U.S. Burning Plasma Organization eNews
USBPO Mission Statement: Advance the scientific understanding of burning plasmas and ensure the greatest benefit from a burning plasma experiment by coordinating relevant U.S. fusion research with broad community participation.
CONTENTS
Web seminars (Amanda Hubbard, USBPO Deputy Director)
We would like to thank Nathan
Howard (MIT PSFC) for giving a seminar on the DPP Community Planning Process
on May 15. His slides are available on the USBPO home page:
APS-DPP Community Planning Process
Please see page 6 for
up-to-date information on the DPP Community Planning Process.
Director’s
Corner By C.M. Greenfield
Reminder/update (important deadline
change): Research in Support of ITER contributed oral session at the Fort
Lauderdale APS-DPP Conference
For the eleventh time, last year’s APS
Division of Plasma Physics annual meeting included a contributed oral session
on Research in Support of ITER, which included talks from US and international
participants. These sessions have become quite popular and are always well
attended.
The US Burning Plasma Organization is
organizing a similar session for the 61st Annual Meeting of the
Division of Plasma Physics, which will take place in Fort Lauderdale, Florida,
on October 21-25. Once again, we are looking for talks on research that has
been done specifically to address ITER design, operation, or physics issues.
These brief talks are “standard†contributed orals: 10 minutes in duration,
followed by a 2-minute discussion period. We hope to have broad participation
once again, so we can highlight the breadth of this work and the institutions
performing it, both US and international.
The abstract submission deadline for
this year’s meeting is July 3 (it was July
12, but the more observant among you might notice that APS-DPP has quietly
moved the deadline one week earlier), so we need to get started with this
year’s process. If you or a colleague are interested in making a presentation
in this session, please send a title, brief synopsis (one paragraph is
sufficient), and speaker’s contact information as soon as possible (but no
later than June 12)
to me (Chuck Greenfield, greenfield@fusion.gat.com).
The brief synopsis should provide a sufficient description to understand the
work and its importance to ITER.
Note that space is limited to 15 talks,
so we almost certainly won’t be able to include all talks nominated. We will
do our best to inform speakers by June 21, giving time for any not selected
for the ITER session to indicate a preference for other sessions, or allow the
conference program committee to select an appropriate session.
Last year we ran into an issue where
many of you were still waiting at our deadline to find out if you had an
invited talk. I expect this will happen again this year. Even if you are
waiting, I encourage you to put in a request for a slot in this session. If you
are offered a spot in our session on June 21 and you feel you need to decline
because you have an invited talk (APS rules do not preclude your doing both,
but that is a lot of work), we will understand.
A full abstract would still need to be
submitted via the conference website no later than 5:00 PM Eastern Daylight
Time on July 3. If your talk is accepted for this session, please indicate
“Research in Support of ITER†in the placement requests box on your abstract
submission.
Organizing support for ITER at the
DPP-CPP workshop
Please see the announcements of
upcoming activities elsewhere in this issue of the eNews. The DPP-CPP should be
a large community effort and I hope all US participants in burning plasma
research will contribute. This process has the potential to shape what we do in
our field in the coming decades.
In discussions with the organizers of
the Community Planning Process, they indicated that it is desirable to have
strong advocacy for existing facilities and projects to sustain support for
them. One such “existing†project, of course, is ITER, and in support of that
effort, I would like to invite US fusion community members to join the new ITER Advocacy for the DPP-CPP group at https://groups.google.com/forum/
- !forum/iter_supporters. The group’s description is as
follows:
Welcome to the ITER Advocacy for the
DPP-CPP group. Although this is organized under the auspices of the USBPO, the
opinions developed here will come only from its individual members.
The purpose of this group is to
organize US fusion community members in support of full US participation in the
international ITER project, now under construction at Saint-Paul-lès-Durance,
France. The US is partnering with China, Europe, India, Japan, Korea, and
Russia (representing over half of the population of the world!) in this
endeavor, aimed at creating the first magnetically confined burning plasma.
Although the US is responsible for only a small fraction of the expense,
significant resources are needed for:
1. Full
US support for construction of the ITER facility and device to meet its full
intended capabilities
2. Research
using current facilities and modeling tools to prepare for successful execution
of the ITER Research Plan
3. Preparation
of a US ITER Team that can take a leading role in operating and carrying out
experiments on the ITER Tokamak
4. Full
participation in every phase of execution of the ITER Research Plan
5. Bringing
home the experience and results of ITER’s research to be applied to further
steps on the path to fusion energy
Here you will find drafts of white
papers that will be submitted to the DPP-CPP in advance of the July 22-26
workshop in Madison, Wisconsin. These white papers are posted here for your
comment, and if you wish you can ask to be added to the "advocates"
list for any or all.
Any member is welcome to post their
white paper here to share ideas with other ITER advocates. But please note…
In order to be considered for plenary
presentation at the DPP-CPP workshop, white papers need to be submitted by June
14. There is no particular deadline if you are not requesting a plenary
slot. The authors are responsible for submitting their own white
papers… posting them here will not submit them to the DPP-CPP.
Access is members only, and you will
have to request membership. I think we need to restrict access to members of
the community who will be participate in the DPP-CPP, so please do not attempt
to join anonymously… when you apply to join the group, please share your name
and institution (if it isn’t obvious from your email address please write it in
the “additional information†box).
The first white paper draft that will
be posted (perhaps by time you read this) will by my white paper entitled “Full
Participation in ITER: The US Fusion Community’s First Opportunity to Study a
Burning Plasma at High Gain.†I will welcome your comments, but also, following
the DPP-CPP organizers’ white paper template, there is a section for “advocates
of this initiative†and I would be happy to include your name in that list.
Progress at ITER
I had a chance to visit ITER this month
for the Science and Technology Advisory Committee (STAC) meeting. The
construction continues to progress at an impressive pace, with concrete work on
the tokamak building now essentially complete, and work to complete the steel
structure at its top, which will connect with the adjacent Assembly Building,
is expected to be finished by the end of 2019. Shortly thereafter, tokamak
assembly will begin, with many components already completed and ready for
installation. Overall, the facility is now well over 60% complete in terms of
readiness for first plasma operation (scheduled for 2025), and commissioning of
some systems has already begun.
The concrete ITER Tokamak Building
(foreground) has risen to its full height, with the remaining steel structure
at the top to be built up to the same level as the Assembly Hall (behind) and completed
in the coming months. When finished by the end of this year, the Tokamak
Building and the Assembly Hall will be joined in preparation for tokamak
assembly to begin in early 2020.
The STAC considered four charges,
paraphrased here:
- Review progress towards the final
design of Edge Localized Mode (ELM) control coils
- Assess progress on quantification
of possible degradation of the TF conductor with electromagnetic and
thermal cycling
- Assess plans for the finalization
of the design of the antenna and procurement of the ICRH system
- Review progress in finalizing the
design of plasma-facing components (W Divertor and Be First Wall) and the
strategy for their alignment
The limited scope of the first, third,
and fourth charges are an indication of the advanced state of the ITER design,
in that we are focusing attention now on subsystems rather than the overall
facility. The ELM coil (charge 1) and first wall (charge 4) designs are nearing
maturity; in each case several issues were raised, but nothing that would be a
show-stopper. The ICRH antenna (charge 3) has been redesigned in the past year,
with a new conceptual design that addresses many of the issues that came up in
the earlier (2012) design. This system is still at a relatively early stage of
design, but is expected to be completed in time for installation and use during
the second Pre-Fusion Power Operation (PFPO-2) phase as scheduled.
The toroidal field (TF) coil conductor
(charge 2) was interesting. After the TF conductor design had already been
completed, testing of cable designs for the central solenoid (CS) coil revealed
issues that limit the lifetime of niobium-tin superconductor when a combination
of electromagnetic and thermal cycles results in tiny fractures in the brittle
filaments. This is a particularly important issue for the CS, which undergoes a
full electromagnetic cycle on every ITER shot. Following this testing, an
improved design (utilizing a tighter twist pitch in the superconducting cable)
was implemented that alleviates this concern and allows the CS coil to meet its
requirements. Recently, there were questions about whether the same issues
could impact the TF conductor. Test results shown at the STAC meeting indicate
that these concerns should not significantly impact the TF conductor, which
will undergo far fewer cycles than the CS over the lifetime of the ITER
project. To add an extra layer of caution, the IO is also exploring strategies
to further limit degradation during the commissioning and operation phases.
Announcements
for APS-DPP Community Planning Process
Contributed
by N. Ferraro
The APS-DPP Community Planning Process
(DPP-CPP) is the community-input phase in addressing a strategic planning
charge to DOE Office of Fusion Energy Science Advisory Committee (FESAC). The
website
https://sites.google.com/pppl.gov/dpp-cpp/home has been established as a repository
for information about the process, organization, workshops and meetings, and
resources. Broad community participation is critical for the success of this
process. Please share these announcements with your colleagues.
Workshop
for Magnetic Fusion Energy (MFE) and Fusion Materials and Technology (FM&T)
We are pleased to announce that a
joint workshop of the Magnetic Fusion Energy and Fusion Materials and
Technology topical areas will be held at the University of Wisconsin, Madison from
July 22–26, 2019. This workshop will include presentations by
advocacy groups on proposed FES initiatives, breakout sessions by expert groups
for discussing and evaluating these proposals, and forums on cross-cutting
issues that affect all topical areas within FES. Additional details on how
to register and recommended hotels can be found here: https://uwmadison.eventsair.com/apsdpp/. Broad participation in this workshop
is encouraged.
If your advocacy group would like to
request a plenary presentation at this workshop, please submit an initiative
white paper at the DPP-CPP website by June 14 (https://sites.google.com/pppl.gov/dpp-cpp/home/input-and-feedback). Please note that we will continue to accept white
papers and initiative proposals after this date, and revisions or updates can
be submitted at any time.
Call for White Papers
At this time, we are accepting white
papers for the DPP-CPP. Both informational white papers and white papers
advocating specific FES initiatives will be accepted.
For white papers advocating specific
FES initiatives, we require that these white papers adhere to a template. This
template is now available on the DPP-CPP website at https://sites.google.com/pppl.gov/dpp-cpp/home/input-and-feedback. The purpose of this template is to
ensure that the community and expert groups have sufficient information about
the initiative proposal to determine the role of that initiative in the overall
strategic plan for FES. White papers will be made publicly available for review
and comment.
For more information about the
process, organization, and how to get involved, please visit the DPP-CPP
website (https://sites.google.com/pppl.gov/dpp-cpp).
The 10th ITER Integrated Modeling Expert Group (IMEG)
Meeting
Contributed by S. Smith
Introduction
The 10th ITER
IMEG meeting was held 26-29 November 2018 at the ITER headquarters in
Cadarache, France. The IMEG is composed of two formal participants from each
ITER party. The official US delegates were Lang Lao (General Atomics), who
chairs the group, and Steve Jardin (PPPL). Sterling Smith (GA) was also in
attendance. For those who wonder, “The mission of the IMEG is the establishment
of a programme on integrated modelling and control of fusion plasmas, including
benchmarking and validation activities. This will be co-ordinated by the ITER
Organization and developed using the relevant expertise within the Members’
fusion programmes, making use of existing co-ordination structures where
possible. The overall aims of this programme are to meet the initial needs of
the ITER project for more accurate predictions of ITER fusion performance and
for efficient control of ITER plasmas. This will support the preparation for
ITER operation and, in the longer term, provide the modelling and control tools
required for the ITER exploitation phase†[1].
The agenda
for the meeting included reports from the IO on its IM development activities
and reports from the various ITER parties on their IM activities. The meeting
concluded with findings and recommendations from the IMEG for the IO IM
efforts, as well as planned ITER relevant domestic IM activites. This report on
the IMEG meeting will be broken into three sections: IO activities, the US
reports given, and the proposed US plans.
IO activities
One of the
main efforts of the IO has been the development of IMAS - the ITER Integrated
Modeling and Analysis Suite [2]. IMAS consists of a unified data schema, the
software to store data to disk or retrieve it in that schema, and workflows
that communicate between components via that software. The IO (ITER
Organization) is very interested in allowing interested individuals (of ITER
parties) to access its systems, try out what is available, and give feedback on
the experience. Please contact Simon Pinches (Simon.Pinches@iter.org) for
access.
The IMAS data
schema [3] represents the holy grail of tokamak integrated modeling - a single
specification of all data, including units and sign conventions. The European
IM community has a large effort to modify their IM codes to use the IMAS data
schema for all input and output. In addition, the WEST tokamak is storing all
of its data with IMAS. These two efforts have done well at filling out most of
the data schema that is needed for typical tokamak modeling and experimental
data storage. Nonetheless, it would be worthwhile for all individuals to look
over the data schema, and provide feedback to the IO via a JIRA issue [4] for
missing or vague entries.
The IO has
begun to build an IMAS database on their servers for various ITER scenarios.
The current IMAS software requires accessing the data on the ITER servers, but
the ability to access an IMAS database remotely is being developed, and should
soon be released.
One method of
coupling codes has been via the Kepler framework. Results were reported for
using Kepler based workflows to obtain equilibrium reconstructions of existing
European tokamaks. There have been licensing issues in moving those workflows
from the European computing clusters to the ITER clusters, which stands as a
warning of a possible obstacle for future US integration into ITER IM.
US activities
US
participants gave presentations summarizing various aspects of US IM
activities. Lang Lao's US presentation focused on predictive modeling of DIII-D
and ITER discharges. An OMFIT [8] STEP module has been developed, which couples
profile, source, and pedestal predictions via the IMAS data schema to be able
to self consistently model the impurity sources and profiles. The SEGWAY OMFIT
module was used to predict the effects of a triangularity scan on the plasma
magnetic response calculated with the M3D-C1 [9] code, and the predictions were
validated in a DIII-D experiment. A shattered pellet injection model has been
implemented in the NIMROD [10] code, which has been validated against DIII-D
experiments on pellet injection for disruption mitigation. The preliminary
results from an experiment to inject a shell pellet for disruption mitigation
were consistent with previous modeling of a shell pellet for inside-out
disruption cooling.
An overview
presentation of the OMFIT IM framework was given by Sterling Smith. Its large
and increasingly international user and developer bases were presented as
strengths. Highlights of the last year were presented: The style of the OMFIT
GUI was modernized. The OMFIT packaging and installation were improved. The
OMFITprofiles module outputs can be output to IMAS. The TRANSP module was
adapted to TCV and MAST. The OMAS [11] library has been developed as a
convenient python library for in-memory enforcement of the IMAS data schema and
handling of coordinate conventions (COCOS). The documentation of the physics
modules was regularized and improved. Finally, a series of tutorials was
recorded, and is available to OMFIT users.
Proposed US Plans
The proposals from the US for US activities in the coming year were
the following:
- Make Standalone NUBEAM into a component
that can be used in a Heating and Current Drive or other IMAS workflow.
- Add TRANSP ITER simulations to the ITER database
by way of translators.
- Adapt the new OMFIT Pellet Ablation
Module (PAM) into IMAS.
- Adapt OMFIT modules (Kinetic Equilibrium
Reconstruction, STEP) into IMAS.
Summary
The
IMEG meeting represents an opportunity for the IO and ITER member states to share
information regarding past accomplishments and coordinate future plans. The US
participation in the meeting has been vital for chairing the meeting, sharing
accomplishments of the TRANSP and OMFIT teams with the IO, and learning about
the developments of IMAS for redistribution back to the BPO.
Acknowledgements
This
work is supported by DOE Grant DE-FC02-04ER54698.
Disclaimer: This
report was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United
States Government. Neither the United States Government nor any agency thereof,
nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes
any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or
usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or
represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference
herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name,
trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply
its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States Government or
any agency thereof. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not
necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government or any
agency thereof.
References
[1]
https://portal.iter.org/departments/POP/Pages/Missions.aspx
[2]
https://imas.iter.org
[3]
https://git.iter.org/projects/IMAS/repos/data-dictionary
[4]
https://jira.iter.org/
[5]
https://transpweb.pppl.gov/
[6]
https://www.compxco.com/genray.html
[7] https://www.compxco.com/cql3d.html
[8]
https://gafusion.github.io/OMFIT-source
[9]
https://w3.pppl.gov/~nferraro/m3dc1.html
[10]
https://nimrodteam.org
[11] https://gafusion.github.io/omas
2019
|
June 2-6 |
Jacksonville, FL |
|
|
July 2-5 |
ITPA
Divertor & SOL meeting |
Garching,
Germany |
|
July
8-12 |
46th
European Physical Society Conference on Plasma Physics (EPS) |
Milan,
Italy |
|
August
19-21 |
17th International
Workshop on Plasma Edge Theory in Fusion Devices |
UCSD, CA |
|
September 3-6 |
16th IAEA Technical
Meeting on Energetic Particles – Theory of Plasma Instabilities |
Shizuoka
City, Japan |
|
September 9-11 |
ITPA
Energetic Particles meeting |
Toki, Japan |
|
September 9-11 |
10th IAEA Technical
Meeting on Steady State Operation of Magnetic Fusion Devices |
Hefei,
China |
|
Sept 30 – Oct 3 |
6th International
Symposium on Liquid Metals Applications for Fusion (ISLA-6) |
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne, IL |
|
October 7-11 |
ITPA
Diagnostics meeting |
ITER HQ, France |
|
October 9-11 |
Shanghai, China |
|
|
October 14-17 |
ITPA
Integrated Operation Scenarios meeting |
Garching, Germany |
|
October 14-17 |
ITPA
Transport & Confinement meeting |
Hefei, China |
|
October 21-25 |
Fort Lauderdale, Florida |
|
|
Oct 27 – Nov 1 |
La Jolla, CA |
|
|
Oct 28-30 |
Columbia University, New York |
|
|
November 4-7 |
IAEA HQ, Vienna, Austria |
|
|
November 4-8 |
Hefei, China |
|
|
December 3-4 |
40th
Fusion Power Associates (FPA) Annual Meeting and Symposium |
Washington DC |
2020
|
JET DT-campaign (/resources/ref/Web_Seminars/Litaudon-JET-%202019-05-02-vf.pdf) |
|
JT60-SA First Plasma (http://jt60sa.org/) |
Editor: Walter Guttenfelder (wgutten@pppl.gov)