Galeria

The Budgetary Control Committee of the European Parliament, chaired by German MEP Ingeborg Graessle, organized a public hearing on the added value of EU funding on 21 January 2019. The hearing was moderated by its Vice-Chair, Czech MEP Martina Dlabajova who is also the rapporteur in the current discharge procedure of EU agencies and joint undertakings (including F4E) for the 2017 budget. In the framework of the competitiveness panel of the hearing, MEP Dlabajova invited the F4E Director to report on success stories that the EU contribution to the ITER project brings to many European companies and research centres involved in the manufacturing of the high-tech components for this big science project.

Johannes Schwemmer, F4E Director, kicked off the panel discussion with a short presentation on fusion and its benefits, and presented the international partnership to build ITER, one of the largest high-technology projects in modern history. The F4E Director explained the role of F4E, as the domestic agency for ITER, and highlighted the different projects underway to make fusion energy a reality.

Massimo Garribba, Director at the Commission’s Directorate-General for Energy, picked up the torch to underline the key role of ITER in the European roadmap for the realization of fusion energy and the important milestone of 60% completion of the project in its drive to reach first plasma by the end of 2025. The Commission director insisted on the significant economic impact of ITER which over the period of 2008-2017 has produced almost 4,8 billion euro in Gross Value Added and almost 34,000 job years, through awarding over 900 contracts and grants in 24 EU countries worth 4,5 billion Euro. European companies report that working on ITER generates a new knowledge base, offers new business opportunities and increases their competitiveness and growth, helping to create additional jobs.

In order to highlight the role of EU industry in the construction of ITER and the benefits arising from their participation in such an international endeavour, two representatives shared their experiences.

Prof. C.J.M. Heemskerk from HiT, a small company in the Netherlands, presented an unexpected but important spin-off generated during the development of the remoting handling systems for the maintenance of ITER, which will be needed once the reactor becomes operational. The R&D in this area has led to a prototype robot ROSE (Remotely Operated SErvice Robot) providing home care support for elderly people and those in need. Prof. Heemskerk added that their involvement in ITER has given the company “an exposure to an international community” and has strengthened their competitiveness as “we have to be on our (their) toes” to fend off potential competitors around the world. In addition, the company has managed to gain contracts from international clients which would have not been possible “without our involvement in ITER”.

Giovanni Grasso from ASG Superconductors, an Italian company specialized in superconducting magnet technology has worked for many big science organizations such as CERN and ITER. The superconducting technology which has been developed over the years for fusion has led to a number of spin-offs in sectors such as health (magnetic resonance scanners and health therapies). The most recent important spin-off from the ITER work consists of a superconducting cable which may be used for energy transmissions over last distances across Europe.

In the discussion that followed, a number of MEPs took the floor to highlight the benefits for European industry arising from their participation to the project. Italian MEP Flavio Zanonato underlined the important industrial investment realized in Padova in building a Neutral Beam Test facility to develop the most challenging heating system for ITER.

In concluding the competitiveness panel of the European added value hearing, MEP Dlabajová thanked the participants and highlighted “the real and tangible added value” coming from the EU support of the ITER project.

Source: Fusion for Energy

Photo: Credit © ITER Organization, http://www.iter.org/

W październiku 2018 roku Nagrodę Nobla z fizyki otrzymali Arthur Ashkin oraz Gérard Mourou i Donna Strickland za badania w zakresie optyki wykorzystujące w przełomowy sposób światło generowane laserem.

Do Arthura Ashkina trafiła połowa nagrody za wykorzystanie wiązki laserowej jako pęsety do obserwacji i manipulowania bardzo małymi obiektami, takimi jak cząsteczki, molekuły, bakterie i wirusy bez ich uszkodzenia. Wiązka lasera podczerwonego może powodować przemieszczanie się małych obiektów w stronę centrum wiązki i tam ich utrzymywanie. Dzięki temu możliwe jest ich badanie i modyfikowanie.

Gérard Mourou i Donna Strickland otrzymali po 25% nagrody za opracowanie metody wzmacniania „świergoczących” impulsów laserowych zwanej CPA (chirped pulse amplification). W metodzie tej bardzo krótki impuls laserowy najpierw jest rozciągany w czasie w celu zmniejszenia jego mocy i wzmocnienia bez uszkadzania prętów wzmacniających. Następnie wydłużony i wzmocniony impuls jest optycznie komprymowany. Metoda CPA pozwala uzyskiwać impulsy laserowe o czasie trwania kilku femtosekund (10^‑15 s). Można też osiągać gęstości mocy ponad 10²² W/cm² po zogniskowaniu wiązki laserowej na plamce o średnicy ~0,01 mm. Lasery wielkiej mocy o ultrakrótkim impulsie są stosowane do badania rekordowo krótkich procesów w obszarze fizyki relatywistycznej, fizyki atomowej, biologii molekularnej i w mikrometrycznych technologiach materiałowych.

Zasada działania metody CPA

Więcej informacji na stronie www.nobelprize.org

Ilustracja: Niklas Elmehed / Nobel Media

 Who would turn down an invitation to “fly to Mars” if representatives from ESA, NASA and Poland’s Space Industry Association acted as the captains on board? Imagine if your co-passengers were some of the most promising scientists, entrepreneurs, engineers and business developers working in Poland? It sounds like a-one-of-a-kind mission to Mars inviting experts to step to the unknown and use their skills to survive.

Science and technology breakthroughs have been woven in the fabric of Poland and its appetite for doing business makes it a perfect candidate for big science projects. For this reason, members of the big science community coming from F4E, CERN, the European Space Observatory (ESO) and the European Spalation Source (ESS) contributed to a two day-event, organised by the Wrocław Technology Park on 23-24 November, to explain the state of play of the various scientific collaborations and the business opportunities in each of them.  A fine mix of keynote speeches, workshops, presentations, and business to business (B2B) meetings gave the possibility to at least 400 participants to receive updates and get in touch with those running the projects.

“By bringing together big science projects we help companies to learn more about the emerging technical needs, offer them incentives to export their know-how and make them think big” explains Leonardo Biagioni, F4E’s Head of Procurement. “The truth of the matter is that big projects are made of smaller ones and if a company has the skills it can surely find its way to participate. And this is what we are here to do” explains Benjamin Perier from F4E’s Market Intelligence Group. A number of companies expressed an interest in the ITER domains using robotics, aerospace technologies and the testing of new materials. For those who felt that they may not have the financial capital to target projects of such scale, a representative of the European Investment Bank (EIB) was there to present the different financial instruments that could trigger off investment and growth.

The value of gathering different projects under the same roof helps all parties to be more aware of who does what and how much they share in terms of business incentives and technology transfers. For those wishing to become more familiar with the universe of collaborative procurement for research infrastructures, a Big Science Business Forum is planned to take place on 26-28 February 2018 in Copenhagen.

To view some of the event’s highlights click here.

Source: fusionforenergy.europa.eu

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2017 was divided, one half awarded to Rainer Weiss, the other half jointly to Barry C. Barish and Kip S. Thorne "for decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves".

POPULAR SCIENCE BACKGROUND

On 14 September 2015, the LIGO detectors in the USA saw space vibrate with gravitational waves for the very first time. Although the signal was extremely weak when it reached Earth, it is already promising a revolution in astrophysics. Gravitational waves are an entirely new way of following the most violent events in space and testing the limits of our knowledge. The gravitational waves that have now been observed were created in a ferocious collision between two black holes, more than a thousand million years ago. Albert Einstein was right again. A century had passed since gravitational waves were predicted by his general theory of relativity, but he had always been doubtful whether they could ever be captured.

LIGO, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, is a collaborative project with over one thousand researchers from more than twenty countries. Together, they have realised a vision that is almost fifty years old. The 2017 Nobel Laureates have, with their enthusiasm and determination, each been invaluable to the success of LIGO. Pioneers Rainer Weiss and Kip S. Thorne, together with Barry C. Barish, the scientist and leader who brought the project to completion, have ensured that more than four decades of effort led to gravitational waves finally being observed.

Rumours began to circulate around five months before the international research group had finished refining its calculations, but they did not dare to announce their findings until 11 February 2016. The LIGO researchers set several records with their very first discovery; besides the first ever observation of gravitational waves, the entire course of events was the first indication that space contains medium-sized black holes of between 30 and 60 solar masses and that they can merge. For a short moment, the gravitational radiation from the colliding black holes was many times stronger than the collected light of all the stars in the visible universe.

Source: www.nobelprize.org

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The plasma experiments in the Wendelstein 7-X fusion device at Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP) in Greifswald have now been resumed after a 15-month conversion break. The ex

tension has made the device fit for higher heating power and longer pulses. This now allows experiments in which the optimised concept of Wendelstein 7-X can be tested. Wendelstein 7-X, the world’s largest fusion device of the stellarator type, is to investigate this type’s suitability for application in a power plant.

Besides new heating and measuring facilities, over 8,000 graphite wall tiles and ten divertor modules have been installed in the plasma vessel since March last year, i.e. the scheduled end of the first experimentation phase. This cladding is to protect the vessel walls and allow higher temperatures and plasma discharges lasting 10 seconds in forthcoming experiments.

A special function is exercised here by the ten sections of the divertor: As broad strips on the wall of the plasma vessel, the divertor tiles conform exactly to the twisting contour of the plasma edge. They thus protect especially those wall areas to which particles escaping from the edge of the plasma ring are specifically directed. Along with unwanted impurities the impinging particles are neutralised and pumped off. The divertor is thus an important tool for regulating the purity and density of the plasma.

The smaller predecessor, the Wendelstein 7-AS stellarator at IPP in Garching, had already yielded encouraging results in divertor tests. But not till the much larger successor, Wendelstein 7-X at Greifswald, did the geometry conditions come up to power plant size, particularly the ratio of the divertor area to the plasma volume. “We are therefore very excited that we are now able for the first time to investigate whether the divertor concept of an optimised stellarator can really work properly”, says Project Head Professor Thomas Klinger. These tests will play a major role: Many detailed investigations will carefully check how to guide the plasma and what magnetic field structures and heating and replenishing methods are most successful.

Newly enlisted measuring instruments will also allow observation of turbulence in the plasma for the first time: The small eddies entailed influence how successful magnetic confinement and thermal insulation of the hot plasma are, these being important parameters for a future power plant, because they determine the size of the plant and hence its economical merit. “We shall be able for the first time to check whether the promising predictions of theory for a completely optimised stellarator are correct. In comparison with previous devices, Wendelstein 7-X is expected to yield quite new, possibly even better, conditions”, says Thomas Klinger.

As all ten microwave transmitters for the microwave heating of the plasma are meanwhile ready for use, this will allow a higher energy throughput and plasmas of higher density. It will now be possible to raise the energy to 80 megajoules once all versions of the microwave heating have been tackled and tested, as compared with 4 megajoules in 2016. The rather low plasma density hitherto can now be more than doubled to attain values meeting power plant requirements.

This has significant consequences: First the density of the plasma has to be sufficient to allow electrons and ions to exchange energy effectively. Previously, the microwave heating had only been able to heat essentially just the electrons. Instead of hot electrons with 100 million degrees and cold ions with 10 million degrees as hitherto the electrons and ions in the new plasma will have almost equal temperatures of up to 70 million degrees. This should also enhance the thermal insulation of the plasma. Whereas it was hitherto just upper average in relation to the size of the device, the effect of optimising Wendelstein 7-X should now become visible: “It’s getting very exciting”, states Thomas Klinger.

Background

The objective of fusion research is to develop a power plant favourable to the climate and environment. Like the sun, it is to derive energy from fusion of atomic nuclei. As the fusion fire does not ignite till temperatures exceeding 100 million degrees are attained, the fuel, viz. a low-density hydrogen plasma, ought not to come into contact with cold vessel walls. Confined by magnetic fields, it levitates inside a vacuum chamber with hardly any contact.

The magnetic cage of Wendelstein 7-X is formed by a ring of 50 superconducting magnet coils about 3.5 metres high. Their special shapes are the result of sophisticated optimisation calculations. Although Wendelstein 7-X is not meant to produce energy, the device should prove that stellarators are suitable for power plants. For the first time the quality of the plasma confinement in a stellarator is to attain the level of competing devices of the tokamak type. 

For this purpose, further stages of modification are being planned. For example, the graphite tiles of the divertor are to be replaced in a few years by carbon-fibre-reinforced carbon elements that are additionally water-cooled. This will allow discharges lasting up to 30 minutes in which it can be tested whether Wendelstein 7-X will achieve its optimisation targets in the long run: In this way the device is to demonstrate the essential advantage of stellarators, viz. their capability for continuous operation.

Source: http://www.ipp.mpg.de/4254576/08_17