newsletter
newsletter
Vol 2004 / 2
April 5, 2004

E UROPEAN F USION DEVELOPEMENT AGREEMENT

News
Issued by the EFDA
Close Support Unit
Garching

Reinforcing JET capability to prepare ITER operation
After the most demanding operation period in the JET history with 3717 pulses and a Trace
Tritium Experiment in 2003, a 12 months maintenance period started on 6th March 2004, aiming
at reinforcing to the capability of JET to prepare ITER operation. The heating power will approach
40 MW, in particular with the installation of an ITER-like ICRH antenna. The geometry of the divertor will be modified to allow greater flexibility in plasma configurations, in particular in producing
high-triangularity ITER-like scenarios at higher plasma current, i.e. closer to ITER plasma regimes.
Finally, a new set of diagnostics will come into operation designed to address a number of crucial
phenomena for ITER operation, from the physics of the power handling to the tritium retention.

Contents.
.
.
.

Interview:
Prof. N. Nakićenović
page 2/3
ITER:
EU Vertical Target
Full-scale Prototype
page 4/5
Associations:
RFX Re-opening
page 5JET:
International
Collaboration
page 6/7.
.

Events:23rd SOFT Conference
page 7
EIROforum:
Serving European
Sciencepage 8

http://www.efda.org

ITER Competitiveness Council
At the press conference after the Council of Ministers meeting on the March 11, 2004,
Commissioner Philippe Busquin commented that “Europe is the world leader on fusion; our candidature is the best,” when asked about the progress on the ITER negotiations. His statement was
supported by the Irish government, who currently holds the rotating EU presidency, and the French
research minister Claudie Haigneré who underlined the importance of ITER for maintaining thecompetences of the European fusion scientific community. ITER in Europe will contribute to thedrive of establishing Europe as a knowledge based economy providing the best environment foryoung researchers.

EFDA Fusion Newsletter

page 2

Interview
Future energy perspectives - How to cope with the uncertainty?
EFDA Newsletter (EN): Past warnings that the world will soon “run out of oil” have been
compared with Æsop’s* fable of the shepherd’s boy who cried, “Wolf!”. To date, thewarnings – as in the fable - have proven to be unfounded. But in your opinion willtechnology advance rapidly enough to extend oil resources and facilitate a smoothtransition to other energy sources?

Prof. Nebojša Nakićenović
is project leader forTransitions to New
Technologies (TNT) at theInternational Institute forApplied Systems Analysis(IIASA) in Laxenburg andProfessor of Energy
Economics at Vienna
University of Technology(Austria).

Find a short CV of
Prof. Nakićenović on our
Website:http://www.efda.org

N. Nakićenović (NN): Definitely yes. One has to distinguish between reserves and resources.
Most of the concern has been about reserves, which are usually defined as the amount ofoil that can be extracted with the current knowledge, technology and costs. That amountlasts historically 40 to 50 years. The other concept, the resources, is where there is a lot ofconfusion. The resources are much larger but they have either not been discovered, justinferred, or too expensive to extract them or we simply don’t have the technology. Over theyears there has been a transfer from resources to reserves, this is why we have always
had a limited amount of oil reserves. Indeed the current reserves will run out by the middleof the century, but they will be replenished with what we currently don’t consider to bereserves, either conventional or unconventional resources. Another big future option isnatural gas and other energy gases that might be produced from non-fossils. Gas is much
more abundant than oil, and doesn’t cause as many environmental problems.
EN: The impression nowadays is that the problem of the limited resources is secondary to
the environmental issue. Do you share this idea?
NN: Absolutely. I think if the question was asked “what’s the ultimate limitation to energyuse?”, my answer today is: generally of course technological change, but the ultimate
limitation are the planetary processes. Humanity is already influencing planetary processes and energy is a big part of that equation – carbon dioxide emissions and climatechange is the ultimate limit, not how much energy we can extract. Paul J. Crutzen, who
won the Nobel prize in Chemistry in 1995, suggested to call this period in the evolution ofearth “Anthropocene” to characterise this immense influence of humanity on the planet
itself and on the planetary processes and systems. So the environment and the limitationsof our planet are indeed the major obstacle to further increase the energy use as we have
known it historically.
EN: Do you think that a complete switch out of fossil fuels will happen before they run out?
NN: Generally we switch to new technologies because they provide new opportunities, havecharacteristics that the society needs, not because they physically run out. Important reasonsare climate and environment and the need for a very much larger concentration of energy.
EN: These days, most “shepherd’s boys” follow the principle “The best way to predict the
future is to invent it”. What can you predict for the world’s future energy supply from theviewpoint of your TNT project?

*Æsop: Greek writer,
lived around 620 – 560 BC
Find the fable on:
http://www.pacificnet.net/~johnr/cgi/aesop1.cgi?sel&TheShep
herdsBoyandtheWolf

NN: We really cannot ‘predict’ future energy use, we ‘invent’ it through scientific scenario
analysis. One of the major challenges in energy is that 2 billion people today do not haveaccess to modern energy services and there will be more people in the world, so we haveto at least double, triple or quadruple energy service, let’s say over the next century. From
my point of view a scenario that would be interesting is timely provision of adequate
energy services and affordable ones, without adversely affecting human life and protecting
the environment. I think there will be three sets of technologies for that. The most important one from current perspectives and economically most attractive is actually improving
energy efficiency and rational use of energy. The second option is shifting to non-carbon
energy sources, away from fossils. And the third set of options are to remove carbon fromthe fossil fuels and hydrocarbons, that means carbon separation, either prior to combustion
or conversion, or post combustion. We already have technologies for that, for example
separation of CO2 from energy gases, such as natural gas or synthesis gas, that could be
generated from coal through steam reforming and a shift reaction resulting in productionof hydrogen as a clean energy xcarrier. Another option is to remove carbon after electricity
is produced from power plants.

EFDA Fusion Newsletter

page 3In both cases you have to store carbon over geological times, for example in the deep
underground saline aquifers or depleted oil and gas fields.
EN: What can you say for the future energy supply for developing countries such as India or
China, where 2/3 of world’s population live?
NN: I would call the challenge facing China and India “leapfrogging challenge”, like whenchildren jump over each other. Both will need to adopt most modern technologies, rather
than repeat our development paths. So the type of technology I was talking about would
be suitable also for China and India, but they will need large grids and networks to transport electric power in the order of 20 GW per year over the next decades. Infrastructure
investment in large energy systems that would be based on clean fossils and renewables
and nuclear – both fission and fusion – are the options for those countries as for the restof the world.
EN: In your book “Global Energy Perspectives” *, you identify six alternative long-term energy
issues, which all require substantial early investments. In your opinion which of theseshould be developed with most urgency to avoid the “wolf” arriving at the door?

Find more information on:
http://www.iiasa.ac.at/and the TNT website on
http://www.iiasa.ac.at/Research/TNT/index.html?sb=1

You would like more
information on energy?
Visit the homepage of theEnergy Economics Groupof Vienna University ofTechnology on:
http://www.eeg.tuwien.ac.at/

Source: IIASA 2001

NN: One of the urgent needs in the developing countries is – and I think we are not addressing this enough – to replace the traditional energy use like biomass, used in inefficientcooking stoves, bymodern energy use,
Factors of Growth: The Last 200 Years
because this inhibits
development and
1800
2000
factorWorld population,
1
6
X6
because women andbillionchildren suffer from theLife expectancy,
35
75
X2
resulting indoor air polluyears
tion. This usually doesn’t
Work hours per
3,000
1,500
÷2
require enormous investyear
Free time over life
70,000300,000
X4
ments, but quite a lot of
Mobility, km/day
0.04
40
X 1000capacity building, educa(excl. walk)tion and experience.
World income,
0.5
36
X 70
Many of the renewable
trillion $Global energy
0.3
10
X 35
technologies can help inuse, Gtoea decentralized manner.
Carbon, energy,
0.3
6
X 22
At the global level, also
GtC
in the industrialized
Carbon, all
0.8
8
X 10
sources, GtC
countries, I think number
one priority is to increase
investment in bothresearch and deployment of new technologies and infrastructures, and also in reliability
and security of the energy system.

IIASA is a non-governmental research organizationand conducts inter-disciplinary scientific studies onenvironmental, economic,
technological and social
issues in the context ofhuman dimensions ofglobal change.

EN: In the fable, the wolf finally did appear, but townspeople, assumed yet another false
alarm and failed to respond to the real danger leaving the sheep to be devoured. How will
your TNT case studies help technology to transform society to stay sensitive to warnings,
while responding to the needs of the developing countries?
NN: Along these lines our interest in TNT is to get a slightly better grasp on both how much
we can expect to increase widespread diffusion of new and advanced technologies in particular in developing countries, and also come to get to grips with the enormous uncertainty in technological change. We can’t predict which of the technologies will be successful.
But the question is: how to cope with uncertainty? We need to make sure that we havesufficient investment in new technologies that some of them, if successful, will actually beable to diffuse.
Interview: D. Lutz-Lanzinger* Global Energy Perspectives,edited by
N. Nakićenović et. al.,Cambridge University Press(1998)
Price: about $45.00
ISBN 0 521 64200 0 hardback
ISBN 0 521 64569 7 paperback

EFDA Fusion Newsletter

page 4ITER
The main function of the
ITER divertor is toexhaust the major part of
the alpha particles power
as well as helium and impurities from the plasma.
The divertor must toleratehigh heat loads and contribute in providing neutron
shielding for the vacuum
vessel and magnet coils.
Most of the plasma-facing
surface has tungsten
armour whereas carbon
fibre reinforced carbon isenvisaged for the strike
point area.

EU Vertical Target Full-Scale Prototype performs above ITER Requirements
A significant R&D effort was carried out by EU Associations and Industries during the
ITER EDA (Engineering Design Activities) period to develop suitable technologies for highheat flux components. This joint effort culminated in the successful manufacturing and testing of a medium-scale vertical target prototype. On the basis of this experience, the manufacturing of a near full-scale prototype was then launched and completed during the ITERCTA (Coordinated Technical Activities) period. The high heat flux parts of this component
were fabricated by the Austrian company Plansee and the steel supporting structure andthe final integration of the high heat flux parts onto it were carried out by the Italian company Ansaldo Ricerche.
The prototype consists of four units having a full monoblock geometry, obtained bydrilling a hole into each plasma facing tile (the “armour”). The cooling tube is then inserted
and the parts are joined. The lower part of the prototype has a carbon fibre reinforcedcarbon (CFC) armour, grade NB31, supplied by the French company Snecma Propulsion
Solide. This composite material is the outcome of an extensive R&D effort carried out by
EFDA aimed at developing suitable CFC materials with a three-directional fibre structure, ahigh thermal conductivity, and an appropriate balance of the mechanical properties. The
upper part of the prototype has a tungsten armour, as required by the ITER design. The
main critical issues were:• the large thermal expansion mismatch between the armour and the cooling tube
made of copper alloy CuCrZr;• the requirement for two different armour materials on the same component; and• the preservation of the thermo-mechanical properties of the CuCrZr during thewhole process.

Tungsten

Austenitic steel

Graphitecomposite

Copper / Steeltube joint

The joint interface-stress between the armour and the heat sink was mitigated by the introduction of a thin (1-2 mm) pure copper (Cu) interlayer. The development of the CFC/Cu joint
was one of the most challenging R&D efforts carried out within the divertor area. “Active Metal Casting”, developed byPlansee, which involves casting Cu onto the CFC surface,
was used to obtain this joint. The CFC is first “structured” by alaser beam to improve the joint strength, and the surface isthen “activated” to facilitate wetting. The Cu/CuCrZr joint was
accomplished using a so-called “low temperature” hot isostatic pressing technique also developed by Plansee. Solution
annealed, water quenched CuCrZr is used as a starting point
for the manufacturing process. Both the joining of the CuCrZr
onto the Cu and its required “ageing” is combined into one
single step carried out at 550 °C.
The full-scale prototype was tested in the high heat-flux
FE200 electron beam facility at Le Creusot in France. The
CFC part was successfully tested up to 1000 cycles at 20
MWm-2 followed by an additional 1000 cycles at 23 MWm-2.
This is well beyond the ITER design target of 300 cycles at 20
MWm-2. The W monoblock section endured up to 1000 cycles
at 10 MWm-2 of absorbed heat flux (that is about half of theactual incident heat flux). This value is one order of magnitude
higher than the ITER design target for the upper part of the
ITER vertical target.
“The manufacturing of this worldwide unique component
and the achieved results are the reward for several years ofdedicated effort by EU Associations and Industries.”, said
Mario Merola, Responsible Officer for divertor technology at
EFDA-CSU Garching (Germany). “It clearly demonstrates that
the EU already possesses the technologies to contribute topage 5EFDA Fusion Newsletterthe most critical components of the ITER divertor.” However, these results, while certainly
encouraging, cannot represent the end of the story. Work still needs to be done to bridge
the gap between the demonstrated capabilities at the prototypical level and the requiredseries production for ITER. Important issues needs to be addressed, such as the definitionof practical “acceptance criteria” for the manufacturing of these plasma-facing components,
the development of suitable repairing procedures in order not to have to scrap all flawed
components during manufacture, the integration of diagnostics into these delicate parts, aswell as their final assembly onto the cassette body. “We at EFDA are eagerly awaiting the
day ITER becomes a reality and we can put into practice all the knowledge and experiencethat we have gained in the past years”, said Merola.

Associations

FE200 is a high heat flux
testing facility located at
Le Creusot (France) andis operated by AREVA Framatome ANP and
Association Euratom-CEA
Cadarache. It is used tosimulate the cyclic thermalloads, which act on theplasma-facing components
of a fusion reactor. The
heat flux is obtained by a
200 kW electron beam
gun and can be varied
over a wide range of pulse
durations and power
densities.

Re-opening of the RFX facility
On 6 November 2003 the ceremony for the re-opening of the RFX facility took place in
Padova (Italy), upon conclusion of its reconstruction.
The opening was attended by the Major of Padova City, Mrs. G. Destro, the Presidentof Confindustria Veneto (the regional industrial federation) Dr. L. Rossi Luciani, as well as
by cultural and industrial representatives.
Introductory remarks were given by the partners of Consorzio RFX (CNR, ENEA andUniversità di Padova), represented by the Commissioner of CNR, Prof. A. De Maio, theRector of the Padova University, Prof. V. Milanesi, and by the Director of ENEA UTS Fusion,
Dr. M. Samuelli. Euratom was represented by the EFDA Associate Leader for Technology,
Dr. R. Andreani.
Prof. F. Gnesotto, Head of the Padova Research Unit and Director of Consorzio RFX, presented the most significant technological aspects of the new facility and the modified machine,
together with the key elements of the scientific programme to be performed on RFX.
Prof. G. Rostagni, President of Consorzio RFX, described the reconstruction with its
difficulties and successes and in particular stressed the dedicated commitment of the whole
research team and the industries involved.
Thanks to their effort, the future for RFX
now offers more operational flexibility.
Collaboration between industry andresearch was the theme of the presentations that followed; in particular the importance of a strategy towards a greater synergy among research, industry and economy was emphasised by Prof. De Maio.
On visiting the new facility, the participants to the event could appreciate theresults of the activity undertaken by the
RFX team who, after the fire of December
1999, promptly reacted with strong determination.
The event was an opportunity to thankthose who gave their contribution to thesuccess of the reconstruction and improvement of the RFX device.

Re-opening of the RFX facility:
Prof. A. De Maio and Prof. G. Rostagni

For more information see:
http://www.igi.cnr.it

EFDA Fusion Newsletter

page 6

JET
International collaboration brings a taste of ITER to JET
In 2003 collaborations
were established between
EFDA-JET and two newinternational partners, theRussian Federation and
the People’s Republic ofChina while collaboration
with long-standing international partners US andJapan continued in fullswing.

As many as 12 Russian scientists visited EFDA-JET during the last quarter of2003.They installed hardware on the JET machine, worked on software development andparticipated in experiments. One of the areas they concentrated on was the detection ofneutrons, which are born in fusion reactions, and then escape from the plasma, carrying
valuable information about conditions inside the plasma. JET is already equipped withseveral neutron detection systems, and the goal of the collaboration with the RussianFederation in this area was twofold: to make faster measurements so that the effect ofvarious fast events in the plasma on the fusion reaction rate could be studied, and to test acompact neutron detection system. Other aspects addressed in the collaboration included
improvement of a system to measure tritium concentration with improved sensitivity, and to
study plasma flows and energy transport. The success of this work has led to proposals forfurther collaboration which will be reviewed in May 2004.
In the first collaboration with the People’s Republic of China, a Chinese scientist visited
JET for 3 months during September 2003 – February 2004 bringing expertise on mechanisms for electron heat transport in JET plasmas dominated by electron heating. Further
visits by Chinese scientists to EFDA-JET are under discussion.

Projected fusion performance

JET
DIII-D
15

10

5

0
0

JG03.719-7c

20Collaboration with the US and Japan in 2003 focussed on ‘joint experiments’ which havethe potential to uncover new physics via co-ordinated studies spanning the combined operating space of participating tokamaks. 28 such experiments have been selected by leadersof large fusion facilities for execution in 2004. 50% of personnel assignments between the
EU, US and Japan under a major collaboration agreement are now associated with such
experiments. The scientific areas covered correspond to those identified as having highpriority for research because theresults could refine the ITER
design. In the area of confinement
physics, one such joint experimentshows that plasma performance(proportional to fusion gain)increases faster with increasing β(proportional to plasma pressure)than predicted by the scaling law
used in the ITER design (seefigure). The experiments were
performed using the ITER plasma
shape in the two participating
tokamaks, DIII-D and JET, which
ITER shapediffer in linear dimensions by
and parameters
Conventional
almost a factor of 2. Bothare utilizedmachines confirmed the moreprediction
favourable dependence on β,
leading to high confidence in thevalidity of the result.

1

2

3

βN
Results from joint experiments on JET and DIII-D showing that fusion performance (proportional
to fusion gain) increases with β (proportional to plasma pressure) more rapidly than the conventional prediction used for the design of ITER. This will be studied in more detail in 2005.

The US is also collaborating infour important activities under abilateral agreement between
EURATOM and the USDoE.
These include three of the 16
diagnostic enhancements which

EFDA Fusion Newsletter

page 7will be installed on JET this year and used in the Experimental Campaigns of 2005. These
three diagnostics are: a system to detect and characterise the loss of fast particles from theplasma (including fusion-born α-particles) and particles accelerated to high energy by ion
cyclotron resonance heating; an upgraded system for improved measurements of the ion
temperature profile, plasma rotation and plasma purity, with higher sensitivity , and a highresolution system with broad coverage for improved electron temperature and density
measurements to study barriers to energy transport in the core and the edge. The US
contribution includes hardware design and procurement, and system commissioning. The
fourth activity involves tests of a high-power prototype radio-frequency antenna, aiming at
long-pulse operation at high voltage. This test is providing extremely valuable input to thedevelopment of an antenna based on the ITER design, which will be tested on JET.

Events23rd SOFT: from Helsinki to Venice
The traditional appointment with the biennial Symposium on Fusion Technology conference comes this year to Italy.
The 23rd SOFT will be held in Venice, from 20 to 24 September 2004, in the Giorgio Cini
Foundation, on San Giorgio island, just in front of San Marco square. A truly wonderfulvenue for this event.
Responsible for the conference organization is Consorzio RFX, the Padova Research
unit of the Euratom-ENEA Association.
Scientists and engineers will meet to exchange information on design, construction andoperation of fusion experiments and on the technology for present fusion machines, thenext step and power plants. Industry will participate as well through an industrial exhibition,
to present the issues and results of their collaboration to fusion research. An R&D exhibition will be devoted to the presentation of the activities in the European Associations.
The very special venue shall help focusing the media attention to fusion as an importantand eco-compatible energy source compatible with a sustainable development, speciallywith the expected decision on ITER construction.

Conference Guide 2004
M ay 24 - 28

16 th In ter national

Portland, M A (US)

Confer ence o n
Plasm a Su rfac eIntera ctions (P SI)
Jun e 2 8 – J uly 2

Septe mber 2 0 - 24

31 st E PS C onfe rence

Lond on (UK)on C ontro lled Fusion

http ://ww w.mpq.mpg.de /BP IF/Lo ndon-a nd- bey ond.htm land Plasm a Phys ics

http ://g ro ups .iop.or g/PP/ E PS. htm l

23 rd Sym pos ium o n

Venice (Ita ly)

Fus ion Tec hnology

http ://soft2004.igi .cnr .it/Re gistra tio n.htm l(SOF T)
N ovem ber 1 - 6

20 th IA EA Fusion

V ilamoura (P ort ugal)

Energ y Co nf erence

http ://ww w.cfn .ist.utl.pt/20IA EA Conf/An nouncem ent.htm

23rd SOFT information:
http://soft2004.igi.cnr.it

E-mail: soft2004@igi.cnr.it

EFDA Fusion Newsletter

page 8EIROforum

Serving European Science
When seven leading European Intergovernmental Research Organizations (EIRO)
decide to merge their forces for strengthening European science, it is indeed a major
positive event for Europe. Their expertise in running world leading facilities in the fieldsof space, astronomy, biology, energy, particles physics, neutronics and radiation supports Europe’s competitiveness in research.
The seven EIROs are world leaders within their respective field of science and theirnames are well known all around the world: the European Organization for Nuclear
Research (CERN), the European Fusion Development Agreement (EFDA), theEuropean Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), the European Space Agency (ESA),the European Southern Observatory (ESO), the European Synchrotron Radiation
Facility (ESRF), the Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL).
These seven member organisations constitute the vanguard of European science,
enabling European scientists to engage in truly cutting-edge research and be competitive on a global scale.
A primary goal of EIROforum
is to play an active and constructive role in promoting the quality
and
impactofEuropeanresearch. In particular the groupmobilises its substantial combined expertise in basic researchand in the management of large
international infrastructures, facilities and programmes, for the
benefit of European researchand development. Furthermore
EIROforum has developed asuite of educational programmes
and public outreach activities,
often in collaboration with theEuropean Commission, and carried out by the Communication
Physics demonstration at the Physics on Stage 3 festival
and Education departments ofthe partner organisations. Working in close dialogue both with the European
Commission and national institutions, the EIROforum member organisations play a vitalrole in forging collaborations on a continental scale.
EIROforum is the main engine behind important initiatives such as Physics onStage, a festival gathering each year about 400 teachers from 23 European countries.
In such events the member organizations promote the exchange of information among
educators, new teaching methods and tools and give a direct access to the cutting-edge
research which is carried out daily in their laboratories. The words of EU Commissioner
P. Busquin properly summarise the aims of EIROforum and its role in the European
society: “EIROforum, in collaboration with the European Commission, will play a decisive role in promoting the quality and consistency of European research.”

EFDA Close Support Unit - Garching
Boltzmannstr. 2
D-85748 Garching / Munich - Germany
phone: +49-89-3299-4237
fax: +49-89-3299-4197
e-mail: federico.casci@efda.org
editors: Federico Casci, Doris Lutz-Lanzinger
graphic design: Karen Jens

Find more information on:
http://www.eiroforum.org
http://www.physicsonstage.net
http://www.cern.ch
http://www.embl.de
http://www.esa.int
http://www.eso.org
http://www.esrf.fr
http://www.ill.fr

The 2005 World Year of
Physics:
http://www.wyp2005.org

Meet EIROforum at the following forthcoming events:• EuroScience Open
Forum (Stockholm,
August 2004)• European Science andTechnology Week
(November 2004)• Science on Stage(Spring 2005)
and all throughout 2005 for
the World Year of Physics.

For more information
see our EFDA website:
http://www.efda.org

and additionally
http://www.jet.efda.org
http://www.iter.org© M.Q. Tran (EFDA Leader) 2004.
This internal newsletter or parts of it may not be reproduced without permission.
Text, pictures and layout, except where noted, courtesy of the EFDA Parties.
The EFDA Parties are the European Commission and the Associates of the European
Fusion Programme which is co-ordinated and managed by the Commission.
Neither the Commission, the Associates nor anyone acting on their behalf is responsible
for any damage resulting from the use of information contained in this publication.