CHIMERA to transform fusion component testing
A unique machine to test materials for future fusion devices, known as CHIMERA (Combined Heating and Magnetic Research Apparatus), will be located in South Yorkshire, UK at the new Fusion Technology Facility of EUROfusion partner UKAEA.
Can three-ion heating calm fusion plasmas?
In their featured paper in the scientific journal Physics of Plasmas, a team of EUROfusion and US researchers show that there are still new tricks to be discovered when heating fusion plasmas. In addition to boosting the all-important fusion temperature, so-called “three-ion heating” may be able to study and influence processes of great importance to future fusion devices. The paper is making an impact: at the beginning of April, it was downloaded over 1500 times already.
What is all the excitement about?
Advanced computing grants for fusion
The EUROfusion consortium for the realisation of fusion energy has awarded funding for nineteen research projects in theory and advanced simulation to scientists across Europe. The fourteen research projects and five advanced computing hubs selected for the Work Plan 2021-2025 will strengthen understanding and predicting of fusion processes in the European fusion programme.
Hot idea: gold-streaked fusion implosions
Can you boost laser-driven fusion implosions by seeding the fuel with gold? A creative idea from the world of nanoplasmonics fails to take root in solid physics, say inertial fusion experts Dimitri Batani and Vladimir Tikhonchuk at the French University of Bordeaux.
Hollowing out pearls with watchmaker’s tools
Researchers at the fusion institutes NIFS in Japan, CIEMAT in Spain and IPP-Greifswald in Germany have joined forces to learn how performance-reducing impurities diffuse through the hot, charged gas (plasma) in their fusion devices. By shooting tiny pellets with contaminants into the plasma at predetermined locations, they hope to study how these substances migrate and […]
Testing fusion walls for ITER in WEST
Full metal tokamak Due to its high melting point, the dense metal called tungsten (symbol W) is the material of choice for the wall sections in a fusion reactor that have to withstand direct contact with the hot fusion fuel or plasma. Even at its edge, this charged hydrogen gas can reach temperatures of tens […]
From trusting your intuition to strict control
A large international research team brought together under the EUROfusion umbrella has developed a strict measurement and control method to cool of very hot particles escaping from fusion plasmas before they can damage the walls of the experiment. This milestone for fusion research is published in Nature Communications.
Testing fusion materials with a hail of neutrons
Components for the world’s most advanced fusion experiment ITER face years of exposure to thousand-degree heat and particle bombardment (irradiation). How will they withstand those conditions? Seeking answers, the Belgian nuclear research lab SCK CEN tested ITER baseline structural materials like tungsten, copper and steel in a two year regimen of high heat and intense neutron radiation flux.
Winding Europe’s first ITER magnet
Researchers and companies across Europe are creating a new branch of industry as they work to replicate the fusion process at the heart of the Sun and provide safe, low-carbon power to the world. As they create jobs, train skilled workers and create innovative new technologies, this fledgling industry looks to Europe for support along the EUROfusion Roadmap towards fusion electricity. Fusion in Europe spoke with representatives from one of the companies in the new fusion industry.