The 2nd JT-60SA International Fusion School (JIFS) took place between 26th August 2024 and 6th September 2024 at the QST Naka-site in Japan. The school jointly organized by EUROfusion and QST with strong collaboration with 5 Japanese universities, various European universities, institutes and Fusion for Energy. It aims to prepare the next generation of fusion physicists and engineers from Japan and Europe (under the EURATOM fusion programme), focusing on:
- Supplementing their training by lectures, group work and site visits, taking advantage of the JT-60SA facility, environment, experiences and data for practical exercises and applications.
- Creating strong connections between Japanese and European students, young professionals and lecturers, who could be involved together in the future operation and exploitation of JT-60SA, ITER and other European fusion devices.
“Fusion is more than just a single, well-bounded academic discipline. It is about international collaboration, cohesion, and integration.”
said Ambrogio Fasoli, the Program Manager of EUROfusion and a university professor at the Swiss Federal School of Technology EPFL, he added,
“The JIFS school is a testimonial of the profound friendship between Europe and Japan, connecting people and cultures that are geographically distant but have many values in common.”
The school takes place every year at the QST Naka-site hosting the JT-60SA tokamak located in the Ibaraki Prefecture in Japan. JT-60SA is the world’s largest tokamak device which started its operation in 2023 in a joint European-Japanese collaboration under the Broader Approach Agreement between the European Commission and the Japanese Government.
Each year a small group of students, 10 from Europe and 10 from Japan, meet with renowned European and Japanese professors for 2-weeks to have advanced lectures, in-depth discussions, visits of the QST facilities (torus hall, control room, plant systems and ITER test facilities) and group exercises using the JT-60SA and European facilities, experience and data.
The topic of the school changes each year covering the physics, engineering, operational and diagnostics aspects of a few dedicated areas. In 2024, the school’s theme was “From JET to JT-60SA” covering the record-breaking operation of the two largest fusion experiments in the world, focusing on the JET deuterium-tritium campaigns and the first commissioning and plasma operation of JT-60SA.
A new element of the school in 2024, the opportunity for students to visit the Japanese and European fusion facilities following the completion of the school. Students visited the QST Rokkasho site hosting the IFERC supercomputer, IFMIF irradiation facility and the Japanese DEMO projects, followed by visits of the LHD stellarator at the NIFS institute in Toki, and the Universities of Tsukuba and Tokyo. The Japanese students will come over to Europe in January 2025, to visit the
- Garching site in Germany to visit the ASDEX-Upgrade and negative ion beam test facilities ELISE and BATMAN-Upgrade as well as talking to experts from the EUROfusion Programme Management Unit, Fusion for Energy and the Max-Planck-Institute for Plasma Physics
- Cadarache site in France to visit ITER and WEST while talking to the ITER Organisation and CEA staff
- The Culham site in the United Kingdom to visit JET and MAST Upgrade as well as discussing with the UKAEA scientists and engineers.
Keep an eye on our announcements because next year there will be the 3rd edition of the JT-60SA International Fusion School and we hope that many more students can enjoy the benefits of this school next time as well.