The team of engineers from the Research Instruments (RI), Germany, has successfully completed the ITER Inner-Vertical Target (IVT) prototype’s engineering phase. The very complex component was produced no matter how complicated it became during pandemic. According to the technical details, the Divertor IVT prototype weighs 0.5 t and measures around 1.5 m. Its surface is covered by 1 104 tungsten blocks, and the temperature on the tungsten cassette surface will amount to 2000 °C. The next phase will entail going through high heat flux tests in Russia at the Efremov Institute.

Michael Pekeler, Director of Superconducting RF, Fusion and Special Manufacturing, Research Instruments (RI), underlines reaching the milestone: "We are very happy to have reached this milestone. This would not have been possible without the excellent cooperation with the F4E team, the passion and dedication of our project team. It is a clear demonstration of the high quality products we design and manufacture at RI. It is also a success bringing us closer to the qualification for the tender phase of the IVT series production."

To read more about the Inner-Vertical Target prototype please visit: fusionforenergy.europa.eu

Source: Fusion for Energy

The recommendations of the DEMO expert panel will facilitate the implementation of the next step of the Roadmap aimed at the construction of the demonstration power plant. Review-based approach makes it possible to gather the experience from all over the community which can guarantee, as experts put it, a viable DEMO design.

The article on the EUROfusion website contains the panel’s recommendations and opinions stating that the gate review is a valuable exercise broadening the knowledge with the state-of-the-art fusion technology and the importance of this ‘fusion energy adventure’. EUROfusion Programme Manager Tony Donné underscores the possibility to move into the DEMO conceptual phase thanks to implementing the gate review strategy.

Source: www.euro-fusion.org
Photo: Artist's concept of a fusion power plant converting the heat of fusion into heat and electricity. Source: EUROfusion, license CC-BY 4.0

We have recently seen the launch of the MAST Upgrade tokamak which produced the first plasma (the video is available on YouTube). This brings us closed to obtain safe low-carbon electricity supply without any harm to the environment.

A new exhaust system called the 'Super-X divertor' at MAST Upgrade is planned to be tested in an aim to guarantee the long-term viability of future fusion power stations, including ITER.

To get more details regarding the funding and next steps to deliver sustainable, clean fusion energy go to: ccfe.ukaea.uk

Source: ccfe.ukaea.uk
Photo: Plasma in the MAST spherical tokamak device - Credit UK Atomic Energy Authority - Credit EUROfusion

Similarly to the cycle of nature, winter is coming also in the field of science. Namely, the cool down of the 140 tons superconducting Toroidal Field magnet has started under the 24/7 supervision of experts announcing the next WEST experimental campaign.

Let's also have a new look on the WEST limiters for the next campaign. Tungsten tiles were switched to 92 boron nitride tiles to investigate midplane impurity sources impact. Boron nitride has attractive thermal properties for a plasma facing material. A tile prototype was successfully tested in mechanical fatigue last June. However, we do not fully know how it is going to behave in a tokamak operation. The first weeks of the coming C5 campaign will be crucial for the future of boron nitride in WEST.

Plasma radiation subject also should not be underestimated since its role in the power balance of plasma scenarios is of significant importance. That is why a global effort to improve tungsten radiation models in view of preparing ITER operation is undertaken.

For more information on the current work on the WEST tokamak go to the newsletter available on: irfm.cea.fr/en

Source: irfm.cea.fr
Photo: WEST Vacuum Vessel; CEA/IRFM - C. Roux

A new Cooperation Agreement between the international ITER fusion project, the Italian Consorzio RFX and EUROfusion will allow European researchers from eight countries to join the Neutral Beam Test Facility in Padua and work on the world's largest plasma heating system.

ITER Director-General Bernard Bigot: "I am very happy to announce the cooperation agreement recently signed between ITER, RFX and EUROfusion. EUROfusion have made a strong commitment to the ITER NBTF by proposing the support of 20 staff to work at the NBTF in Padua and at IPP Garching. For this support, we are very grateful. We are also convinced that with the collaboration of our European partners, and the scientists and engineers in the European laboratories, NBTF will be a success".

The Cooperation Agreement will see up to 14 experts from across Europe to work on the ITER neutral beam heating system at the Neutral Beam Test Facility (NBTF) in Padua, Italy. Another 6 researchers will support NBTF from the ELISA neutral beam facility in Garching, Germany. Intellectual Property derived from the work will be the joint property of all partners involved. As such, this first agreement will serve as a framework for future collaborations between ITER and the European fusion community.

The new project partners include EUROfusion beneficiaries Max Planck IPP (Germany) with its existing but smaller ion source ELISE, CIEMAT (Spain), Consorzio RFX (Italy), INRNE (Bulgaria), EPFL (Switzerland), IST (Portugal), NCBJ (Poland), the University of Ljubljana (Slovenia); and CCFE (UK).

EUROfusion Programme Manager Tony Donné: "The neutral beam systems being developed at NBTF are the first systems being tested for ITER, so our engineers and scientists being involved here is like them already getting experience with the operation of ITER. Such education and training is one of EUROfusion's main pillars as we work on our Roadmap towards fusion power, and we look forward to helping develop this important technology".

About the Neutral Beam Test Facility

Neutral beam injection is one of the main external plasma heating systems planned for ITER; it will deliver over half of all the planned heating power to the plasma. Neutral beam technology heats the plasma by accelerating beams of neutral atoms into the fusion plasma. Although neutral beam injection is routine in many fusion devices, ITER's size requires several enhancements such as much thicker particle beams and increased particle speed to penetrate far into the core of the plasma.

To develop and test the ITER neutral beam injection system, ITER joined forces with the Italian Consorzio RFX. At the NBTF, researchers and engineers built and are testing two full-size prototypes of ITER's future neutral beam system: SPIDER, the most powerful ion source in the world, and MITICA, the full scale prototype of the ITER neutral beam.

RFX director Piergiorgio Sonato: "I'm particularly pleased to welcome our colleagues from other European fusion laboratories to Consorzio RFX here in Padua. I look forward to promoting the implementation of an international NBTF team to support ITER’s success and the design of Europe’s future demonstration fusion power plant DEMO, which will be the first to produce fusion electricity".

About ITER

The ITER fusion experiment is designed to demonstrate the technical feasibility of fusion as a source of safe and practically inexhaustible low-carbon energy. To reach fusion conditions, ITER will need to heat its fuel of hydrogen isotopes into a 150-million-degree-Celsius-plasma. In comparison even the center of the sun only reaches 15 million degrees Celsius.

Source: EUROfusion
Photo: Inside the faraday cage of the SPIDER ion source. Credit © ITER Organization, http://www.iter.org/