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U.S. Burning Plasma Organization e-News
April 15, 2009 (Issue 31)
CONTENTS
-- Director's Corner by Jim Van Dam
-- Reports
- Fusion For Energy (F4E) Task Force Meeting on W divertor for ITER
by B. Lipschultz
-- Upcoming Burning Plasma Events
Dear Burning Plasma Aficionados:
This newsletter provides a short update on U.S. Burning Plasma Organization activities. Comments on articles in the newsletter may be sent to the editor (R. Nazikian rnazikian at pppl.gov) or assistant editor (Rita Wilkinson ritaw at mail.utexas.edu).
Thank you for your interest in Burning Plasma research in the U.S.!
Director's Corner by J. Van Dam
Physics Task Agreements for ITER
The ITER Organization has issued still more calls for proposals on
physics task agreements. The same procedures apply as were reported
last month. The work solicitations would be set up as task agreements
between the ITER Organization and the U.S. ITER Project Office. Anyone
who is interested in submitting a proposal on these tasks should send it
to the U.S. ITER Project Office for review and acceptance. Pricing
information should be submitted in a separate attachment. The U.S. ITER
Project Office will determine the appropriate credit to be requested from
the ITER Organization, obtain approval signatures, and finalize submittals
to ITER. For proposals that the ITER Organization accepts, the U.S. ITER
Project Office will set up the necessary contracts with the task performers,
since the funding will be provided through the U.S. ITER Project Office. If
there are any questions about the task agreements, please contact Wayne
Steffey
Here is a complete list of the recent task agreement solicitations.
Task |
Due to USIPO |
Due to ITER |
Period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Study of Plasma Start-up | April 9 | April 23 | 12 months |
| Study of Control of Plasma Current, Position and Shape | April 9 | April 23 | 12 months |
| Self Consistent Simulations of Plasma Scenarios | April 9 | April 23 | 12 months |
| Task on Simulations of Toroidal Field Ripple and TBM Effects on Energetic Particle Losses in ITER | April 9 | April 23 | 12 months |
| Preparation of design database with the updated disruption code DINA | May 6 | May 20 | 12 months |
| Task on magnetic reconstruction of the plasma boundary | June 5 | June 20 | 12 months |
| Task on the Error Fields Measurements without plasma | May 6 | May 20 | 12 months |
| Task on analysis of Resistive Wall Mode control by in-vessel (RMP) coils | June 5 | June 20 | 12 months |
| Task on the study of error fields using the Ideal Perturbed Equilibrium Code | Note [1] | ||
| Task on error fields measurements in ITER using plasma response | May 26 | June 9 | 12 months |
Note [1]: No deadline stated; IO wishes to discuss specifications and requirements with a contact person.
Update on ITER Special Expert Groups
The ITER Research Plan Working Group has begun its work on updating and extending the
ITER Research Plan document. In addition to several teleconference meetings, an on-site meeting
was held March 12-13 in Cadarache, and another such meeting will be held April 15-17. The goal
is to have Version 2 of the document ready for the 6th meeting of the ITER Science and Technology
Advisory Committee (May 25-27). The five U.S. participants are Michael Bell, Stan Milora,
Ed Synakowski, Mickey Wade, and Steve Wolfe.
The Integrated Modeling Expert Group for ITER has scheduled its annual meeting for June 22-26 in Cadarache, the week prior to the European Physical Society’s Plasma Physics Meeting. The two U.S. members of this expert group are Don Batchelor and Lang Lao.
The Test Blanket Module Program Committee held its first meeting March 25-26 in Aix-en-Provence. Participants from the U.S. were Jeff Hoy, Mike Hechler, Mohamed Abdou, and Larry Leiken (a USDOE legal expert on intellectual property matters). For future meetings of the TBM Program Committee, Rob Goldston will be the fourth U.S. participant. Dr. Satoshi Konishi of Japan serves as the chair of the Program Committee.
Research Needs Workshop (ReNeW)
All of the Theme area workshops were held during the month of March. A compilation of 21
preliminary "thrust snapshots" has been posted on the ReNeW web site (which is hosted by the USBPO).
The ten Theme area leaders and the three ReNeW leaders will hold an executive committee meeting
May 5-7 in Austin, TX, at which theme chapters will be presented and potential combinations of
priority research thrusts will be discussed. The full ReNeW workshop will be held June 8-12 in
Bethesda, MD. I’d like to point out that the USBPO is a strong contributor to this strategic
planning exercise. Of the 22 members of the USBPO Research Committee, two are serving as ReNeW
theme leaders, three as panel leaders, and 11 as panel members. Furthermore, of the 12 members
of the USBPO Council, four are serving as theme leaders, three as panel leaders, and three as
panel members. Undoubtedly, many other regular USBPO members are also involved in the ReNeW
activities. We look forward to its final report in July.
National Academies of Science Review
On July 29, 2008, the National Research Council of the U.S. National Academies of Science
released a pre-publication version of the final report of its Committee to Review the U.S.
ITER Science Participation Planning Process (CRISPPP). This special committee had been charged
with evaluating the Energy Policy Act (EPAct) Report, which was written by the USBPO in 2006.
The report of the CRISPPP panel is entitled "A Review of the DOE Plan for U.S. Fusion Community
Participation in the ITER Program." The pre-publication version and the executive summary can
be downloaded at http://www.nap.edu/catalog/12449.html. The final publication version became
available in early 2009 and is now available for purchase from the National Academies of
Science bookstore web site.
Upcoming ITPA meetings
Each of the ITPA topical groups typically holds two meetings per year. The schedule for the
spring meetings this year is given in the table below, compiled by Michiya Shimada
(ITER Organization).
Proposed ITPA Meetings in Spring 2009
Topical Group |
Date |
Place |
|---|---|---|
| Transport and Confinement | 31 March - 2 April 2009 | Naka (Japan) |
| Integrated Operation Scenarios | 31 March - 3 April 2009 | Naka (Japan) |
| Pedestal and Edge Physics | 20-22 April 2009 | Cadarache (France) |
| MHD | 21-24 April 2009 | Daejeon (Korea) |
| Energetic Particles | 21-24 April 2009 | Daejeon (Korea) |
| SOL and Divertor | 5-8 May 2009 | Utrecht Amsterdam (Netherlands) |
| Diagnostics | 20-24 April 2009 | St. Petersburg (Russia) |
| ITPA Coordinating Committee | 15-16 July 2009 | Cadarache (France) |
Compiled by M. Shimada on 6 January 2009 (Michiya.shimada@iter.org)
Announcments
Submit BPO-related announcements for next month’s eNews to Raffi Nazikian at rnazikian at pppl.gov.
Reports
Fusion For Energy (F4E) Task Force Meeting on W divertor for ITER.
Written by B. Lipschultz (MIT)
A task force was convened by the EU organization, Fusion for Energy (F4E),
to evaluate the option to Start Operation in ITER with a full tungsten divertor. The group
included mainly EU representatives. Bruce Lipschultz was asked to contribute a discussion on
the high-Z wall experience from C-Mod as well as the ITPA SOL/divertor plans in this area.
There were two Japanese representatives as well. The idea was to evaluate the status of
knowledge and risks associated with switching the startup of the high-heat flux region of
the ITER divertor to tungsten from carbon in the hopes that the DT phase could be reached
faster and money could be saved by not having to have a second divertor installed. The meeting was held at the ITER site on February 17-18 and consisted primarily of talks by the various physicists and engineers reporting on tokamak physics and engineering issues using tungsten on Plasma Facing Components (PFCs). The main risks were delineated as 1) damage by transient events, e.g. distruptions, ELMs,..., 2) tungsten impurity level in the core, 3) power handling issues, 4) surface morphology changes (and, thus, performance changes) in the ITER environment, and 5) restricted access to the projected ITER operational window. The task force members are currently writing 'work plans' to address these issues over the next 2-3 years with obvious overlap to ITER, ITPA, and EDFA PWI groups’ R&D plans. There will be a follow-up meeting in Madrid on April 29-30 to discuss work plans as well as more in-depth talks on material issues.
Upcoming Burning Plasma Events
Apr 20-22
ITPA Pedestal & Edge Physics Topical Group Meeting
Cadarache, France
Apr 20-24
ITPA Diagnostics Topical Group Meeting
St. Petersburg, Russia
Apr 21-24
Joint Meeting of the ITPA Energetic Particles Topical Group and the MHD Topical Group
Daejon, South Korea
Apr 28-May 1
Transport Task Force Workshop
San Diego, CA USA
May 2-5
Sherwood Theory Fusion
Conference / APS April Meeting
Boulder, CO USA
May 5-8
ITPA Sol & Divertor Topical Group Meeting
Utrecht Amsterdam, FOM Rijinhuizen
May 11-14
12th International Workshop
on Plasma-Facing Materials & Components for Fusion Applications
Julich, Germany
May 25-30
STAC, MAC CPWG
TBD
May 31-Jun 5
ICOPS-SOFE 2009 Conference
San Diego, CA USA
Jun 14-18
ANS Annual Meeting
Atlanta, GA USA
Jun 24-26
18th Conference on RF Power in Plasmas
Gent, Belgium
Jun 29-Jul 3
14th International Conference on
Emerging Nuclear Energy Systems (ICENES-2009)
Ericeira, Portugal
Jul 15-16
ITPA Coordinating Committee Meeting
Cadarache, France
Sep 6-11
6th International Conference on Inertial
Fusion Sciences and Applications (IFSA 2009)
San Francisco, CA USA
Sept 7-12
14th International Conference on Fusion
Reactor Materials (ICFRM-14)
Sapporo, Japan
Sept 21-24
14th International Symposium on
Laser-Aided Plasma Diagnostics (LAPD-14)
Castelbrando, Treviso, Italy
Oct 5-7
ITPA Transport & Confinement Topical Group Meeting
PPPL, USA
Oct 6-8
ITPA Pedestal & Edge Physics Topical Group Meeting
Princeton, New Jersey, USA
Oct 11-16
9th International Symposium on Fusion
Nuclear Technology (ISFNT-9)
Dalian, China
Nov 2-6
51st APS-DPP Meeting
Atlanta, GA USA
Nov 15-19
ANS Winter Meeting
Washington, DC USA
Fusion Research-related events can also be seen on the USBPO Events page at http://burningplasma.org/events.html