IMPLEMENTING AGREEMENT FOR CO-OPERATION TOKAMAK PROGRAMMES
ANNUAL REPORT
2014

 

INTRODUCTION

 

CHAIR’S REPORT

 

MEMBERSHIP

 

ACTIVITIES AND PLANS FOR 2015

                Status Reports / Achievements

 

FINANCING

 

CONTACT INFORMATION

 

APPENDIX I

                Minutes of the 5th Executive Committee Meeting

 

INTRODUCTION

The International Energy Agency (IEA) is an autonomous agency established in 1974. The IEA carries out a comprehensive programme of energy co-operation among 28 advanced economies, each of which is obliged to hold oil stocks equivalent to 90 days of its net imports. The aims of the IEA are to:

·         Secure member countries’ access to reliable and ample supplies of all forms of energy; in particular, through maintaining effective emergency response capabilities in case of oil supply disruptions.

·         Promote sustainable energy policies that spur economic growth and environmental protection in a global context – particularly in terms of reducing greenhouse-gas emissions that contribute to climate change.

·         Improve transparency of international markets through collection and analysis of energy data.

·         Support global collaboration on energy technology to secure future energy supplies and mitigate their environmental impact, including through improved energy efficiency and development and deployment of low-carbon technologies.

·         Find solutions to global energy challenges through engagement and dialogue with non-member countries, industry, international organisations and other stakeholders.

To attain these goals, increased co-operation between industries, businesses and government energy technology research is indispensable. The public and private sectors must work together, share burdens and resources, while at the same time multiplying results and outcomes.

The multilateral technology initiatives (Implementing Agreements) supported by the IEA are a flexible and effective framework for IEA member and non-member countries, businesses, industries, international organisations and non-government organisations to research breakthrough technologies, to fill existing research gaps, to build pilot plants, to carry out deployment or demonstration programmes – in short to encourage technology-related activities that support energy security, economic growth and environmental protection.

More than 6,000 specialists carry out a vast body of research through these various initiatives. To date, more than 1,000 projects have been completed. There are currently 41 Implementing Agreements (IA) working in the areas of:

·         Cross-Cutting Activities (information exchange, modelling, technology transfer)

·         End-Use (buildings, electricity, industry, transport)

·         Fossil Fuels (greenhouse-gas mitigation, supply, transformation)

·         Fusion Power (international experiments)

·         Renewable Energies and Hydrogen (technologies and deployment)

The IAs are at the core of a network of senior experts consisting of the Committee on Energy Research and Technology (CERT), four working parties and three expert groups. A key role of the CERT is to provide leadership by guiding the IAs to shape work programmes that address current energy issues productively, by regularly reviewing their accomplishments, and suggesting reinforced efforts where needed. For further information on the IEA, the CERT and the IAs, please consult www.iea.org/techagr.

The scope of the Implementing Agreement for Co-operation on Tokamak Programmes (CTP IA) is to further the science and technology of large tokamaks by engaging in co-operative actions relating to the further development of the tokamak concept to make maximum use of the scientific facilities in the countries of the contracting parties.

CHAIR’S REPORT

            Short summary

The CTP IA, in conjunction with bi-lateral agreements, continues to provide an excellent method to carry out ITER research needs and advance fusion science. During 2014, the tokamaks programmes involved in this IA provided essential data and operating experience for ITER and for the advancement of the tokamak concept.

During its 5th meeting, the Executive Committee confirmed or agreed to the following:

–    unanimously elected Richard Pitts (ITER) as chair of the CTP-IA executive committee,

–    unanimously agreed to reissue the invitation to ROSATOM Russia to join the CTP-IA,

–    adopted the Personnel Assignment reports for Jan. 2014 – Dec. 2014 and the Proposals for Assignments and Remote Participation for Jan. 2015 – Dec. 2015,

–    agreed to the proposal by the US to organise a follow up Workshop focussed on well diagnosed experiments that can provide information to validate or disprove models for disruptions, EU continues in roles of the secretariat and the CTP WEB management; and

–    the next (18th) ITPA CC meeting, the Workshop on Joint Experiments and the 6th CTP ExCo meeting to be held consecutively at Cadarache, France on 7-9 December 2015.

 

            Executive Committee

 

                        Minutes of the 5th ExCo Meeting are attached as Appendix I.

 

MEMBERSHIP

            Contracting Parties

 

European Union

 

South Korea

Japan

 

India

United States of America

ITER

 

China

 

 

ACTIVITIES

            Status Reports / Achievements

                       

Reports from the ITPA Coordination Committee Meeting

China Report, Ge Zhuang

In China from 2008 to 2014 a total of about 80 ITER-related projects (~440 M$) were supported involving about 20 institutes and universities with more than 50 affiliations. The progress on tokamak research in China includes developments on EAST, HL-2A, small-size machines, ITPA Topical Group activity in China, and the next step of Magnetic Confinement Research in China.

The EAST tokamak significantly enhanced its Heating and Current Drive capability with 8 MW of Neutral Beam Injection (NBI) at (50-80 kV), 4 MW of Electron Cyclotron Resonant Heating (ECRH) (140 GHz), 12 MW of Ion Cyclotron Resonant Heating (ICRH) (25-75 MHz) and 10 MW of Lower Hybrid Current Drive (LHCD) (2.45 and 4.6 GHz) now available. This allows sufficient power to probe beta limits, variable rotation and rotation shear, current profile control and sustainment, dominant electron heating and control of plasma instabilities. Also the newly upgraded plasma-facing components and Resonant Magnetic Perturbation (RMP) coils will facilitate long pulse operation in the EAST Tokamak. Using the Resonant Magnetic Perturbation Coils ELM frequencies have been increased by a factor of 5. A long-pulse H-mode up to 28 seconds with H98 ~1.15 was achieved using the new LHCD system (4.6 GHz) and nearly fully non-inductive long pulse H-mode was developed using LHCD+NBI modulation.  Active control of divertor power deposition was achieved by the combination of LHCD and Supersonic Molecular Beam Injection (SMBI).

The heating and current drive capability on HL-2A of 3 MW NBI  at (40-50 kV, ECRH: 3 MW/68 GHz + 2 MW /140 GHz and LHCD: 2 MW/3.7 GHz/2s allows the study of advanced tokamak physics, fast electron physics, current drive and profile control, plasmas with dominant electron heating and NTM control. Two types of limit cycle oscillations were observed in HL-2A during L-I-H-mode confinement transitions. NTMs driven by transient Te perturbations induced by non-local transport were observed for the first time in HL-2A.

DIII-D/EAST joint experiments successfully demonstrated fully non-inductive scenarios with transformer-less operation for 5 s. Good alignment of bootstrap and total current profiles maintains an internal transport barrier with steady-state operation. Excellent energy confinement and high normalized pressure is maintained with low NBI torque.

 

EU Report, Tony Donne

A restructuring of the EU programme led to the establishment of EUROfusion which was officially launched in October 2014, involving 29 Research Units in 27 European countries, and working together to achieve the ultimate goal of Fusion Energy as outlined in the EU roadmap to the realisation of fusion energy.  This roadmap includes 8 Strategic Missions to tackle all challenges in two main areas: ITER Physics with the objective of preparing and risk mitigation of ITER operation with experiments on JET, Medium Size Tokamaks, Plasma-Facing Component devices, and DEMO conceptual design studies for a single step to commercial fusion power plants and the production of electricity with a closed fuel cycle. In the roadmap, significant stellarator research is carried out as a back-up strategy.  The Work Packages addressing ITER physics issues include the exploitation of JET via experimental campaigns and enhancements aiming at preparation of DT operation in ITER, the exploitation of medium size tokamaks via experimental campaigns and enhancements and the preparation for exploitation of JT-60SA.  In addition, key issues related to the investigation of PFCs for ITER and preparation of efficient PFC operation, assessment of alternative divertor and liquid metal PFCs and the definition and design of the Divertor Tokamak Test facility are addressed as well as the exploitation of W7-X through experimental campaigns aiming at stellarator optimisation.

The Work Packages for the development of Power Plant Physics and Technology focus on materials research; the design of an early neutron source, breeding blankets, safety and environment, design integration and physics integration, magnet systems, divertor, tritium and fuelling, heating and current drive, diagnostics and control, remote maintenance systems, containment structures, heat transfer and balance-of-plant.  

The EU Tokamak operation focusses on the use of metallic walls: in ASDEX Upgrade with the conversion to all W PFCs completed with an outer bulk W-divertor, the use of bare steel tiles on the machine central column and a new divertor manipulator allowing large area sample insertion; in JET with the ITER-like wall (JET-ILW) using Beryllium and tungsten (W) PFCs; the foreseen integrated test of scenario compatibility in DT and the WEST project to access the long pulse operation with actively cooled W-monoblock components.

At JET, it was shown that the operational window is narrower with the JET-ILW, but good confinement was achieved with the strike-points close to the pump duct entrance. Stationary type I ELMy H-modes were developed at JET with gas fuelling to reduce W sources, sufficient ELM frequency to flush the W, central heating to avoid W peaking and heat exhaust control to protect the PFCs. Robust target power flux control schemes need to be tested across machines for ITER such as divertor detachment which is key to ITER. In ASDEX-Upgrade using N seeding Psep/R=10MW/m (the key divertor identity parameter provided that densities are similar) was demonstrated. 

Regarding the status of W7-X, the main-device assembly was completed in May 2014, device commissioning is on track and with first plasma planned for summer 2015. The operation of W7-X is organised in an uncooled carbon limiter phase, a carbon uncooled divertor phase and an actively-cooled carbon divertor with the possibility of a metal divertor in the future.   

 

India Report, Joydeep Ghosh

The SST-1 tokamak has the objective of establishing a unique window of large tokamak superconducting magnet cryo-stable operation with two-phase helium and vapor cooled current lead operation with cold helium instead of liquid helium at nominal conditions (BT = 1.5 T). The SST-1 tokamak successfully achieved ECH assisted plasma break-down and current ramp up in both fundamental and second harmonic mode with low loop voltage (E < 0.4 V/m). Circular ohmic discharges with Ip ~ 50 – 70 kA; maximum discharge duration of ~ 400 ms; line averaged electron density ~ 0.5 x 1019 m-3 and toroidal magnetic field of ~ 1.5 T were achieved.

In the Aditya tokamak, regular operation at 150 kA was achieved and disruptions induced by hydrogen gas puffing were successfully mitigated by applying ICRH power through a fast wave antenna. A Localized Vertical Magnetic field (LVF) perturbation technique was successfully employed to mitigate Runway Electrons (REs). The perturbation causes no disruption of the thermal component of the plasma, hence REs can be extracted without disturbing the plasma. The runaway current contribution to the main current is reduced and the discharge parameters are also improved. In addition, Radiative Improved (RI) modes were developed using Ne gas puffing.

 

Japan Report, Yutaka, KAMADA

A joint core team towards research and development of a fusion DEMO power plant was assembled and the objectives outlined in a report published on 18 July 2014 (in Japanese). An English version will be released in 2015. This report covers the concept of DEMO including the changes in the energy situation and social requirements; fundamental strategy; development strategy and the basic concepts required for DEMO. In addition, the report addressed the DEMO technology issues including superconducting coils, blanket, divertor; heating and current drive systems, theory and numerical simulation research, reactor plasma research, fuel systems, material development and standards/criteria, safety of a DEMO reactor and safety research, availability and maintainability and diagnostics as well as points of reactor design activity for international cooperation and collaboration. 

Regarding the recent results and future plans on LHD, upgrades to the machine capability have allowed new operation scenarios extending the LHD operational regimes with the achievement of high ion temperature Ti ~ 8.1 keV, ne ~ 1019 m-3 and ion heating, ICRF wall conditioning with confinement improvement, integrated high temperatures Ti ~ Te ~ 6 keV, ne ~ 1.5x1019 m-3 with the superposition of ECH on high Ti plasma and the achievement of steady state operation Te ~ Ti ~ 2 keV, ne ~ 1.2 x 1019 m-3 with 1.2 MW for 47.5 minutes with a total injected energy of 3.36 GJ. The agreements for the LHD deuterium experiment with local government bodies were concluded on March 28, 2013. Deuterium experiments will begin in 2016, and during the planned subsequent 9 years of experiments, 10 keV ion temperatures should be achieved, aiming at experiments with up to 3MW of heating for one hour. The neutral beam injectors will be upgraded for deuterium beam injection, which has higher ion heating efficiency.

Regarding the status of the Broader Approach activities, the installation of an injector for the Linear IFMIF Prototype Accelerator (LIPAc) was completed and beam tests have been initiated by the JAEA, CEA and IFMIF/EVEDA Project Team. Remarkable progress has been achieved in the Computer Simulation Centre and ITER Remote Experimentation Centre activities with efficient joint work of EU and JA on the DEMO design Joint work to design feasible DEMO concepts. EU and JA designers met 24 times to address critical design issues and to envisage feasible concepts. The activity provides the best directions, leading to the development of DEMO.

Large-scale simulations for magnetic confinement fusion have been performed in the Computer Simulation Centre with a Linpack performance of 1.23 PTflops (as of June 2014, worlds 30th fastest), maintaining extremely high availability (> 98%) and running rate (> 85 %) and contributing significantly to research with 275 publications and 847 presentations.

JT-60SA continues to progress well and manufacturing is on schedule in both EU and JA; JT-60U disassembly was completed in October 2012, toroidal field coil winding has begun, the TF coil test facility has been almost completed and tokamak assembly began in January 2013 by installing the cryostat base. The lower 3 poloidal field coils were completed with high accuracy and all TF coils will be tested at CEA-Saclay before delivery to the Naka site. Prototype current leads for the TF coils were completed and integrated into a test facility and four current leads for the TF coils have now been manufactured. Joint-welding of the vacuum vesssel sectors will continue until the end of September 2015 to form 340° of the vessel, with the final  20° sector left open until TF cil assembly. At the present, 7 40°sectors = 280° have been placed on the cryostat base.  The first two-frequency gyrotron (110 and 138 GHz) has achieved the development target of 1 MW x 100 s at both frequencies. Regarding the development of the negative ion source for the JT-60SA injectors, the pulse duration has been extended from 30 s at 13A to 100 s at 15A, meeting design requirements. The JT-60SA Research plan was updated to Ver 3.1 in 2013 with 331 co-authors, of which 150 from Japan (76 from JAEA, 74 from 15 Universities) and 176 from EU (10 countries, 24 institutes).

 

South Korea Report, Jong-Gu KWAK

In KSTAR, NBI and ECH power upgrades enabled KSTAR to explore more exciting regimes in 2014, which now includes co-tangential NBI with 3 beams with a total of  4.5 MW at 95 keV, 170 GHz ECH at 1 MW for 50 s, 110 GHz ECH at 0.7 MW for 2 s, 30 MHz ICRF at 1 MW for 10 s and 5 GHz LHCD at 0.5 MW for 2 s. The operational capability of KSTAR has also been substantially enhanced by the newly commissioned MG and auxiliary power upgrades. Full graphite, water-cooled PFCs are now installed, together with an in-vessel cryopump. High beta (βN~4) above the no-wall limit has been transiently achieved by optimising the plasma current and magnetic field with auxiliary power ~ 3 MW. The low error field and magnetic field ripple in KSTAR is ideal for 3D and rotation physics studies. The low value of the error field was confirmed to be ~10-5, allowing q95 = 2 to be crossed without MHD instabilities. Modular 3-D field coils (3 poloidal rows / 4 toroidal column of coils) provide flexible poloidal spectra of low n magnetic perturbations for 3-D magnetic perturbation studies. The long-pulse, quasi-steady-state H-mode discharge in KSTAR has been extended and sustained for 43 seconds at 0.6 MA (more than 20 resistive times). ELM-suppression was achieved and sustained by a single row of Resonant Magnetic Perturbation Coils for up to 5 s. Extension of ELM suppression requires stable control of the plasma shape and position in order to access the narrow operation window and a substantially expanded operation window for n=1 RMP ELM-suppression has been found. The reduced heat flux and dispersal at the outer divertor is confirmed for RMP (n=1) ELM mitigation with newly installed divertor target viewing IR cameras. Steady progress is being made in KSTAR to define access conditions to steady-state operation and ICRF power has been successfully coupled to NB heated H-mode plasmas, resulting in an increase of the central electron temperature.

 

ITER Report, Richard Pitts, Joe Snipes, Alberto Loarte, David Campbell

Much of the ITER design is now complete and manufacturing activities have been launched, so that physics R&D studies must increasingly emphasize how best to exploit the ITER facility to achieve the project’s goals. Nevertheless, some design issues remain to be resolved: for example, the substantial challenges which remain in developing a disruption mitigation system capable of operating reliably at the ITER scale require a significant continuing research programme, while the detailed design of ITER’s plasma facing components is being supported by tokamak experiments addressing SOL characteristics. Significant collaborations have also been established, inter alia, to improve the physics understanding of ELM control, to develop an approach to correcting error fields produced by ITER’s ferromagnetic test blanket modules, to better understand the core plasma behaviour of high-Z impurities associated with the use of a W divertor and to develop elements of the plasma control capability required to support reliable operation in ITER plasmas. Such collaborations, involving most of the ITER Members’ main fusion facilities and relying extensively on the CTP-IA and ITPA activities, are fundamental to advancing the physics basis for ITER operation and in mitigating operational risks. At the ITER Organization (IO), physics R&D is coordinated, and often pursued in-house through three separate Sections addressing confinement and modelling, stability and control and plasma-wall interactions.  Activities in these separate areas for 2014 are described separately below.

Divertor physics and plasma-wall interactions

Efforts in 2014 have been dominated by reinforcement of the physics basis for the full W divertor, in particular the investigation of the effects of high particle fluence (both H isotopes and He), the likelihood and consequences of surface topological modification due to heavy transients and the physics of plasma interaction on leading edges in support of design decisions for W monoblock surface shaping. A monoblock shaping design decision is scheduled to be taken at the IO by the beginning of 2016, the last remaining major design aspect to be finalized for the divertor. In support of this milestone, a series of new ITPA tasks in the Divertor and SOL area has been launched in late 2014 to study the key outstanding physics issues in the area of edge power loading, with experiments planned throughout 2015 on a total of 10 different tokamak, stellarator and linear plasma facilities within the ITER Partners.

In the area of plasma-facing component (PFC) shaping, but now concentrating on the first wall, 2014 saw the completion at IO of a 3 year programme of physics study, involving results from nine different tokamaks (in part coordinated through the ITPA), to construct a new physics basis for the heat flow parallel to the magnetic field in the SOL during limiter plasmas. A new paradigm has emerged from these studies, revealing the presence of an extremely narrow heat flow channel near the last closed flux surface, which seems to be common to both limiter and divertor configurations and is now the subject of intense study in the community. As a result of this work, a new first wall panel shape has been proposed for the ITER inner wall panels allowing significantly improved power handling during plasma start-up.  Engineers are now implementing the proposed modification.

Work has also continued on more refined predictions of dust generation and tritium retention in ITER, both in support of questions from the Nuclear Regulator and as input to the design of dust and fuel retention diagnostics which are now proceeding through conceptual design phases at the IO. Throughout 2014, efforts have continued in the preparation of a new version of the SOLPS plasma boundary simulation tool which will incorporate all of the many physics improvements which have been added to various versions of the code in past years.  The new version, SOLPS-ITER, will become the standard at the IO and, it is hoped, throughout the Member’s physics institutions. A major launch workshop for the new code will be held at IO in April 2015, already full subscribed, with over 40 participants from all ITER Parties.  

Stability and control

The IO participated in new experiments on DIII-D which demonstrate that loss of stability in low-torque ITER baseline scenarios with magnetic fields introduced by a Test Blanket Module (TBM) mock-up coil can be avoided using only n=1 compensation fields generated by a single row of ex-vessel control coils, similar to the equatorial correction coils planned for ITER, enabling sustained operation at ITER performance metrics.  With correction fields applied, operation below the ITER-equivalent injected torque is successful at three times the ITER equivalent toroidal magnetic field ripple for a pair of TBMs (with 1.3 tons of ferromagnetic material each) in one equatorial port.  At high plasma pressure, where n=1 field amplification is enhanced, uncorrected TBM fields degrade energy confinement and the plasma angular momentum, but do not trigger a disruption owing to increased levels of applied torque.  Compensation of the n=1 component of the non-axisymmetric magnetic field recovers most of the performance impact of the TBM.  However, plasma rotation braking from the TBM fields cannot be fully recovered using standard error field control, which suggests that the proposed limits on the amount of ferromagnetic material permitted in each TBM should be strictly observed. 

The IO was involved in the preparation and execution of JET disruption experiments on runaway electrons and massive gas injection in 2014. These experiments focused on characterizing the heat loads caused by runaways and developing a mitigation scheme suitable for ITER. One important finding was the absence of any mitigating effect during the injection into a mature runaway beam.  Saturation in the current quench duration, which would be beneficial for limiting eddy current loads, has been found at the highest injection rates. The IO also participated in the ongoing programme to build an improved physics basis for disruption prediction and to develop more advanced disruption predictors for JET and ASDEX-Upgrade. A study of the amplitude of MHD perturbations at the start of the disruption thermal quench was performed and a general scaling derived to extrapolate these amplitudes to ITER.  Moreover, the survey of disruption causes at JET was complemented by a similar study on ASDEX-Upgrade and is now being further extended to studies on KSTAR.

Core plasma transport and pedestal physics

Experiments characterizing core transport of tungsten (injected by laser blow-off) in electron heated H-mode plasmas without central sources and ITER-like density profiles were performed in Alcator C-Mod. The results show that (in agreement with ITER modelling) W accumulation in the core plasma is unlikely to occur in these plasmas since the central density gradient is very moderate due to the lack of a central particle source (i.e. no NBI fuelling).

Transport processes during the termination of H-mode scenarios in ITER have been studied through analysis of plasma behaviour during the termination phase of JET H-modes over a large range of conditions (1.5 to 4.0 MA), simulations of these plasmas at the IO, and modelling of ITER plasmas by external experts under IO supervision. The results of the JET experimental analysis show that the margin of the edge power flow above the L-H transition is the key parameter determining the time interval in which the plasma remains in H-mode and the rate at which the plasma energy decreases after the switch off of the additional heating in the termination of H-mode plasmas. Application of core plasma modelling (validated against JET experiments) to ITER reveals that, for the termination phase of high Q scenarios, the edge power flow remains higher than the L-H transition power over a significant time (typically ~ 5-10 s), which keeps the plasma in the H-mode regime and slows down the decrease of the plasma energy to timescales of ~4-8 s, i.e. much longer than previously evaluated on the basis of an immediate transition to L-mode (~1.8 s). This has positive implications regarding the control of radial plasma position in the H-L transition phase and on the expected power fluxes to PFCs during the sudden termination of high Q ITER scenarios due to malfunction of heating systems.

JOREK modelling of ELM triggering by pellets has been applied to JET-ILW plasmas in order to understand the observed lack of ELM triggering when pellets are injected shortly after an ELM crash. An important finding is that in order to trigger ELMs in the early phase of the ELM cycle larger pellets are required than later in the ELM cycle when the pedestal pressure approaches the edge MHD stability limit.

Experiments in He H-modes with ECH and NBI heating were carried out at DIII-D tokamak to address key R&D issues for the development of plasma scenarios in the non-active phase of the ITER Research Plan. The plasma behaviour was characterized and the requirements for ELM control explored for the two ELM control schemes in the ITER baseline namely: application of 3-D edge magnetic field perturbations and pellet triggering. It was found that the specifications required for control of ELMs in He plasmas with 3-D fields and D pellets are similar to those in D plasmas with similar shape/plasma current/toroidal field, although the degree of ELM control achieved differs for 3-D fields (for pellet triggering the results in D and He are virtually the same). This is associated with the different plasma parameters achieved in He compared to D H-modes: ELM suppression in He at low bN (operating near the L-H threshold) while at high bN only ELM mitigation is achieved in He plasmas (compared to ELM suppression in D plasmas).

Identification of the physics processes responsible for pedestal behaviour in the QH-mode and relevance of this regime to ITER has involved experiments in the DIII-D tokamak which have demonstrated that the QH-mode can be achieved at high density (as required in ITER). In parallel, modelling of the edge MHD stability of these DIII-D plasmas has been performed by IO staff with the JOREK code. This has demonstrated that the dominant edge MHD instability in these plasmas is a low n external kink mode, triggered by the large current densities present in the low collisionality conditions. The mode then saturates due to non-linear coupling with other higher n modes. This saturated kink mode presents many of the features seen in the DIII-D experiments and it is found to provide enough particle transport to explain the saturation of the pedestal growth and the absence of ELMs. In principle, such behaviour is compatible with ITER edge plasma conditions in H-mode, but JOREK modelling for ITER to address this point is in progress.

 

US Report, Steve ECKSTRAND

The U.S. Fusion Energy Sciences Program is being reorganized around four themes—Burning Plasma- Foundations, Burning Plasma-Long Pulse, Burning Plasma-High Power, and Discovery Plasma Science The new organization does not directly affect the three major tokamak programs, which are included in the Burning Plasma-Foundations theme, but does increase the importance of international collaborations on long pulse facilities, which are included in the Burning Plasma-Long Pulse theme. Since the U.S. does not currently have any long pulse fusion facilities, all work in this area will be accomplished through international collaborations.

During 2014 Alcator C-Mod and DIII-D had successful research campaigns, with Alcator C-Mod operating for about 12 weeks and DIII-D operating for more than 15 weeks. NSTX did not operate during 2014 because it is shut down for a major upgrade. This NSTX Upgrade project is proceeding on schedule.

Experiments on Alcator C-Mod focused on significant ITER research needs and the high-magnetic development path to fusion power. The C-Mod team made progress in many areas including I-mode scaling and extrapolation, efficient Lower Hybrid (LH) off-axis current drive, the use of Lower Hybrid for improvement of pedestal pressure and global confinement, ICRF heating using a field-aligned antenna, and the implications of the narrow SOL power channel for ITER inner-wall design.

Experiments in C-Mod have determined that the I-mode power threshold is independent of the toroidal magnetic field, whereas the H-mode power threshold increases with toroidal magnetic field. Thus, the I-mode operating window increases with increasing toroidal field, which is favorable for ITER. This result may also explain why the I-mode operating window is limited in DIII-D and ASDEX-Upgrade.

During calendar year 2014, DIII-D has carried out approximately 15 weeks of physics operations with a few more weeks planned in early 2015. Experimental research during 2014 was coordinated by the physics groups in the DIII-D Experimental Science Division: (a) Burning Plasma Physics; (b) Plasma Dynamics and Control; (c) Boundary and Pedestal Physics. In addition, experiments were also conducted by the DIII-D Disruption Mitigation task force and the 3D Plasma Response task force. Experiments during this Campaign focused on resolving key issues for ITER design decisions, enhancing the physics basis for ITER Q=10 scenarios, assessing a range of options for steady-state operation in ITER and future devices, and developing a validated physics basis of key processes for predicting the performance in ITER and future devices.

The highest priority elements of research program focused on important ITER issues, especially disruption mitigation and test blanket module experiments. Disruption mitigation experiments with massive gas injection (MGI) confirm that the structure of the MHD mode induced by MGI is consistent with NIMROD simulations. With one MGI valve, the heat flux due to the 1/1 mode is peaked 180 degrees away from the valve. With two valves separated poloidally and toroidally by 120 degrees, the toroidal heat flux peaking factor is reduced. Test blanket module (TBM) experiments were carried out with and without n=1 error field correction. At low input torque without n=1 error field correction, the TBM field damps plasma rotation leading to error field penetration, which leads to beta collapse and disruption. With optimized n=1 error field correction, it is possible to achieve stable operation with ITER equivalent torque input up to the maximum possible TBM field. Error field correction also reduced hot spots on the TBM tiles due to fast ion losses.

During 2014, the NSTX Upgrade (NSTX-U) team continued to make rapid progress on the Upgrade Project. They completed the winding of the OH coil over the toroidal field magnet inner bundle and then completed the VPI of the entire TF-OH center stack. They also inserted the TF-OH center stack in the center stack casing, mounted the carbon tiles onto the casing, and installed the entire assembly in the center of the NSTX-U vacuum vessel. Installation of the connections between the inner and outer conductors of the TF magnet coils in in progress.

The refurbishment and relocation of the second neutral beam line has been completed, and the alignment of the beam line has also been accomplished. The installation of the ion sources and internal beam line hardware has been completed. The duct between the beam line and the vessel has been installed and the vacuum vessel is being pumped down. The installation of the neutral beam power supplies is complete, and initial testing of the beam line is scheduled for late December or early January 2015.

Collaborative Activities

There were a wide range of bilateral and multi-lateral collaborations in 2014. The following is a list of completed personnel exchanges.

EU – US: 5 Exchanges, 61 ppd

IO – EU: 14 Exchanges, 38 ppd

IO – KO: 2 Exchanges, 9 ppd

IO – US: 4 Exchanges, 35 ppd

IO – JA: 1 Exchange, 3 ppd

JA – EU: 6 Exchanges, 2 ppy, 23 ppd

JA – US: 2 Exchanges, 8 ppd

KO – EU: 2 Exchanges, 7 ppd

US – EU: 10 Exchanges, 1 ppy, 73 ppd

US – KO: 11 Exchanges, 174 ppd

 

Many other exchanges took place under bilateral agreements.

 

Plans for 2015

An additional International Workshop on theory and simulation of disruptions will be hosted by Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, U.S.A., in 2015 and the 5th ExCo Meeting will be held at ITER Headquarters in December 2015.

2015 research will focus on final ITER design decisions and physics validation. New capabilities at DIII-D will include improved shell pellet injection (disruption mitigation); lithium granular injection (pellet pacing), a prototype helicon antenna, polarimetry, upgraded SOL flow and Ti measurements using Coherence Imaging. The NSTX Upgrade Project is nearly complete with first plasma foreseen for March 2015 and scientific experiments in May 2015.

For JET, ASDEX-Upgrade and TCV the Task Force Leaders will draft an experimental programme to implement on each device in a common General Planning Meeting to be held in January 2015 in Lausanne, Switzerland. The first plasma of W7X is planned for the summer 2015.

The next step for magnetic confinement development in China focuses on the preparation of the Chinese Fusion Engineering Test Reactor (CFETR). CFETR should be based on the ITER design and should face the challenges of a pure fusion energy reactor: steady-state operation, tritium breeding, etc. CFETR engineering design is based on the available materials, but the device should become one of the test facilities for developing the materials under fusion reactor conditions for DEMO or FPP.

SST-1 plans for 2015 include the installation of first wall components, LHCD experiments and development of a superconducting central solenoid; and to upgrade the Aditya tokamak to allow divertor operation, with machine disassembly beginning in March 2015.

 

COMMUNICATION  

The chair has invited Russia to join the Implementing Agreement.

FINANCING

Unless otherwise agreed by the Contracting Parties in writing, each Contracting Party shall bear its own costs in carrying out the activities under this Agreement and any Annexes, including the costs of formulating or transmitting reports and of reimbursing its employees for travel and other per diem expenses.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEMBERS

CHINA

D. Luo

 

ITER China

K. He

 

ITER China

 

EUROPEAN UNION

F. Romanelli

 

EFDA/JET

Lars-Göran Eriksson

 

EFDA/JET

INDIA

P. Kaw

 

Institute for Plasma Research

R. Jha

 

Institute for Plasma Research

ITER

O. Motojima

 

ITER Organization

R. Haange

 

ITER Organization

JAPAN

M. Mori

 

JAEA

Y. Kamada

 

JAEA

KOREA

J-G. Kawk

 

NFRI

Y-K. Oh

 

NFRI

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

S. Eckstrand (Chair)

 

DoE, Office of Fusion Energy Sciences

R. Hawryluk

 

PPPL

 

Note that several changes will be made to this membership list in the course of 2015 as a result of departures and new nominations. The 2014 Chair (S. Eckstrand) has retired and is replaced by R. A, Pitts, ITER Organization.

 

CONTACT INFORMATION

For more information, contact richard.pitts@iter.org

 

 

APPENDIX I

 

 

5th Executive Committee Meeting of the

Implementing Agreement for

CO-OPERATION ON TOKAMAK PROGRAMMES (CTP-IA)

 

At Cadarache, France, Wednesday 10th December 2014

 

MINUTES

 

Participants: Yutaka Kamada (JP), Kouji Shinohara (JP), Richard Pits (ITER), Jong-Gu Kwak (KO), Yeong-Kook Oh (KO), Steve Eckstrand (US), Rich Hawryluk (US), Abhijit Sen (IN), Carrie Pottinger (IEA), Xavier Litaudon (EU), Tony Donné (EU), Lars-Göran Eriksson (EU), Duarte Borba (EU), Hartmut Zohm (EU),  

Summary

The CTP-IA Executive Committee:

- unanimously elected Richard Pitts (ITER) as chair of the CTP-IA executive committee,

- unanimously agreed to reissue the invitation to ROSATOM Russia to join the CTP-IA,

-  adopted the Personnel Assignment reports for Jan. 2014 – Dec. 2014 and the Proposals for Assignments and Remote Participation for Jan. 2015 – Dec. 2015,

- agreed to the proposal by the US to organise a follow up Workshop focussed on well diagnosed experiments that can provide information to validate or disprove models for disruptions,

Welcome and Approval of the agenda and minutes of the last meeting

The Chair welcomed all participants in the meeting. The proposed agenda was briefly discussed and approved. The minutes of the previous meeting (4th Executive Committee Meeting) were approved.

 

 

 Chairman's term of office

It was pointed out that the policy is to rotate the chair among the parties. It was confirmed that ITER will take the Chair for the following two years. It was remarked that electing a new chair every year as stated in the agreement is not practical, and it was agreed that the best solution is to re-elect the chair for an additional year, so that there is no need to change the text in the agreement. 

Decision: the CTP-IA Executive Committee unanimously elected Richard Pitts (ITER) as chair of the CTP-IA executive committee.

Reports and Information from the IEA

The Chair invited Carrie Pottinger (IEA) to inform the committee on recent IEA activities. Carrie Pottinger expressed that she was happy to be back at the ITER site and started the report by describing the IEA organizational structure that oversees the CTP-IA. She added that the Fusion Power Coordinating Committee (FPCC) meets once a year and reports to the Committee on Energy Research and Technology (CERT) that reports to the IEA Governing Board. Recently a report to the Governing Board was prepared. This was the first report in 20 years. This report was very well received with a number of very positive remarks. The Governing Board asked the CERT to look on how to raise more awareness on the work carried out under the Implementing Agreements and to improve the process for requesting extensions of the Implementing Agreements. In order to address these recommendations, the basic actions have been completed, as such improving the website, and the creation of a new website for members. She also stressed that the Implementing Agreements will be in the agenda of the ministerial meeting scheduled for 2015, raising again awareness of the work done. Carrie Pottinger (IEA) concluded her remarks by stressing that a publication on Implementing Agreements is published every 2 years, which includes a fusion article. The deadline for summiting a contribution was 1st October 2014 but given the change in the chair, it was requested to submit the contribution related to the CTP-IA by 28th January 2015, the date of the FPCC meeting.

Action: The chair to prepare and submit the contribution related to the CTP-IA by 28th January 2015 for the publication on Implementing Agreements published every 2 years.

Status: Done 9 January 2015.

Discussion on annual report

It was stressed that in the recent past, the chair asked the members of the committee for input for preparing this report. It was also requested by IEA to prepare a one page report on highlights for the governing board input document. One key highlight discussed was the important progress in the construction of JT60-SA and other labs can provide also key physics results for the report. It was proposed to organize the report by projects and not by parties and organize the presentation around the work being done for ITER. It was noted that this will require extra work, in particular by the Chair. It was also emphasized the importance to recognise the role the universities in addition to the laboratories, which will be very important in the future. 

Action: The chair to prepare and present the Annual report at the FPCC meeting (28th January 2015)

Action: The Members of the executive committee to provide input for preparing the annual report, including key highlights.

Executive Committee Membership

Regarding the committee membership, Lars-Göran Eriksson (EU) will prepare a proposal to replace Francesco Romanelli (EU) with Tony Donné (EU) and also possibly the addition of Xavier Litaudon (EU) as alternate. Takaaki Fujita (JP) and Yoshihiko Koide (JP) will step down as well as possibly Steve Eckstrand (US). The membership from the Korean side and India will remain the same. Carrie Pottinger (IEA) pointed out that the nominations made by the parties should be addressed in a letter to the IEA executive director Maria van der Hoeven.

Action: Carrie Pottinger to provide standard letters to the Chair.

Status: Done 11 December 2014.

Discussions on the membership and role of the CTP-IA

In the discussion of the present membership of the IEA-CTP IA, it was pointed out that Russia was invited to join the CTP-IA but no positive response was received. After a unanimous vote it was agreed to reissue a new invitation to Russia to join the CTP-IA and to address this invitation to Dr. Borovokov.

Decision:  CTP-IA Executive Committee unanimously agreed to reissue the invitation to Russia to join the CTP-IA.

Action: The chair to send a letter to Dr. Borovokov reissuing the invitation to join the CTP-IA.

 

It was also agreed to clarify the participation of China in the CTP-IA. It was stressed that the invitation was directed to the participation of SWIP and ASIPP, but the contracting party to the agreement was finally the Chinese ITER Domestic Agency (ITER-China). Carrie Pottinger (IEA) confirmed that China usually requires a specific procedure and that contacting the head of the Chinese ITER Domestic Agency is the correct approach. 

Action: The chair to contact the head of the Chinese ITER Domestic Agency in order to clarify the participation of China in the CTP-IA, in particular the role of SWIP and ASIPP. 

There was also a general discussion on the use of the CTP-IA and how it relates to the bilateral agreements, in particular, related to the use for personal assignments and exchange of hardware. Carrie Pottinger (IEA) stressed that the CTP-IA has a very broad scope and that are several other agreements under IEA that covers fusion research, in particular, there is a specific Stellarators implementing agreement. Carrie Pottinger (IEA) also emphasized that the CTP-IA can be amended to include other activities. It was also clarified that the agreement allows the activities related to ITPA, and that for exchange of hardware the bilateral agreements are more appropriate in particular regarding the questions of liability and intellectual property. It was stressed that historically the CTP-IA was created with the objective to provide a legal framework for the ITPA activities.

Reports on the Completed Workshops and Personnel Assignments for Jan. 2014 – Dec. 2014 and Proposals for Personnel Assignments and Remote Participation for Jan. 2015 – Dec. 2015

Steve Eckstrand (US) reported on the workshop organized in Princeton under the auspices of the CTP-IA. He remarked that the workshop was very successful with 30 participants and 24 presentations and it was proposed to carry out a follow up workshop on the same topic in 2015. He added that information regarding the outcome of the workshop is accessible on the website and he will check access requirements and inform the executive committee of the web address.

Action: Steve Eckstrand (US) to inform the executive committee of the web address containing the information regarding the workshop organized in Princeton under the auspices of the CTP-IA.

Status: Done 15 January 2015 (2014 Presentations: https://ext-sweb.pppl.gov/tsd2014.pppl.gov/schedule.html).

 

Decision:  CTP-IA Executive Committee unanimously agreed to the proposal tabled by the US to organize a follow up Workshop focused on well diagnosed experiments that can provide information to validate or disprove models for disruptions.

It was added that in the past there was the rule to have one workshop per year on a different topic. But there are many workshops on these subjects and the number of Workshops organized under the auspices of the CTP-IA was less in the recent past. 

There will be a Workshop to discuss and decide on the ITER plasma shape and the proposal by the Chair is to organize this workshop under the auspices of the CTP-IA. This will make it easier for the participants to get financial support to participate in the workshop.

The EU assignments were presented by Duarte Borba (EU), the US assignments were presented by Steve Eckstrand (US) and the KO assignments were presented by Jong-Gu Kwak (KO). Regarding the report on KO assignments, there was the comment to replace the contact for the JOREK code at JET and that the EPED model was applied to JET data in the past.

The ITER assignments were presented by Richard Pitts (ITER). Regarding the ITER outgoing exchanges the question was raised why all the reported exchanges were to the EU. It was clarified that there were other ITER outgoing exchanges but not covered by CTP-IA and that the participation of ITER in the JET programme can only be done under the framework of the CTP-IA. That is the reason why the CTP-IA is important for JET in particular with regards the participation of ITER in the JET experiments.

Carrie Pottinger (IEA) asked about the reporting process of the results obtained by the personnel exchanges. Steve Eckstrand (US) replied that the results are usually presented at conferences and published in relevant publications. Carrie Pottinger (IEA) stressed the importance of using the scientific results obtained as an opportunity to raise the visibility of the CTP-IA.

It was also mentioned that proposals related to steady-state operation should be coordinated with the ITPA IOS topical group activities.

Date of the Next meeting

The 6th Executive Committee Meeting is scheduled for 9th December 2015, from 14:00 to 16:00, after the next ITPA Coordinating Committee meeting.

 

 

Any other business

 

It was added that Rachael Briggs recently took up a position at IEA and she is now responsible for legal issues. It was also noted that the information on the CTP-IA executive committee representatives is outdated in the share point ITPA pages hosted by ITER and that needs to be updated.

 

Annex I Summary on IA-CTP Membership Status

India joined the IA-CTP in April 2011, the ITER-IO in October 2012 and China ITER domestic agency joined in 16 January 2013.