Fusion energy holds the promise of providing safe, sustainable and low-carbon base-load energy that complements other energy sources like solar and wind. The fusion process uses abundant materials like deuterium from seawater and lithium and works by combining hydrogen atoms into helium like in the heart of the Sun.
EUROfusion is the largest consortium of fusion researchers in the world. Together, its 30 member institutes and 150 affiliated universities and companies work to advance the field by executing scientific research and technological development along the European Research Roadmap to the Realisation of Fusion Energy.
Understanding and predicting fusion experiments
To further advance the understanding and predictive capabilities of computer models for the EUROfusion experimental fusion devices, the EUROfusion Theory and Advanced Simulation Coordination (E-TASC) stimulates a modern advanced computing approach to fusion research. This benefits modelling of existing EUROfusion devices, as well as the international ITER fusion experiment, the joint Japanese-European fusion device JT-60SA and the design of the future demonstration fusion power plant DEMO.
E-TASC activities are closely linked to new Advanced Computing Hubs (ACH), which are centres of excellence in specific fields of scientific modelling. Feeding into the ACHs are Theory, Simulation, Validation and Verification tasks (TCVV) that perform fundamental research and channel science and engineering breakthroughs into standards for EUROfusion software development. All these activities are driven by the fusion R&D community and are supported by industrial partners through hardware being made available. The coherent E-TASC activities put more emphasis on developing computational models that help to extrapolate experimental findings on present fusion devices to predictions for future fusion devices like ITER and DEMO.
Granted projects
In its meeting on March 3rd, the General Assembly of EUROfusion awarded funding for five ACH proposals and fourteen TSVV tasks in the Work Plan 2021-2025. These decisions were made on the basis of the advice from the E-TASC Scientific Board and from five independent experts from outside EUROfusion.
EUROfusion will invest a total of € 59.8 million in these projects, of which € 32 million comes as a national contribution from the consortium members.
The granted projects are:
Advanced Computing Hubs
(5 projects granted for a total value of € 15.4 million, of which € 9.8 million in contribution from the consortium)
- CIEMAT (ES) – principal investigator Mervi Mantsinen
- EPFL (CH) – principal investigator Paolo Ricci
- IPPLM (PL) – principal investigator Marcin Plociennik
- IPP (DE) – principal investigator Roman Hatzky
- VTT (FI) – principal investigator Fredric Granberg
Theory, Simulation, Validation and Verification tasks
(14 projects granted for a total value of € 44.4 million, of which € 22.2 million in contribution from the consortium)
- Dynamics of Runaway Electrons in Tokamak Disruptions
Eric Nardon, CEA (FR) - European boundary plasma modelling towards reactor relevant simulations
Patrick Tamain, CEA (FR) - Impurity Sources, Transport, and Screening
Guido Ciraolo, CEA (FR) - Integrated Modelling of Transient MHD Events
Matthias Hölzl, IPP (DE) - Multi-Fidelity Systems Code for DEMO
James Morris, CCFE (UK) - Neutral Gas Dynamics in the Edge
Dmitriy Borodin, FZJ (DE) - Physics of Burning Plasmas
Oleksiy Mishchenko, IPP (DE) - Physics of the L-H Transition and Pedestals
Tobias Görler, IPP (DE) - Physics Properties of Strongly Shaped Configurations
Justin Ball, EPFL (CH) - Plasma Particle/Heat Exhaust: Gyrokinetic/Kinetic Edge Codes
Daniel Told, IPP (DE) - Plasma-Wall Interaction in DEMO
Dmitry Matveev, FZJ (DE) - Stellarator Optimization
Per Helander IPP (DE) - Stellarator Turbulence Simulation
Jose Manuel Garcia Regana, CIEMAT (ES) - Validated frameworks for the Reliable Prediction of Plasma Performance
Clarisse Bourdelle, CEA (FR)
About EUROfusion
EUROfusion is a consortium of 30 research organisations, and behind them about 150 affiliated entities including universities and companies, from 25 European Union member states plus the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Ukraine. Members receive funding for fusion projects in accordance with the European Research Roadmap to the Realisation of Fusion Energy.
The EUROfusion programme has two aims: preparing for ITER experiments and developing concepts for the future European demonstration fusion power plant DEMO. Another facet of the EUROfusion programme is to support diverse research projects in participating laboratories through the Enabling Research scheme.