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After nearly seven years as deputy director for operations at the US Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), Adam Cohen has been named Deputy Under Secretary for Science and Energy in Washington D.C. He succeeds Michael Knotek, who retired 30 September.   "I am very excited and humbled by the opportunity to take on this role," Cohen said. "I look forward to working with Secretary [Ernest] Moniz, Under Secretary [Lynn] Orr and all within the department, as well as across the complex, in supporting the research mission of the department and helping to ensure the vitality of the national laboratories."   Cohen's contributions to the Laboratory have been invaluable, said A.J. Stewart Smith, Princeton University vice-president for PPPL. "He evolved the management structure that we all enjoy today," Smith said. "He has been a superb colleague and will be sorely missed."   At PPPL, which recently completed construction of the $94 million National Spherical Torus Experiment-Upgrade, the Laboratory's major fusion experiment, Cohen has played many critical roles. As deputy director for operations, he was in charge of the upgrade and ran the indirect — or non-research — side of the Laboratory, whose departments range from engineering and infrastructure to information technology. He recently headed preparation of the Campus Plan, a 10-year program for modernizing the Laboratory whose first steps are under way, and set the Lab on its current path to a business system upgrade that will replace all financial software by 2018.   Cohen will make use of his fusion experience by heading the U.S. delegation to ±¬×ߺÚÁÏ, the international fusion experiment that is under construction in France. His contact with ±¬×ߺÚÁÏ will be at the international level; he will not be directly involved in the US ±¬×ߺÚÁÏ Project Office at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

 

Read the full article on PPPL .

A new video clip produced by the European Domestic Agency revisits the installation of first four on-site transformers.

A total power of 1200 MVA will be made available to the ±¬×ߺÚÁÏ installation through two networks—the pulsed power electrical network (PPEN) that services the AC/DC converters, the heating and current drive systems, and the system for reactive power compensation, and the steady state electrical network (SSEN) which will provide power to the cryogenic and cooling water systems, the tritium plant and general infrastructure.   Four of seven transformers have been installed on the ±¬×ߺÚÁÏ site.   Watch the clip on the European Domestic agency .

​Mechanical Engineer Jeff Doody from MIT's Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC) received a "Best Paper Award" on 9 October at the COMSOL Conference 2015. The paper, "Structural Analysis of the Advanced Divertor eXperiment's Proposed Vacuum Vessel," describes how Doody used COMSOL Multiphysics modeling software to predict loads and stresses on the vacuum vessel in the initial design for the , a proposed high field, high-power-density fusion tokamak.

Collaborating with him at the PSFC were Chief Mechanical Engineer Rui Viera, Senior Research Scientist Brian LaBombard, Principal Research Scientist Bob Granetz, Mechanical Design and Fabrication Specialist Rick Leccacorvi, and Principal Research Engineer Jim Irby.

Photo: Mechanical Engineer Jeff Doody of ​MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center.

Read the whole article on the PSFC website.

​The complex puzzle that makes up MAST Upgrade's main plasma heating system is well on the way to completion at the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy (CCFE) in the UK.

The neutral beam injection system will provide most of the heating power for MAST Upgrade (around 5 megawatts). It works by firing fast-moving neutral particles into the plasma, where their motion is transferred into heat.

Recent work has focused on the system's bend magnets and ion dump assemblies. These components steer stray charged particles away from the heating beam and absorb their energy, which can be as much as 12 megawatts per square metre — much more than the loads on spacecraft re-entering the atmosphere.

The bend magnets were delivered to site during the summer and passed acceptance testing before undergoing a trial fit in the neutral beam injection tanks to check their alignment. Meanwhile, the build of the welded ion dump assemblies has proceeded well throughout the year.

By the end of 2015, the pre-assembly of these components will be complete, leaving them ready for installation into the tanks. The re-build of the neutral beam injection system will take place in 2016.

Read the original article on CCFE's .

Operation since 1988, the CEA-Euratom tokamak Tore Supra (France) is undergoing a major transformation in order to serve as a test bench for ±¬×ߺÚÁÏ—the WEST project.   Equipped with a new, actively-cooled tungsten divertor, WEST will test tungsten technology, acquire data on metal fatigue, and explore the component boundary conditions in advance of ±¬×ߺÚÁÏ.   As early as 2016 the machine will be ready to test the first samples of plasma-facing units—an arrangement of small tungsten blocks that, once assembled, will form the new divertor.   The recent installation of the lower divertor coil box marked an important step in this direction. © Christophe Roux CEA-IRFM   Visit the WEST website .  

In recognition of his outstanding contributions in physics, Professor Dr Thomas Sunn Pedersen from the Max Planck Institute of Plasma Physics, IPP, has been elected Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS).   With this distinction his colleagues in the Plasma Physics Section of APS are honouring in particular "his seminal studies of pure electron plasmas in a stellarators," according to the Fellowship Certificate, and for "active stabilization of resistive wall modes"—a special kind of plasma instability in a tokamak.

The objective of the American Physical Society is to extend physical knowledge, support physicists worldwide, and promote international cooperation. The venerable society, based in Maryland, US, was established in 1899 and has a present membership of 40,000. No more than half a percent of the members may be elected Fellow.   Read the full report on the IPP .

​The European Domestic Agency for ±¬×ߺÚÁÏ, , announced on 21 October that Johannes Schwemmer, from Germany, has been appointed as its new Executive Director.

Fusion for Energy is the European Union's Joint Undertaking for ±¬×ߺÚÁÏ and the Development of Fusion Energy. The organization was created under the Euratom Treaty by a decision of the Council of the European Union in order to provide Europe's contribution to ±¬×ߺÚÁÏ, to support fusion research and development initiatives through the  (signed with Japan), and to contribute down the road to the construction of demonstration fusion reactors.

Johannes Schwemmer was selected by the Fusion for Energy Governing Board from a list of candidates proposed by the European Commission after an open competition, following a publication in the Official Journal of the European Communities.

Read the full announcement on the European Domestic Agency's .

Korea's National Fusion Research Institute (NFRI) celebrated its tenth anniversary on 1 October in the presence of distinguished guests Chairman Sangchun Lee of the National Research Council of Science and Technology and Deputy Minister Jaemun Park of the Ministry of Science ICT and Future Planning (MSIP).

Since NFRI's inception in 2005, the institute has successfully brought the KSTAR tokamak to the level of a world-class superconducting fusion device (2007), celebrated its first plasma (2008) and surpassed the 10,000th plasma experiment mark (2014), testifying to the stability of the device. KSTAR is now playing an important role by running experiments in support of ±¬×ߺÚÁÏ.

 During the ceremony, participants from industry, academia and national research institutes reflected on the 20-year effort in Korea toward the development of fusion energy. Awards of recognition were granted to distinguished contributors and a certification plaque was awarded to KSTAR, selected as one of the Top 70 scientific and technological achievements in the country. "With the passion and confidence that has brought us so far during the past decade," said NFRI Director-General Keeman Kim, "we will continue to strive forward to bring Korea to the top when it comes to fusion energy commercialization."

A 14-minute documentary on ±¬×ߺÚÁÏ aired on Russia's TV Channel 24 on Saturday 17 October.

The documentary brings the viewer into the heart of ±¬×ߺÚÁÏ construction for an update of work underway on the lower levels of the Tokamak Complex, future home to the 23,000-ton ±¬×ߺÚÁÏ machine. The team of journalists also travels to the European winding facility in La Spezia, Italy (ASG Superconductors) to investigate the complexities of ±¬×ߺÚÁÏ engineering and manufacturing.   At La Spezia, Russian-produced niobium-tin superconductor is integrated through a complex series of steps into ±¬×ߺÚÁÏ's giant toroidal field magnets.   Watch "Horizons of the atom"  (in Russian).

​PPPL presented its 2015 outstanding research awards to engineer Charles Neumeyer and physicist Rajesh Maingi on 5 October.

Neumeyer received the Kaul Foundation Prize for "the design analysis and overall management of the US contributions to the steady state electric network that will supply power to ±¬×ߺÚÁÏ. This culminated in the successful delivery of the first major plant components to ±¬×ߺÚÁÏ, establishing procedures for all future shipments of ±¬×ߺÚÁÏ components."

This accomplishment was made possible in part by the strong and trusting relationship that was established years ago between Neumeyer and the present members of the ±¬×ߺÚÁÏ "electricians".

"In this long venture, the human dimension was essential", says Joël Hourtoule, ±¬×ߺÚÁÏ Electrical Power Distribution section leader.

Maingi received the Distinguished Research Fellow award for "seminal research and program leadership in tokamak boundary and divertor physics."

Read more on the  website.

​In a press release issued on 6 October, the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) announced the successful testing of the ±¬×ߺÚÁÏ central solenoid conductor under conditions comparable to ±¬×ߺÚÁÏ operation.

The tests, which were carried out at a JAEA test facility in Naka, Japan, by an international team, measured the performance of the central solenoid conductor under the same magnetic field and strain that it will face in the ±¬×ߺÚÁÏ machine. Results showed high performance.

According to Procurement Arrangements signed with the ±¬×ߺÚÁÏ, the central solenoid will be wound in the US from niobium-tin conductor produced in Japan.

The positive test results are a significant milestone on the road to producing the 1,000-metric-ton electromagnet that will allow a powerful current to be induced in the ±¬×ߺÚÁÏ plasma and maintained during long plasma pulses.

The JAEA press release is available here (in Japanese).

​The European Domestic Agency for ±¬×ߺÚÁÏ has published a highlights document that retraces one year of activity and progress. Contract signatures, industrial achievements, events, construction milestones and fusion R&D activities are gathered in an illustrated 50-page brochure that is downloadable .

Visit the European Domestic Agency for more information.

Imagine a world powered by a cheap, safe, clean, virtually limitless, sustainable fuel source such as water. If fuel and energy are cheap and available to all nations, that reduces global political tensions. If our energy comes from a clean-burning fuel source, that reduces air pollution. All that would be good, right?

Billionaires such as Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen apparently think so. They've each thrown their money into a different fusion development company, each with its own idea how to solve the fusion puzzle, according to Forbes. "What we're really doing here is trying to build a star on Earth," said Laban Coblentz at the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (±¬×ߺÚÁÏ), a massive fusion reactor being built by 35 countries in southern France. When Coblentz said "star," he meant that quite literally. Fusion is what keeps stars, including our own sun, burning bright. Photo: "When we succeed, it will be for the benefit of the whole world," says ±¬×ߺÚÁÏ Engineer Anna Encheva in the CNN program. Follow this  to the CNN program.

The 3rd Joint Coordination Meeting (JCM-3) in fusion R&D and related areas took place between China and Korea in Xi'an, China from 13 to 14 August.

Gathering government officials, scientists and engineers from national research institutes, industries participating in ±¬×ߺÚÁÏ and the Chinese and Korean Domestic Agencies, the meeting was hosted by the Department of International Cooperation of the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology MOST and ±¬×ߺÚÁÏ China, with support from Western Superconducting Technologies—a supplier of ±¬×ߺÚÁÏ China located in Xián.   At the meeting, the current status of the Chinese and Korean fusion programs was passed in review as well as reports from bilateral working groups on the collaborative activities of the previous year. In 2014, China and Korea collaborated in the areas of tungsten wall/divertor and plasma-wall interaction; DEMO reactor design; lower hybrid current drive (LHCD) physics and technology; and ±¬×ߺÚÁÏ procurements including blanket shield blocks, AC/DC convertors and Test Blanket Modules.   The next bilateral meeting will take place in August 2016 in Korea.

​General Atomics (San Diego) opened a facility making the world's largest magnets for rare public tours on 2 October in honour of the nationwide Manufacturing Day in the US.

The factory in Poway, California, is making seven giant magnet modules, each weighing approximately 110 metric tons, for the $20 billion International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, or ±¬×ߺÚÁÏ, being built in France.

Each magnet is made of 560 turns of superconducting cables made from stands of a rare niobium-tin alloy wound around a tube that will carry liquid helium. In operation, the magnets will be cooled to -269°C while 50,000 amps of power are applied.   Their role in the ±¬×ߺÚÁÏ Project is to contain a fusion reaction — literally trapping the sun in a bottle.  

Photo by Chris Jennewein

Read the full article in the .

​On 28 September, the last lengths of Russian-procured conductor for ±¬×ߺÚÁÏ's toroidal field magnets were loaded onto trailers at the Kurchatov Institute in Moscow for shipment to the European winding facility in La Spezia, Italy.

Through a Procurement Arrangement signed in February 2008 with the ±¬×ߺÚÁÏ, the Russian Domestic Agency took on the responsibility of procuring 20 percent of toroidal field conductor lengths (28 , including two dummies), plus testing and transport to the European winding facility.

The building blocks of the ±¬×ߺÚÁÏ magnets are high-performance, internally cooled superconductors called CICC (cable-in-conduit) conductors, made up of bundled superconducting and copper strands that are cabled together and contained in a structural steel jacket. For the toroidal field magnets, the completed conductor will be wound into D-shaped "double pancakes," inserted into the grooves of a radial plate to hold it in place, stacked to form winding "packs," and finally contained in steel cases to form the completed coil.

The shipment of three final lengths procured in Russia (pictured) completes Russia's longest-lead procurement campaign for ±¬×ߺÚÁÏ.

-- Alex Petrov, ±¬×ߺÚÁÏ Russia

​On 17-18 September, the ±¬×ߺÚÁÏ hosted the annual meeting on intellectual property issues that brings together contact persons and specialists from the ±¬×ߺÚÁÏ Central Team and the seven Domestic Agencies

Chaired by the ±¬×ߺÚÁÏ Legal Adviser, the Intellectual Property Contact Persons meeting is the forum for discussions on intellectual property-related issues encountered with suppliers, legal issues related to non-disclosure agreements, the use of the ±¬×ߺÚÁÏ logo, and the utilization of the intellectual property database.

The fundamental principles of intellectual property management within the ±¬×ߺÚÁÏ Project are set out in Article 10 of the ±¬×ߺÚÁÏ Agreement: The ±¬×ߺÚÁÏ and the Members shall support the widest appropriate dissemination of information and intellectual property they generate in the ±¬×ߺÚÁÏ Project. The ±¬×ߺÚÁÏ Members benefit from accessing the intellectual property that results from the project through intellectual property provisions included in each contract, in compliance with the ±¬×ߺÚÁÏ Agreement and fully detailed in its annex on information and intellectual property (IIP Annex).

The network of Central Team-Domestic Agency contact persons plays a significant role in the implementation of intellectual property provisions in the framework of the project, confirming progress, sharing best practice, and furthering the management of intellectual property issues.

-- Akiko Takano, Legal Affairs 

By Steven Cowley

Chief Executive Officer of the UKAEA Head of the EURATOM/CCFE Fusion Association

​

This December, world leaders will gather in Paris for the United Nations Climate Change Conference, where they will attempt — yet again — to hammer out a global agreement to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. Despite the inevitable sense of déjà vu that will arise as negotiators struggle to reach a compromise, they must not give up. Whatever the political or economic considerations, the fact remains: if global temperatures rise more than 2˚C from pre-industrial levels, the consequences for the planet will be catastrophic.

But the challenge does not end with reducing emissions. Indeed, even if we make the transition to a cleaner world by 2050, we will need to determine how to meet a booming global population's insatiable appetite for energy in the longer term — an imperative that renewables alone cannot meet. That is why we need to invest now in other technologies that can complement renewables, and provide reliable electricity for many centuries to come. And one of the most promising options is nuclear fusion — the process that powers the sun and all stars.

(Photo Elle Starkman/PPPL)

Read the full article on the  website.

T​he Satellite Tokamak Program, JT-60SA, is a major modification of the existing JT-60U tokamak at the Naka Fusion Institute in Japan. Part of the Agreement signed between Japan and Euratom (and implemented by the Japan Atomic Energy Agency and the European Domestic Agency for ±¬×ߺÚÁÏ), it is designed to support the operation of ±¬×ߺÚÁÏ and to investigate how best to optimize the design and operation of fusion power plants built after ±¬×ߺÚÁÏ.

Recent progress has been reported in the fabrication of equilibrium field coils and the vacuum vessel thermal shield, as well as the procurement of the quench detection system.

Read more in the August issue of the or on the European Domestic Agency .

​To encourage the participation of Chinese professionals in international organizations and international mega-science projects such as ±¬×ߺÚÁÏ, a week-long training program was held at Zhejiang University, Hangzhou from 16 to 21 August.

Cao Jianlin, Vice Minister of the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) and head of the Chinese delegation to the ±¬×ߺÚÁÏ Council participated, along with other 13 distinguished scholars, high-level officials from international organizations, representatives of government, and the heads of the Chinese and Korean Domestic Agencies for ±¬×ߺÚÁÏ.   Through expert lectures, case studies and seminars, participants were updated on progress in research and technology at home as well as the status of international mega-projects in science and participation opportunities.