new remote control room recently
installed at the university.
A better understanding of the processes occuring in plasmas will help to
improve the performance of future
fusion devices such
as ITER. Dr Mike
Walsh, who was
the CCFE project leader and who has now moved
to the ITER Organization to become
Head of the Diagnostics Division, explained how the MAST Thomson scattering diagnostic will give researchers an
extremely detailed view of the evolution
of the plasma:
“We expect the system to throw up
new physics and allow us to observe effects we have never been able to see in
plasmas before.”
The £2 million upgrade, jointly funded
by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, University of
York and the Northern Way collaboration of Regional Development Agencies,
was completed in September 2009 and
the diagnostic is already providing data
that exceeds its design specifications.
Jennifer Hay and Rory Scannell,CCFE
27.04.10 11:08
EFDA Fusion News
Associations
Agence ITER France –
ITER’s home support
The appointment of Jérôme Pamela
as head of Agence ITER France (AIF)
in January 2010 can be seen as returning home. Upon visiting the ITER
site several days after his arrival, he
was able to measure the extent of
the work already completed at Cadarache as part of France’s host commitments. This is a project he is very
familiar with as he was responsible
for coordinating the initial technical
studies which were launched in 1995
to prepare for Cadarache’s candidacy
as the host of the ITER project.
Since the Cadarache site was chosen for ITER in 2005, work has progressed smoothly in the Provence
region. The International School in
Manosque, with classes ranging from
pre-primary to the baccalaureat, is
now open and welcoming children. The
approximately 100 kilometre stretch of
road between Fos-sur-Mer (near Marseille) and Cadarache has almost been
entirely developed to handle the heavy
duty traffic load. Agence ITER France is
getting ready to hand over the site to
the ITER Organization, which is now
fully-serviced and ready to start the
construction of the machine. More
than 2.5 million cubic metres of material – equivalent to the Great Pyramid
of Cheops – was used to build the huge
platform which stretches across forty
hectares and upon which thirty-nine
buildings will be built over the next five
years under the responsibility of the
European Domestic Agency, Fusion for
Energy (F4E). In excess of twenty kilometres of piping has been installed for
the various water systems required on
site (rainwater drainage, tokamak cooling water, facility effluents, etc.), not to
mention the almost 12,500 m² of office
space which has been made available
to the ITER Organization and F4E. This
summer, Agence ITER France will start
building a large office building about
200 metres long and capable of accommodating 460 people. “The commitments France made as host of the ITER
project have been kept. Agence ITER
France will make sure that this continues in the future, while developing various activities through which France, as
host, hopes to support the project during the construction phrase,” declared
Jérôme Pamela. This will be done by
setting up activities serving the project,
by preparing for the arrival of the first
heavy components, by helping industry
to set up in the region and by continuing to facilitate the integration of ITER
personnel in France.
Sylvie Andre, Agence ITER France
Germany looks at
the future of energy
“At the age of 16 I taught
girls to dance, today I’m
teaching hydrogen atoms”.
Prof. Dr. Günther Hasinger,
scientific director of MaxPlanck-Institute for plasma
physics (IPP), is one of four
topical ambassadors that
have put their faces to the
German science year 2010,
“The Future of Energy”.
Throughout the year long
event, the German Ministry
of Education and Research
will be showing how scientists in Germany and all over
the world are already working on solutions to ensure secure, economical and climate
friendly energy supplies in
the future.
“At the age of 16 I taught girls to dance, today I’m teaching hydrogen atoms”. IPP director Günther Hasinger
In her monthly video
is one of the topical ambassadors of the German science year 2010, “The future of energy”.
message, Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel heralded
questions such as how would he have
ergy in a way that makes visitors realise
the science year and highlighted the
just how precious energy is.
significance of fusion research. She
explained if he had been an expert on
then also visited the IPP Greifswald
Julia Sieber, IPP
tokamaks rather than on stellarators.
site on February 1st. Fusion research
Fusion research is widely represented in
Chancellor Merkel’s video message:
is a “sign of the future” and Gerthis
year
of
energy.
Among
other
events,
http://www.bundeskanzlerin.
many may make fusion history with
IPP has contributed to an exhibition-ship
de/nn_707282/Content/DE/
the unique project Wendelstein 7-X,
Podcast/2010/2010-01-30-Videothat tours with “energy” along German
Merkel said. The Chancellor holds
Podcast/2009-01-30-video-podand
Austrian
water
ways,
stopping
in
30
a Ph.D. in physics and was not only
cast.html
cities. The floating science centre hosts a
able to follow the speech given by
Website
of the science year:
IPP’s Prof. Thomas Klinger, but also
magnificent hall, its stage displaying the
www.zukunft-der-energie.de
came up with a number of interesting
current knowledge and research on en-
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EFDA Fusion News
EFDA during FP7 –
Reinforced coordination of
physics and technology in
EU laboratories Part 6
Pär Strand is an Associate Professor at Chalmers
University of Technology,
Gothenburg, Sweden and
Integrated Tokamak Modelling Task
Force (ITM-TF)
has been acting as the Leader of the ITM Task Force since
Continued from front page
Tokamak physics covers a wide range of
areas such as plasma turbulence, magneto-hydrodynamics (MHD), radiofrequency (RF) wave propagation, plasma-wave interaction and plasma-wall
interaction. Moreover, the operation of
a high performance tokamak requires a
number of technological elements including super-conducting magnets, RF
wave generators and antennas, fast ion
sources and accelerators, plasma diagnostics and real-time control schemes.
In addition to the tight coupling of
the physical phenomena among each
other, technology and physics are also
strongly linked: RF wave launching conditions depend on the antenna characteristics, plasma equilibrium is controlled
by external magnetic field coils and the
interpretation of measurements requires the knowledge of the diagnostic
hardware. Although individual models
exist for most of these elements and
components, a realistic modelling of
a tokamak experiment ought to cover
all of these physical and technological
aspects, whilst taking into account the
complexity of their interactions. This requirement results in the emergence of
the Integrated Modelling concept.
A wide choice of models, using different levels of sophistication in the
2006, after holding a deputy
position since the start of
the project. He is also the
Coordinator of the EUFORIA – “EU Fusion for ITER
Applications” project which
is funded under the EU FP7 Capacities programme. Dr. Strand is
also the ITM-TF representative on the HPC-FF Board and Chairs the ITER
Integrated Modelling Expert Group advising ITER Fusion Science and
Technology on modelling issues.
Pär Strand’s vita can be found here:
http://www.efda.org/about_efda/activities-itm-paer_strand.
htm
physics description, can be applied to
describe tokamak plasma phenomena
prior to the transcription of the mathematical model into a numerical code.
Besides, different numerical methods
can be used to solve the same type
of mathematical model resulting in an
even wider choice of numerical codes
for the fusion plasma community. Some
of these codes have been extensively
verified and validated and integrated
into simulators for specific purposes.
However, they are often only suited to
the geometry settings and
experimental data from
a specific tokamak and
seldom adopt generic descriptions for subsystems
(e.g. heating, diagnostics)
which match any given
experimental
device.
Moreover, each simulator
uses its own format for
general input/output and
interfaces to its internal
modules. This makes the
Lars-Göran Eriksson has worked at the JET Joint Undertaking and at CEA Cadarache. He was appointed ITM deputy
task force leader in October 2006. He is now at the European Commission in Brussels and is the Directorate General for
Research Unit J4 – Fusion Associations Agreement. His duties still include the deputy leadership of the ITM task force.
Lars-Göran Erkisson’s vita can be found here:
http://www.efda.org/about_efda/activities-itm-lars_
goeran_eriksson.htm
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Focus on
EFDA Fusion News
exchange of data and physics modules
(code portions containing a physical
model) between codes tedious, thus
slowing down the benchmarking efforts and the development of physics
modules that may be shared.
In view of ITER exploitation and the
development of future fusion reactors,
the challenge is to provide an integrated simulator that meets the reliability
standards required by the operation of
a nuclear device, and thus enables the
transparent use of the available numerical models.
The European Integrated Modelling
approach
The choice of Integrated Modelling
made by the ITM-TF is unique and
original. It entails the development of
a comprehensive and completely generic tokamak simulator that includes
both the physics and the machine and
can be used for any fusion device.
The simulation platform will be fully
modular, flexible and independent of
a programming language.
The choice of modularity implies that
each module contains a single physical model and that the communication
between the modules is standardised.
A set of common rules clearly specifi es the format of the data that is to
be consistently exchanged between
modules (data-structure). The complexity of coupling the codes is therefore
transferred to the defi nition of a datastructure which should be generic (able
to describe and exchange information
concerning both physical quantities and
technical objects, not assuming the origin of those) and extendable to allow
for the integration of new physics, as
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Rui Coelho is an assistant researcher at the Instituto Superior Técnico of Lisbon (IST) and has been assigned to the Theory and Modelling group of IPFN
since 2005. This group investigates non-linear MHD plasma instabilities and
real-time digital signal processing on plasma diagnostics. He is the contact
person for the EFDA ITM-TF and MHD Topical Group at the IST Euratom
Association. He joined the ITM-TF Leadership as deputy in mid 2008 and is
charged with the coordination of the Experimentalists and Diagnosticians
Resource Group (EDRG).
Rui Coelho’s vita can be found here:
http://www.efda.org/about_efda/activities-itm-rui_coelho.htm
well as more elaborate machine geometries and experimental data in the
future.
The Consistent Physical Object
(CPO) concept has been developed
to this purpose: CPOs are the only
blocks of consistent data exchanged
between physics modules during an
integrated simulation. The definition
of CPOs for the different classes of
physics codes derives naturally from
the input/output logics of a physics
problem; CPOs are identical for all
modules addressing the same physics
problem and produced as a whole by a
single module, thus ensuring the consistency of the data. A CPO might be,
for instance, the plasma equilibrium
data that is made up of plasma profiles, plasma boundary, a flux surface
coordinate system and other data.
Thanks to this conceptual paradigm
in Integrated Modelling, the physics
and programming aspects are separated so that an external or wrapping
software can deal with the exchange
of data, the link to the experimental
database and access to the simulation
platform.
Code developers wishing to integrate
their code into the ITM simulation
platform must provide it in a modular form with the CPOs as input and
output arguments. Libraries written in
different programming languages and
developed by ITM, automatically handle the exchange of CPOs between
modules. An open source software
(KEPLER) featuring a user-friendly interface allows the user to choose, add
and link together the physics modules
and launch the desired integrated simulation (a simulation workflow). A cen-
tral computer platform was made available in 2008 on which the ITM suite of
tools is tested and released – the “Gateway” hosted at ENEA/CRESCO. It allows
ITM-TF users to run simulations locally
or within the framework of GRID (a grid
of geographically distributed supercomputers) or High Performance Computer environments. Additionally, the
High Performance Computer for Fusion
(HPC-FF) at FZ Jülich was made available
in autumn 2009.
ITM-TF work programme and
achievements
The Integrated Tokamak Modelling Task
Force was created in 2003 with the task
of coordinating the development of
a coherent set of European simulation
tools to be benchmarked on existing
tokamak experiments, with the ultimate
aim of providing a validated simulation
package for ITER exploitation.
ITM-TF is divided into four Integrated
Modelling Projects (IMPs) that focus on
the following areas of physics: plasma
equilibrium and MHD, transport code
and whole discharge evolution, transport and micro-instabilities and finally,
heating, current drive (H&CD) and fast
particles. Their work programmes reflect some of the needs expressed by
ITER, most of which require an Integrated Modelling platform:
• IMP12: Mitigation and avoidance of disruptions (in
coordination with EFDA
Topical Group MHD
and PWI TF), ELMs and
other instabilities;
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EFDA Fusion News
• IMP3:
Pellet injection, ELM
triggering;
• IMP4:
Effects of edge turbulence on core energy;
momentum, fuel and
impurity confinement;
consistent characterisation of turbulent transport over the full wave
spectrum;
• IMP5:
Coupling between
sources and energetic
particle effects; coupling
of energetic particle
instabilities to MHD.
The “Infrastructure and Software Integration Project” (ISIP) is in charge
of the development of the code platform and the implementation of the
ITM data-structure and tools. Two
additional subgroups coordinated by
the TF leaders guarantee the link with
the experimentalists and the provision
of the experimental databases: The
“Atomic, Molecular, Nuclear Surface”
Data (AMNS) and the “Experimentalists
and Diagnosticians Resource Group”
(EDRG). In 2007, the “ITER Scenario
Modelling Working Group” (ISM) was
established as part of ITM-TF with the
aim of assisting the ITER International
Organisation in systematic predictive
modelling of all reference scenarios, using the major existing integrated modelling tools, whilst the ITM code platform
was in development. ISM produced
very valuable work in terms of both
code cross-comparisons and validation
and scientifi c publications, addressing
a wide range of physics issues for ITER.
ISM activity will continue in 2010 in
collaboration with ITPA (International
Tokamak Physics Activity) and the international fusion community, aiming
to include ITM codes and modules
as they become available. ITM-TF is
working in close collaboration with
the EUFORIA – “EU Fusion for ITER
application” project towards creating
transparent access to capacity and capability computing.
A central ITM-TF project is the development of the European Transport
Solver (ETS). The project is an exceptional one in that ITM-TF usually only
coordinates code development. It is
motivated by the fact that none of the
existing transport codes meet all of
the ITM requirements, namely modularity, flexibility and standardised interfaces. In terms of the physics, the
ETS is designed to solve the standard
set of one-dimensional time-dependent equations which describe the evolution of the core plasma, including
several ion species (impurities). The
solver itself is designed with a modular approach enabling the separation
of the physics from the numerics,
thereby facilitating the testing/usage
of the numerical schemes that best
suit a particular scenario.
During the first phase of ITM-TF,
surveys and cross-verification of the
available models and numerical codes
were performed within the individual
IMPs and the data-structure was extensively discussed. Equilibrium, linear MHD stability, core transport and
RF wave propagation, as well as the
poloidal field systems and some diagnostics were the first topics addressed.
Data-structures have been finalised
for these and are being expanded
to address, among others,
non-linear MHD, edge physics and turbulence as well as
neutral beam propagation.
Alongside the development
of the physics concepts, ITMTF has produced tools to manipulate the data-structure and
use it in fully flexible and modular
simulation workflows.
The ITM-TF has now
achieved the development
of an initial release version
of a fully modular and versatile simulator containing all
essential functionalities. The
simulator is now ready to be
used for the first physics applications. In 2010, the validation of tools
can start: the database is being filled
with machine descriptions (JET, Tore
Supra, MAST, FTU, FAST and AUG) as
well as experimental data (some
discharges of Tore Supra and
JET) and modules from the
different IMPs are available
for integration into the transport solver. The next few
years will see the validation of
the simulator for a complete
discharge based on existing experimental data with the available modules, the integration
of more quantitative physics
models (“ab-initio”) and the
integration of the entire modelling of the device.
Gloria Falchetto, IRFM,
Rui Coelho, IST,
Christian Konz, IPP
ITM-TF: http://portal.
efda-itm.eu/portal/
ITM Gateway: http://
www.efda-itm.eu/
Gloria Falchetto holds a permanent position at the CEA Research Institute on Magnetic Fusion (IRFM, Cadarache, France) where she is
part of the “Transport, Turbulence and MHD group” which is working on turbulence simulations and modelling. She was appointed
deputy leader of ITM Task Force in mid 2009, after being deputy
leader of IMP4.
Gloria Falchetto’s vita can be found here:
http://www.efda.org/about_efda/activities-itm-gloria_falchetto.htm
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JET
Tailoring JET’s web page
In mid December the revamped webpage www.jet.efda.org went online. It
contains new features such as RSS feeds
for news and the “picture of the week”.
Additional search functions in the news
archive and on all pages should help
users finding the information required.
A procedure to request brochures easily has been added. The newsletter
“JETInsight” now comes in hardcopy and
online, providing additional information
where suitable. Moreover its subscription
procedure has been simplified.
In the three months since the new web
page went online, the number of subscribers to JETInsight has been increased
by 37 per cent. A closer look into the
statistics reveals that users have immediately taken one feature on board which
is the RSS Feed. Nearly 50 % enter the
page through this service. For those
of you who have never used RSS, you
should give it a try. Its beauty is the easy
way to keep updated whenever any
new content appears on the page you
subscribed for. The device is your choice;
your computer, smart- or iPhone will do.
FN1001_12S.indd 12
A surprisingly high number of visits has
been noticed in February with more
than 14,000 unique visitors.
As speculation is allowed two new
regularly items on the web page may
have gathered increased interest in
EFDA JET. As in previous issues of Fusion
News reported, JET has entered a nonexperimental period, called shutdown.
Some people (still) think JET won’t perform any experiments from now on. So
we took the opportunity to set up the
“shutdown weekly” to inform on what
is going on at the JET Facility during a
65 week duration of maintenance and
upgrading. The other new feature is the
“picture of the week” which highlights
different aspects of the fusion facility
each week.
The revamp of the EFDA JET webpage
represents the first step to improve the
pages for more and more people who
turn their back on traditional media.
Now, with a comfortable Content Management System in use, it is easy to tailor
the Web page according to users’ likes
and dislikes. Suggestions are welcome!
Petra Nieckchen, EFDA-JET
ISSN 1818-5355
For more information see the websites:
http://www.efda.org
http://www.jet.efda.org
http://www.iter.org
EFDA Close Support Unit – Garching
Boltzmannstr. 2
D-85748 Garching / Munich – Germany
phone: +49-89-3299-4263
fax:
+49-89-3299-4197
e-mail: [email protected]
editors: Christine Rüth, Örs Benedekfi
layout: dolp & partner
© Francesco Romanelli (EFDA Leader) 2010.
This internal newsletter or parts of it may not be reproduced without permission.
Text, pictures and layout, except where noted, courtesy
of the EFDA Parties.
The EFDA Parties are the European Commission and the
Associates of the European Fusion Programme which is
co-ordinated and managed by the Commission.
Neither the Commission, the Associates nor anyone
acting on their behalf is responsible for any damage
resulting from the use of information contained in this
publication.
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