What’s New

19 May 2014

ITER news digest for the period of 12 May 2014 to 19 May 2014.

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Featured (4)

Of interest (6)

Video (1)

Press (9)

1,300 get a real sense of ITER

40 journalists, 15 countries and lots of explanations

Jamie gets a slice of the True Reactor

One flew over the Tokamak's nest

A conversation with Prof. Predhiman Krishan Kaw

In this video, Prof. Predhiman Krishan Kaw, the former Director of the Institute for Plasma Research (IPR) in Gandhinagar, India, speaks about his life, research in plasma physics and ... ITER.

Permalink : https://www.iter.org/of-interest?id=301

India and the historic global effort to find new energy

The energy source for the future is being incubated in Gandhinagar. Scientists of the city-based Institute of Plasma Research (IPR) are contributing to the heart of the world's biggest tokamak fusion reactor, ITER.

India is contributing to building the cryostat and vacuum vessel, which is the heaviest and the largest part of the ITER reactor where the fusion will take place. This is the biggest scientific collaboration known to humankind and will produce unlimited supplies of cheap, clean, and safe energy from atomic fusion.

Preparations for the operation of Wendelstein 7-X starting at IPP Greifswald

After years of calculation, planning, component production and installation, the Wendelstein 7-X project is now entering a new phase: in May the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP) in Greifswald, Germany began preparing for operation. Wendelstein 7-X will be the world's largest stellarator fusion device.

Read more on the IPP website.

Permalink : https://www.iter.org/of-interest?id=300

5 years, $2.5 million to explore hot edge of fusion plasmas

Physicist Brian Grierson of the US Department of Energy's (DOE's) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) has won a highly competitive Early Career Research Program award sponsored by the DOE's Office of Science. The five-year grant will total some $2.5 million and fund exploration of the mechanisms that govern the formation and maintenance of the hot edge of fusion plasmas — the electrically charged gas that results in fusion reactions in facilities called tokamaks. The work will be carried out on the DIII-D National Fusion Facility in San Diego.

Read more on the PPPL website.

Permalink : https://www.iter.org/of-interest?id=299

Nuclear startups reimagine atomic energy

To most people, the outlook for nuclear power wouldn't seem bright. The Fukushima disaster in Japan three years ago increased public resistance to the industry. Cheap natural gas is undercutting its competitiveness. Aging nuclear plants around the country, including Vermont Yankee in Vernon, Vt., are shutting down.

But into this bleak environment come two startups with roots at MIT hoping to revive an industry that has long struggled to make a comeback. Their technologies aim to solve issues that have bedeviled nuclear power for decades: safety, cost, and radioactive waste.

Transatomic Power, a three-person firm sharing incubator space at the Cambridge Innovation Center, is designing a reactor that would be cheaper than coal and generate electricity from spent fuel rods — aka radioactive waste — piling up in the nation's nuclear plants. UPower Technologies is developing a miniature atomic power plant that would be cheaper and cleaner than diesel generators used in remote locations.

Read the whole article on bostonglobe website.

Permalink : https://www.iter.org/of-interest?id=298

A letter from the ITER Director-General on the meeting of the Fourteenth ITER Council

The ITER Project is a global project that brings together seven Members: China, the European Union, India, Japan, Korea, Russia and the United States. It aims to contribute a viable solution to the energy and environmental challenges facing humankind. By producing 500 MW of thermal power, ITER will demonstrate the availability and integration of the science, the technology, and the safety features of a fusion reactor.

Since 1985, when the ITER Project was given a decisive political push, the world has experienced many crises. In 2007, at the Elysée Palace in Paris, the seven Members signed the Joint Implementation Agreement that formally established the ITER Organization. As a long-term international project, aimed at providing mankind with a safe and unlimited energy source, ITER has made it a rule to keep away from the world's political and diplomatic discussions.

It is ITER's philosophy that the project should not be impacted by situations or events developing outside its direct area of competence. ITER Organization Director-General Osamu Motojima has sent the attached letter to the Heads of Delegations of the seven ITER Members to voice his concern about the current international situation "and its possible political impact on the ITER Project." The ITER Director-General strongly encourages the seven ITER Members, together with the ITER Organization, to proactively work at solving any issue.

Thanks to great effort of the ITER Council Chair, all Members have been working very harmoniously to ensure that world situations do not affect the progress of the project. We are very glad to know that if some Members have issues, the rest will work with them to find a solution that is acceptable to all. Fifty percent of the world population and 80 percent of GDP are represented by the seven Members of ITER. The ITER Project creates a new collaborative culture and standard aimed at solving energy and environmental problems and contributing to world peace.