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.
Fusion causing a splash in dentistry
Interview with Dr Antonis Sergis, Imperial College London (UK) and former EUROfusion ERG Fellow
2020 Nuclear Fusion journal award to Prof. Christian Theiler
Prof. Christian Theiler received the IAEA’s Nuclear Fusion Journal Award 2020 for his paper presenting ‘Results from recent detachment experiments in alternative divertor configurations on TCV’.
JET defies Covid to post a record-breaking year
The last 12 months has seen scientists and engineers work around the clock to achieve high performance at Europe’s flagship fusion device, the Joint European Torus (JET) at Culham – despite the ongoing challenges posed by the global pandemic.
Expert panel approves next DEMO design phase
From 19 to 25 November 2020, an independent expert panel reviewed EUROfusion’s R&D and design work on DEMO, the future demonstration fusion power plant. EUROfusion welcomes the panel’s recommendations as it moves into the next step of its Roadmap to Fusion Energy: the conceptual design of DEMO together with the European fusion community and industry.