Of Interest archive

2019

1 Jul 2019

Video: All the stages of composite ring fabrication

The table turns slowly as strips of composite material are wound into a perfect ring. One hundred sixty-four turns later, the 3.4-tonne…
1 Jul 2019

Japan-France five-year cooperation plan includes ITER

In advance of the June G20 Summit in Osaka, Japan, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and French President Emmanuel Macron held …
17 Jun 2019

High-temp superconductor achieves record 45.5 Tesla

Superconductivity is a miracle of physics: when cooled down to temperatures close to absolute zero, certain alloys, or compounds, cease to…
14 Jun 2019

Register for the 10th "Festival de Théorie" in Aix-en-Provence

Every two years, the Festival de Théorie aims to promote interactions between PhD students, postdocs and young scientists in fusion plasma…
7 Jun 2019

INFUSE: new US program aims to accelerate fusion research

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has announced the launch of INFUSE, a program created to encourage partnerships in…
6 Jun 2019

The Economist: podcast on fusion

Fusion is the star of a recent Babbage podcast from The Economist, which aired on 5 June 2019. In "Fusing the future—a power struggle,…
27 May 2019

First crane hall columns

High above the concrete fortress that will house the ITER Tokamak, a steel lattice of pillars and beams will soon rise…
20 May 2019

Reversing the plasma shape?

Researchers from the MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center, PSFC, and the University of Texas at Austin have had promising results in terms…
20 May 2019

Assembling the second neutral beam testbed

At ITER's Neutral Beam Test Facility, one testbed has been launched and another is in the procurement/assembly phase. SPIDER—the ITER-scale…
20 May 2019

Modelling collaboration between ITER and TU/e

Physics of Plasmas (American Institute of Physics) has published a paper on research carried out under a collaboration between the…
13 May 2019

Fusion diagnostic may help diagnose cancerous tumours

In his time at DIFFER (the Dutch Institute for Fundamental Energy Research) and the Swiss Plasma Center, fusion researcher Wouter Vijvers…
13 May 2019

Magic metal, lithium, to be tested in LTX-β upgrade

Lithium, the light silvery metal used in everything from pharmaceutical applications to the batteries that power your smartphone or…
2 May 2019

Giving mega-science a big stage

Vigyan Samagam, the first-ever mega-science exhibition on show in India, starts its ten-month multi-venue tour at the Nehru Science Centre…
15 Apr 2019

Assembling testbed #2 for ITER's heating neutral beams

The ITER neutral beam injectors will be first of a kind, operating at 1MV with negative ion beams up to 40A. As part of a risk mitigation…
8 Apr 2019

Making a 1,000-tonne electromagnet

In this new photomontage by General Atomics and US ITER, watch how ITER's 1,000-tonne central electromagnet is fabricated in a specialized…
1 Apr 2019

JET secures funding through 2020

Funding has been secured for the Joint European Tokamak (JET) through the end of 2020, providing welcome visibility to the world's largest…
18 Mar 2019

Fusion Summer School at IPP (Germany)

Physics and engineering students of European universities are invited to attend the 2019 Summer University at the Max Planck Institute for…
15 Mar 2019

New device may stop plasma disruptions fast

Fusion scientists keep looking for ways to address the challenge of plasma disruptions, which can halt fusion reactions and potentially…
11 Mar 2019

56th Culham Plasma Physics Summer School

The 56h Culham Plasma Physics Summer School is open to applications.The school will cover fundamental plasma physics,  together with a…
11 Mar 2019

New tungsten alloy: potential material for fusion reactors

Researchers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in the United States have developed thin films made of a tungsten alloy that could be…