newsletter
newsletter
E UROPEAN F USION DEVELOPEMENT AGREEMENT

Foreword
Issued by the EFDA
Close Support Unit
Garching

Content

.
.
.
.
.
.

ITER Negotiations
and Site Studies
page 2Highlights on JET
page 3ITER Scenarios in JET
page 3 - 4

The preparation of ITER operating scenarios on JET and other European devices is
proceeding vigorously: during the EFDA-JET 2000-2001 experimental programme thelongest internal transport barriers to be produced in a tokamak so far were observed,
and three promising H-mode operational scenarios have also been developed for application on ITER.
News from the European ITER Site Study Group and the Cadarache ITER siting
team: in November 2001 the first step of their studies in Cadarache was completed,concluding that this site would fully satisfy the requirements of ITER. The team has
now launched the second step, the preparation of a possible licensing process. The
construction of ITER also got a ringing endorsement from a high level expert group,
appointed by the EU Council of Ministers to examine the possibility for a fast track tofusion energy production.

News

Fusion Budget in the 6th EU Research Framework Programme 2002-2006
On 10 December 2001 the EU Council of Ministers reached an agreement inBrussels on the budget for the 6th Research Framework Programme, allocating EURO750 million to controlled thermonuclear fusion in the EURATOM Framework
Programme. The final agreement is expected later this year.
For more details check the Website of the Council of the European Union:
http://ue.eu.int/newsroom/main.cfm?LANG=1

Full Set of Divertor Prototypes made in Europe
Associations
page 4 - 6
Women in Science
page 7
EFDA at AOG Expo 2001
page 8During the ITER EDA (Engineering Design Activities) and CTA (CoordinatedTechnical Activities) Europe has developed an extensive R&D programme which included the manufacturing of a complete set of full-scale prototypes for each divertor component. To mark the occasion a special event was held on 16 January 2002, an "EU
Divertor Celebration Day", which was organized at Plansee AG, Reutte, Austria. Fullcoverage of the event will be reported in the next EFDA Newsletter.

A fast Track for fusion

http://www.efda.org

At the end of 2001, the EU Council of Ministers requested that a group of experts,
chaired by Prof. David King, Chief Scientific Advisor to the UK Government, be set up
to examine the possibility of a fast track towards fusion energy production. The conclusions of the panel were an endorsement of ITER, to be constructed as soon as possible, and at the same time, the start of IFMIF (International Fusion Material Irradiation
Facility) engineering design activities.
For the full report see our EFDA website!

EFDA Fusion Newsletter

page 2ITER
Find the complete press
release on our website:

News from Japan: Second Negotiation Meeting on ITER Site Selection
http://www.efda.org

The second Negotiation Meeting to continue the formal negotiations on the Joint
Implementation Agreement of the ITER project was held in Tokyo on 22 to 23 January 2002.
The main subject of the meeting was a preliminary draft of the Agreement, which will govern
the construction, operation and decommissioning on ITER. The participants – delegations
from Canada, the European Union, Japan and the Russian Federation – also discussed the
preparation of the basis for a site selection process, procurement allocation schemes andtransitional arrangements towards the project implementation. The next Negotiation
Meeting is scheduled for 19 to 20 March 2002 in Moscow.

Progress in France: ITER Site Studies in Cadarache
You would like to learn
more about Cadaracheas ITER site?
http://www-fusion-magnetique.cea.fr/

Cadarache fulfills all ITER requirements. This is the conclusion of the first step of the
ITER site studies that has now been completed and the documentation delivered to EFDA
in November 2001. A Preliminary analysis of the safety and environmental impact around
Cadarache ("Dossier d’Options de Sûreté") has been carried out.
The doses expected for the local population for both normal operation and accidental
events are very low, in comparison with the recommendations issued by ICPR (International
Committee for Radiologic Protection).
The second step of the European ITER Site Studies (EISS 2) will involve many Associations, and has now been launched. The main objective of this second step is to perform
all activities that are on the critical path to the siting of ITER at Cadarache. This includes thewriting of the "RPrS - Rapport Préliminaire de Sûreté" (preliminary safety report), a mandatory document for the licensing process. RPrS will describe the installation, present thesafety objectives and propose the technical options and the scope of these objectives.
Further steps will be the specification of the required site adaptations, and the realization ofthe "Débat Public", a key element of the public participation process.

Progress in the Spanish Site Studies

More information in thearticle published by ABC(Spanish newspaper):http://www.abc.es/Sociedad/n
oticia.asp?id=76482&dia=060
22002

Interested in CIEMAT?
See:
http://www.ciemat.es/eng

CIEMAT (Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Mediambientales y
Tecnológicas) are currently carrying out studies to assess the possibility of Spain
offering a site for ITER. Under consideration is the former nuclear reactor site of
Vandellós I (Cataluña), currently being decommissioned, and a second possibility isnear Valencia.
Preliminary industrial studies have already highlighted the benefits for the
Spanish industry if ITER is constructed in Spain.
Dr. C. Alejaldre (CIEMAT-Fusion) points out that Spain is still in a study phaseto prepare a decision by the Government on whether Spain will offer a site, and if
so, which.
The studies will be completed soon.

EFDA Fusion Newsletter

page 3Highlights on JET
Break-even (Q):The present work on JET is directed primarily towards the preparation of ITER operationand is focused on the so-called ELMy H-mode which offers a well-established path to the
ITER design target of a 10-fold amplification of the input power through fusion reactions(Q=10). Beyond this, however, ITER will also explore regimes of true steady state operation,
which require the attainment of better confinement and higher plasma pressures at given
plasma current and magnetic fields. The two largest task forces on JET, S1 and S2, address
the scientific issues connected with the base-line and the steady-state operation of ITER.

The fusion performance ofa power plant is denoted
by Q, which is the ratio of
the power in the fusion
products to that used toheat the plasma.
Break-even corresponds
to Q = 1, ignition corresponds to infinite Q. A burning plasma has Q > 5.

Important results in advanced tokamak experiments

Task force S1:Consolidation of ITER
database and reference
scenarios

At the American Physical Society Plasma Physics Conference in Long Beach, California
in October 2001, a paper on the progress made on internal transport barrier plasmas in JET
was presented. The main goal of advanced tokamak experiments is to obtain plasmas withfully non-inductive current, as opposed to the more standard inductive current plasmas
where operation is restricted to a pulsed mode. The advanced tokamak scenario relies on
a combination of self-generated plasma current (bootstrap current) and external current
drive provided by additional heating systems.
In the EFDA-JET 2000-2001 experimental programme, one of the most interesting
results was to observe the longest internal transport barriers, which have been produced ina tokamak so far. They went on for nearly 8s and corresponded to 27 times the energy confinement time, which is the time required for energy to leave the plasma. These discharges
had more than 80% non-inductive current.
Plasmas with full non-inductive current (1.8 MA) were maintained for a few seconds.
Real-time control experiments in this scenario have demonstrated that the local electron
temperature gradient can be controlled with Ion Cyclotron Resonance Heating.
These new experiments allow the study of steady-state ITB plasmas in preparation of
ITER operation.

Progress in developing ITER scenarios in JET
New track
2

Z (m)

1

0

-1

JG01 43314c

HFS

-2
2

3
R (m)

4

During the past two years at JET under
EFDA three promising H-mode operational scenarios have been further developed. The results
were the simultaneous realization of high density and confinement as required for ITER.
A first method showed that by increasing theplasma triangularity, strong gas puffing does notdeteriorate confinement in these plasmas, provided sufficient heating is applied. Thus, high density values can be obtained without confinement
loss, resulting in addition to plasmas with very
low dilution. The additional 7.5 MW of Neutral
Beam power, available in campaign C7, willallow to extend the studies to ELMs mitigation
effects to plasmas at higher absolute densities.
Another means of increasing the density
without confinement deterioration is high fieldside pellet fuelling with a well chosen repetition
rate, as demonstrated in C4. A new high fieldside pellet track (fig. left) , due to be available in

Task force S2:
ITER Advanced Scenarios

Bootstrap current:
Self-generated current flowing in the plasma
Ion Cyclotron
Resonance Heating(ICRH):
Additional heating method
using radio-frequency
waves at frequencies matching the frequency atwhich the ions gyratearound the magnetic fieldlines. The ICRH range of
frequencies is 25–55 MHz.
Internal transportbarriers (ITB):
These barriers are insulating layers created in theplasma core that decreases the transport of particles and/or energy outside the plasma and gives
rise to large pressure gradients.

For more information
see the EFDA-JET
Bulletin in the JET
website:http://www.jet.efda.org/

EFDA Fusion Newsletter

H-mode:High confinement regime,
observed in tokamak plasmas
Neutral Beam power:
Injection of a beam of fastneutral particles whichbecome ionised in theplasma and heat it as theyslow down
PINI:
Plugged In Neutral Injector
ELM:
Edge Localised Mode is an
instability which appears
when the plasma is in thehigh-confinement H-mode
configuration as it depends
on the pressure profile atthe plasma edge

page 4

campaign C6, enabling to launch pellets into the plasma with up to three times higher velocities, will allow a further optimization of the promising results of C4. A third method consists
in seeding the plasma with impurities. Those plasmas not only show high confinement anddensities as needed for ITER. Promising indications have been found that the enhanced
radiation from the seeded impurity also results in a reduced heat load to the divertor. The
studies started in campaigns
C1-C4 will be further extended
this year in all three regimes.
EFDA-JET 2002
The removal of the septum inDivertor configuration
the divertor (fig. left) will allow
an assessment of its contribution in establishing the excellent results of the 2000-2001
campaigns. The final aim is toobtain an integrated operational scenario combining thenecessary conditions for use
on ITER : high confinement,high density and an acceptable power and particle
JG0
2.2 5-2cexhaust.

JET - C(ampaign)1:
31 March - 28 July 2000
C2:
4 Sept. - 27 Oct. 2000
C3:
6 Nov. - 8 Dec. 2000

Associations

C4:
8 Jan. - 30 March 2001
C5:
18 March - 31 May 2002

MAST: Experimental campaign successfully completed

C6:
16 Sept. - 11 Oct. 2002

The 2001 experimental campaign on the MAST (Mega Amp Spherical Tokamak) at
Culham was completed on 16th November. An important achievement during the campaign
was the first injection of Deuterium Neutral Beam power into the plasma (up to 1.5 MW)with neutron emissions consistent with predictions.
The
multiplepellet injector (donatedbythe
Association EURATOM-FOM
andinstalled with theassistance of the
Association EURATOM-Risø) injected Deuterium pellets
into the plasmaand successfully fuelled the plasmacore for the first time.
Furthermore
the access to Hmode regimes withhigher energy confinement times was
improved.
The
results from theseexperiments helped
to distinguish between different Hmode thresholdscaling laws.
A
newThomson Scattering
diagnostic
wascommissioned which
provided accurate
measurementsofthe electron density and temperature
over 300 spatial
points.
The next experimental campaign will start in February 2002 and will feature experiments
directly relevant to ITER and the improved understanding of Spherical Tokamak Physics.

C7:
21 Oct. - 13 Dec. 2002

FOM:
Foundation for Fundamental Research andMatter.
http://www.rijnh.nl

Risø is a national Danish
laboratory in Roskilde(Denmark) under the
Ministry for Science,
Technology and Innovation.
http://www.risoe.dk/

Thomson Scattering
diagnostic:
To measure temperatureand density by detecting
laser light scattered andDoppler shifted by theplasma electrons.

page 5EFDA Fusion Newsletter

Austrian Association Day on Fusion: Technology at the cutting edge
The fifth annual "Association Day on Fusion Technology" of the Association EURATOMÖAW took place on 7 December 2001 and was for the second time hosted by Plansee AG
in Reutte, Tyrol (Austria). In co-operation with the Erich Schmid Institut fürMaterialwissenschaft of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Leoben, Plansee AG is participating in the development and testing of chromium alloys with a view to their possible use
in future fusion power plants.
Guests were welcomed from EFDA Garching and the IAEA physics division in Vienna.
An on-site presentation was made to participants on the production of Plansee High
Performance Materials.
Junior and senior scientists currently active in these areas presented and discussed
contributions to the EFDA Technology Programme in the fields "Nuclear data", "Magnetic
structure and integration", "Materials development" and "Physics integration". Guests fromGarching were M. Gasparotto and C. Sborchia, who made valuable recommendations
especially for the Materials Programme (reduced-activation ferritic-martensitic steel, SiCSiC
ceramic materials, chromium alloys). This programme is one of the declared areas of interest and expertise of the Austrian Association.

The website
http://www.oeaw.ac.at/euratom

presents an overview of
the activities of the
Association EURATOMÖAW.
Activities of Plansee AG in
the field of thermonuclear
fusion are shown at:
http://www.plansee.com/index.

Energy for the future: IPP celebrates multiple anniversary
On 30 October 2001 the Max-Planck-Institute for Plasma Physics (Association
EURATOM-IPP) at Garching celebrated four anniversaries at one go. Approximately 800
employees and guests celebrated the 40th anniversary of the founding of the institute, the30th anniversary of its becoming member of the Max-Planck-Society, the world's first
demonstration of "real" stellarator operation 20 years ago and 10 years of successful operation of ASDEX Upgrade.
In his welcoming address Prof. Alex
Bradshaw reminded that "already in thesixties it was clear that the way towards
the utilisation of nuclear fusion as sourceof energy would be long and laborious."
Now, the proposed experimental reactor
ITER is to find out whether fusion can beused in power plants.
Dr. Hermann Schunck of the Federal
Research Ministry pointed out that it isimportant for the federal government to
see that fusion research is part of a longterm energy strategy which includes reasonable promotion of renewable energies
as well.
Prof. Hubert Markl, president of the Max-Planck-Society reminded of the enormous
challenges connected with the founding of the IPP division at Berlin in 1992 and the establishment of the branch institute at Greifswald in 1994.
In his address Dr. Edmund Stoiber, Prime Minister of Bavaria, was not only looking
back. He stated that the question of what role fusion could play in a future mix of energies
is important, too: "Nuclear fusion is one of the most interesting options for future energy
supply."Prof. Fritz Varenholt, former SPD Minister of Environment at Hamburg and today executive chairman of the wind power company Repower Systems concluded in his address:"However, the presently used mix of energies cannot be preserved. Fusion research, inherently safe nuclear power stations and renewable energies - these are the directions to go."Do you speak German andlike to read the address ofProf. Varenholt?
See:
http://www.ipp.mpg.de/de/presse/pi/13_01_pi.html

EFDA Fusion Newsletter

page 6

Associations
Lower Hybrid Current Drive (LHCD) Experiments in FTU
For more information:
http://www.frascati.enea.it/FTU

At present, FTU at the Centro Ricerche Energia (Association EURATOM-ENEA) in
Frascati is the only high magnetic toroidal field tokamak operating in Europe (up to 8 Tesla,
1.6 MA) extending the database on confinement and heating necessary for ITER to highmagnetic field and high-density regimes.
The FTU (Frascati Tokamak Upgrade) 8 GHz LHCD system has recently been operated
close to its design value. This means: 6 gyrotrons feeding 6 independent wave guides launchers with a total launched power of 2.4 MW (about 4.4 MW at source) for 0.5 sec. At thispower level, current drive experiments can be performed in conditions similar to the one
foreseen for ITER advanced
steady state scenarios. In
effect, the LHCD system
has been operated up to 2.2
MW for a time duration
lasting several times theenergy confinement time
(typically 10 times) at density and magnetic field highenough to be relevant for
ITER.
A substantial increase of
the neutron yield, typicallyby a factor of five, is observed. This indicates that agood collisional transfer between the bulk ions of theplasma and the Lower
Hybrid accelerated fastelectrons is taking place.
Off-axis LHCD has also
been used to produce electron internal transport barriers (ITB) at relatively highdensities. ITBs are sought to be an important feature of the advanced scenarios foreseen
for ITER allowing steady state operation to be achieved. By broadening the plasma current
profile with off-axis ECRH (Electron Cyclotron Resonance Heating) during the plasma current ramp-up phase, ITBs were subsequently produced with 1.7 MW of LHCD leading tohigh central temperature for several energy confinement times.
Further development is taking place, in particular in combining ECRH (140 GHz) and LHCD
systems at the highest possible densities in order to prepare ITER advanced scenarios.

LHCD:
The Lower Hybrid Current Drive is a non-inductive current drive using lower hybrid waves. The Lower Hybrid range of frequencies is
1- 8 GHz and it is between the one of the Electron Cyclotron Resonance Heating and the one of the Ion Cyclotron Resonance Heating.
ECRH:
Electron Cyclotron Resonance Heating uses radio-frequency waves resonating with electrons gyrating in the magnetic field, corresponding to frequencies in the range of 30 to 170 GHz.

page 7

EFDA Fusion Newsletter

Women in Science
Gender equality: A lot done, a lot still to do
EFDA Newsletter (E.N.):You are working in a men’s world – why did you choose a technical subject to study?
Gabriella Saibene (G.S.):
Well, I liked it and I was very lucky in my scientific high school in Italy. I had very goodteachers, in particular in maths and physics. It was very exciting. So when I finishedhigh school I thought that physics would be a very interesting thing to study.
E.N.: Did your parents have an influence on your decision?
G.S.: No, my parents are working in commerce, so they didn’t know anything about physics.
But they supported me all the time in this choice.
E.N.: Do you have an idea why women are under-represented in nearly all areas of research?
G.S.: The fraction of people who go into research is not very high anyhow – no matter ifthey are women or men – most of my student colleagues went into industry becauseof the money. But probably there are just a few women who go into research.
E.N.: So, what could be done in your opinion to get more women into research?
G.S.: First, good teachers have to get the attention of the girls at school, so they think thatscience is great, cool, something that you want to do. To get them into research is amatter of making the environment there possible for women and their families. Afteruniversity it’s common that one goes abroad for a period of one or two years. And thisis more difficult for women: the husband that follows his wife around is really a veryrare figure...
E.N.: What do you feel about quotas like the Commission’s 40% target or other kinds of"positive discrimination"?
G.S.: Sure, there must be some effort in promoting women – role modelling is important.
But in science the first criterion has to be competence and professionalism. So
instead of quotas I’d prefer to call it gender equality. When people are equivalent andin that case women are preferred, that’s ok to rise their number in research.
E.N.: … and there is also still an academic level above which very few women advance!
G.S.: This is a question of critical mass. If we manage to get more women in higher positions in research, the more there are the more acceptable will be a woman at a highlevel. Women need some structure when they are, say, between 25 and 35, to solve
the problem between family life and a professional career in science. These women
will stay in their career and will have the opportunity to progress and then later onwhen they would be mature for a manager position they will be there to take it - andnot have disappeared because of family responsibilities.
E.N.: What about your own situation as one of two women among 33 male researchers at
EFDA Garching? Do you have to fight more for getting through your results than a man?
G.S.: Maybe there are some small problems with attitude. A man is defined to be "determined" while a woman is "aggressive" for the same kind of behavior. But by and large
it’s ok. I think that a supportive and unprejudiced direct management, as I was lucky
to have in my career so far, is essential since it creates a working environment that is
not conflictive and boosts self-confidence.
Interview: DL

The lack of women innearly all areas of science was already a hot
topic of discussion in
Brussels during the 5th
Framework Programme(FP5). But at the third
Commission conferenceon gender and research in
Brussels on 8 / 9
November 2001, a poll
showed that 57.9 % of
the audience of around
600 people (91.9 % ofwhich were female) believed that the situation has
improved in terms of policy, but not in practice,since 1998.
Dr. Gabriella Saibene (43),a scientist taking care ofphysics issues of ITER
construction at EFDA
Garching, outlines in ourinterview her experiences
as a female researcher.
Dr. Saibene is one of the
only five people who havethe license to lead JET
operation at maximum
performance level - andtwo of the other four are
also women.

On 5 June 2002 the conference on "Mujeres y
Ciencia", a Spanish edition of the Commission’sconference mentioned
above, will take place in
Madrid.
For more information:
http://www.cordis.lu/spain/es/
05062002.htm

For further information on
women and science see:
http://www.cordis.lu/rtd2002/
science-society/women.htm
http://www.ieee.org/organizations/committee/women/
http://www.iaea.or.at/women/safeguards/

page 8EFDA Fusion Newsletter

Fusion & the Public
For more information on
18th/19th WEC see:

EFDA at AOG Expo 2001 in Buenos AiresEFDA participated in the Argentina Oil & Gas (AOG) Expo 2001, which was organized together with the 18th World Energy Congress (WEC) and held in Buenos Aires(21 - 25 October 2001). The stand was sponsored by the Max-Planck-Institute for
Plasma Physics (Association EURATOM-IPP) in Garching, Germany.
Through exhibiting at this event EFDA has established many new contacts with opinion formers and decision makers from different branches of energy research and energy planning. The aim of EFDA is to get fusion recognized as a key player in the debate
over long term energy provision and climate change.
About 300 exhibitors came from different energy sectors including hydro, oil, gas, carbon, nuclear and wind. During the five days of the exhibition the EFDA stand received
approx. 650-700 visitors, who were congress participants as well as external visitors –such as journalists, university professors, politicians, energy experts and energy advisers. The large majority of people who visited our stand were aware of fusion in general.
All the visitors were impressed by the progress that has been made in fusion research
and most of them considered fusion a serious candidate for the future energy supply.
The outcome of the participation was extremely positive. It gives us confidence inpursuing further the EFDA policy to be represented at this type of event. We have also
been encouraged to do so by Alan Morrison, the Executive Director of the organizationcommittee for the next WEC, to be held in Sydney in 2004.

http://www.18thwec.com.ar/congress.html
http://www.tourhosts.com.au/e
nergy2004/english/invit.asp

Mechanical Engineering,Vol. 123 / No. 12,
December 2001, p. 51- 55
For this article see:
http://www.memagazine.org/
backissues/dec01/features/basicdrv/basicdrv.htm

Some of the main exhibitors were:
EDF, Alstom, Babcock
Borsig Power, GE Power,
Mitsubishi, Toshiba, IHI,
Hitachi, Repsol YPF,
Siemens, Techint

Physics on Stage ...
is an educational outreach initiative of European Intergovernmental Research
Organizations for European physics educators. It was set up by three leadingorganizations (ESA, ESO,
CERN) in 2000 togive teachers from 22
European countries the opportunity totake part in national programmes andinternational
festivals to exchangeteaching
ideas
and materials.
The first year of events was so successful, that a continuation of the project
was ensured, in the form of Physics on Stage 2. The next festival will take place
between 2-6 April 2002 at ESTEC in Noordwijk, The Netherlands.

You would like to get
involved with Physics
on Stage?
For further informationand contacts see:
http://www.estec.esa.nl/
outreach/pos

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

and additionally
http://www.jet.efda.org
http://www.iter.org

EFDA Close Support Unit - Garching
c/o Max-Planck-Institut for Plasma Physics(Association EURATOM-IPP), 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 Lanzinger
graphic design: Karen Jens

© K.Lackner (EFDA Leader) 2002.
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.
Picture on page 2 courtesy of Foro Nuclear.
The EFDA Parties are the European Commission and the Associates of theEuropean Fusion Programme which is co-ordinated and managed by theCommission.
Neither the Commission, the Associates nor anyone acting on their behalf is
responsible for any damage resulting from the use of information contained in thispublication.