ITER to sign cooperation agreement with ADAS

The ITER Council at its fourth meeting in June approved the conclusion of an agreement with the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland, for the ITER Organization's participation in the ADAS project.

ADAS, short for Atomic Data and Analysis Structure, is a computer program and data package originally developed at JET under the direction of the University of Strathclyde, and widely used in the analysis of existing fusion experiments. ADAS is an interconnected set of computer codes and data collections for modelling the radiating properties of the ions and atoms in fusion plasmas.

The ITER team had previous access to the ADAS software and data via agreements with laboratories hosting the ITER worksites. Now that the ITER Organization has been established as a legal entity, the continued use of ADAS within ITER's physics and diagnostics activities requires the establishment of a formal agreement with the University of Strathclyde, which is due to be signed this summer. The agreement would establish ITER as a voting member of ADAS project—a status shared by other major fusion laboratories.

ADAS will be an essential tool for accurate predictive modelling of many aspects of the ITER plasma scenarios. Data from ADAS will be used for plasma simulation codes and in the design analysis of ITER diagnostic systems. It will enable divertor design support and the assessment of divertor performance in planned operational scenarios. Long-term, ADAS will be used in the treatment of experimental data obtained during ITER operation.