Galeria

A five year quest has borne fruit with the COMPASS tokamak in Prague’s Institute of Plasma Physics (IPP) achieving H-mode performance. The milestone marks a new era for fusion research in the Czech Republic, which began in 2007 when the COMPASS tokamak was transferred from the CCFE in UK.

“We have historical links which made us a regional centre for scientists from Hungary, Bulgaria and Poland, but now scientists from West Europe have also been visiting COMPASS – it’s another meeting point for the fusion community.” says fusion scientist Dr Jan Mlynář from IPP.

“It is very important that we can now do H-mode operation as this is the standard ITER scenario. We have invested lots of money into making an “ITER-like” operation scenario, in particular we purchased new heating neutral beams to achieve relevant ion temperatures and thus hopefully create Type I ELMs.”

Now the ITER-like mode of operation has been established, COMPASS can be used as a small scale test bed for ITER performance: combining COMPASS’s results with similar tests in ASDEX Upgrade (three times larger) and JET (six times larger) gives excellent extrapolation to ITER (ten times larger).

However, for some studies the overall size does not matter, and in these areas COMPASS really comes into its own. H-mode’s high confinement stems from a sharp increase in the pressure at the edge of the plasma, known as the edge transport barrier or pedestal; COMPASS’s ability to reproduce H-mode makes it arguably as useful a device as the bigger machines in studying this plasma edge phenomenon, says Dr Mlynář.

“We can now measure and detail properties of this pedestal. All machines that have H-mode have this edge pedestal, however nobody really understands the details of physics behind this pedestal… Our advantage is that we are not so expensive and so “heavy” in operation. It is simpler to test different ideas or different new hardware.”

“Also, big machines are usually overbooked – scientists need a really good reference to get research time at ASDEX or JET, and promising results from smaller tokamaks is a very good reference.”

With the result in Prague coinciding with the recent release of EFDA’s road map to fusion, it’s clear that COMPASS will have a significant part to play in the navigation towards the goal of fusion energy!

The Institute of Plasma Physics is the Czech Republic’s signatory to the European Fusion Development Agreement.

Source: EFDA

The European Fusion Development Agreement (EFDA) has published a roadmap which outlines how to supply fusion electricity to the grid by 2050. The roadmap to the realisation of fusion energy breaks the quest for fusion energy down into eight missions. For each mission, it reviews the current status of research, identifies open issues, proposes a research and development programme and estimates the required resources. It points out the needs to intensify industrial involvement and to seek all opportunities for collaboration outside Europe.

The goal of fusion research is to make the energy of the stars available on Earth by fusing hydrogen nuclei. Fusion energy is nearly unlimited as it draws on the abundant raw materials deuterium and lithium. It does not produce greenhouse gases or long-lived radioactive waste. It is intrinsically safe, as chain reactions are impossible.

So far, fusion scientists have succeeded in generating fusion power, but the required energy input was greater than the output. The international experiment ITER, which starts operating in 2020, will be the first device to produce a net surplus of fusion power,  namely 500 megawatts from a 50 megawatt input.

Europe holds a leading position in fusion research and hosts ITER. The fact that the ITER project is funded and run by six other nations besides Europe reflects the growing expectations on fusion energy. China, for instance, is launching an aggressive programme aimed at fusion electricity well before 2050. “Europe can keep pace only if it focusses its effort and pursues a pragmatic approach to fusion energy” states Dr Francesco Romanelli, EFDA Leader.

Focussing on the research and engineering activities needed to achieve fusion electricity, the roadmap shows that these can be carried out within a reasonable budget. The amount of resources proposed are of the same level as those originally recommended for the seventh European Research Framework Programme – outside the European investment in the ITER construction.

The roadmap covers three periods: The upcoming European Research Framework Programme, Horizon 2020, the years 2021-2030 and the time between 2031 and 2050.

ITER is the key facility of the roadmap as it is expected to achieve most of the important milestones on the path to fusion power. Thus, the vast majority of resources proposed for Horizon 2020 are dedicated to ITER and its accompanying experiments. The second period is focussed on maximising ITER exploitation and on preparing the construction of a demonstration power plant DEMO, which will for the first time supply fusion electricity to the grid. Building and operating DEMO is the subject of the last roadmap phase.

In the course of the roadmap implementation, the fusion programme will move from being laboratory-based and science-driven towards an industry- and technology-driven venture. ITER construction already generates a turnover of about 6 billion euro. The design, construction and operation of DEMO requires full involvement of industry to ensure that, after a successful DEMO operation, industry can take responsibility for commercial fusion power.

Source: EFDA

F4E celebrates a landmark achievement with the signature of one of its largest contracts in the area of the civil engineering works for the construction of the Tokamak complex, the building that will host the ITER Tokamak machine. Other buildings and amenities surrounding the Tokamak complex will also be delivered through this contract.
This is a key development for the ITER project and a milestone of significant importance for Europe, because it demonstrates F4E's commitment to this international collaboration in the field of energy and delivers on an instrumental chapter of its construction. The contract is expected to run for five and a half years and its budget is in the range of 300 million EUR. The VFR consortium, which consists of French companies VINCI Construction Grands Projets, Razel-Bec, Dodin Campenon Bernard, Campenon Bernard Sud-Est, GTM Sud and Chantiers Modernes Sud as well as Spanish company Ferrovial Agroman, boasts a proven track record in the field of construction and will deliver on a contract that is underpinned by impressive complexity, multiple interfaces and strict safety standards.

The ITER site in figures: 
The size of the ITER platform is 42 hectares and Europe is the party responsible for the delivery of the 39 buildings that the ITER platform will host. Currently, the personnel directly involved in construction counts 200 people and by mid-2014 it is expected to reach 3,000 people. One of the key challenges will be to accommodate the needs of the rapidly growing workforce and to guarantee an optimal use of space to the different companies operating on the ground, in order to carry out the construction of all infrastructures in parallel and on time.

The scope and key figures of the Tokamak complex and surrounding buildings contract: 
Through this contract the following infrastructure and amenities will be constructed: the Tokamak complex, consisting of the Tokamak, Diagnostics and Tritium buildings, the ITER Assembly hall, the radio frequency heating building, the areas for heating, ventilation and air conditioning, the cleaning facility and site services buildings, the cryoplant compressor and coldbox building, the control buildings, the fast discharge and switching network resistor building, and three bridges.

A total of 150, 000m³ of concrete will be used for all buildings out of which 110,000m³ will be used for the construction of the Tokamak complex. This is the equivalent of the concrete used for 3,000 houses of 120m². The building will be 80 metres high, 120 metres long and 80 metres wide. Its footprint will be bigger than that of a football stadium. The Tokamak building will rely on 493 plinths equipped with anti-seismic bearings, already in place, able to sustain the overall weight of the machine, which will be in the range of 23,000 tonnes almost three times the weight of the Eiffel Tower. 

The Tokamak complex will host 100 heavy nuclear and confinement doors in total. The major doors will measure 4 metres high by 4 metres long and 35 cm thick. Their unit weight will be in the range of 40 tonnes and they will be remotely operated.

The works within the framework of the contract will require 7,500 tonnes of steel for the different structures and 16,000 tonnes of steel for reinforcement bars. The total number of embedded parts upon which the ITER equipment will be located, is expected to reach the impressive number of 60,000 units. Overall, it is estimated that 600 people will be involved in the works conducted in this contract.

Source: F4E

F4E’s Framework Partnership Agreement (FPA) for the design of Diagnostic components for the ITER Plasma Position Reflectometry is signed. Amounting to 3.5 million EUR for a period of up to four years, the FPA has been awarded to a consortium consisting of three EURATOM associations: Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), from Portugal; Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas (CIEMAT), from Spain; and Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Istituto di Fisica del Plasma "Piero Caldirola" (IFP-CNR), from Italy. The FPA concerns the design of the Plasma Position Reflectometry components (antennas, waveguides, microwave electronics and real-time analysis software) for the Diagnostics systems. The antennas and waveguides launch and receive a radio frequency signal in the range 15-75 GHz which is assessed by microwave electronics and real-time analysis software to determine the density profile at the plasma edge and the distance between the plasma and tokamak wall. Co

ntrol of the plasma density profile is important in order to keep the plasma stable and prevent it from touching the wall, leading to a plasma disruption which would stop the fusion process. 


So what exactly is a Framework Partnership Agreement (FPA)? It establishes a long-term collaboration (for up to 4 years) with a beneficiary or consortium (i.e. group of beneficiaries). The Agreement defines a set of rules (i.e. a framework) for conduct of the work; with the work itself performed under separate specific grants agreements. The FPA is well-fitted to projects requiring mostly R&D and design and where the design is at its first stages. It is ideal for Diagnostics, where designs are usually ‘first-of-a-kind’ and require a large, specialised design base; and need long continuity of the design team. A further advantage of the FPA is that it enables F4E to have stronger project management roll, to steer the work and to develop a better collaboration with the recipient of the Agreement.

The FPA for the design of Diagnostic components for the ITER Plasma Position Reflectometry covers R&D, engineering, quality support and managerial activities, and testing from functional specifications, up to the supply of an F4E-approved final design. It will bring together the work of some 30 physicists and engineers per year.

Source: F4E