Overviewof ten years of participation of the Romanian

Association to the EURATOM research in thermonuclear fusion

The context: The scientific and political commitment imposed by fusion

”Europe’s fusion research has a solid foundation, with firmly established networks of excellence. We must give ourselves the best chance to build ITER in Europe...“

Philippe Busquin, press release of Council of Ministers, 13 May 2003

“The president has made achieving commercial fusion power the highest long-term energy priority for our Nation”

USA DoE Office of Science Strategic Plan, February, 2004

“China wants to be the first nation to generate electricity from fusion”

Chinese minister, when China joined ITER, January 2003

Faster than computers

Source: Lopez Cardoso

Essentials of the history of ten years expansion

1999: Assessment of our expertise. What Romania can offer to the fusion community?

2005: 42 researchers, 1,053 million Euro, 9 Associations

2009: 28 Task Agreements (contracts with EFDA and EFDA-JET)Topical groups (transport, MHD, diagnostics, etc.)Plasma Wall InteractionIntegrated Tokamak ModelingMaterials

Baseline expenditure structure(Physics, JET Notifications, UnderliTechnology)

Expenditure structure evolution(Baseline, Technology Tasks, Art. 5.1b,

Art. 6.3

PUBLICATIONS 2002-2008: 194 articles (including 108 in ISI journals) 219 contributions at conferences

ISI papers / year Papers / main journals

ISI papers / activity type ISI papers / physics domain

Major research fields where MEdC Association has made contributions

Basic physics of fusion plasmaTransport, MHD, diagnostics, sheats

Physics Integration (ceramics, optical fibers)Magnet structure and integrationTritium inventory controlTritium Breeding and Materials

Materials DevelopmentIFMIF, Test FacilitiesIFMIF, Design Integration

Fuel CycleAtomic and Nuclear data basesPlasma Facing components (JET)ITER-like Wall Project (JET)

Physics of fusion plasmasPhysics of instabilities, turbulence and transport in tokamak plasmas

Statistical physics for anomalous transport in plasmasMathematical modeling of transport processesNumerical simulations of transport in stochastic fields

Results:

10 researchers, collaborations with CEA, ULB, ENEA, JET

The Decorrelation Trajectory Method: diffusion in turbulent plasma

Hamiltonian dynamicsand stochastic processes

Physics of fusion plasmasCoherent flows in plasmas

Rotation of plasmaas cuasi-coherent flows

(analytic and numeric)

Magnetic configurations and Resistive Wall Modes

Perturbed magnetic field and stream function U of the induced eddy currents given by an EKM.

Tritium technology

Tritium permeation into various materialsWater Detritiation System: endurance test catalyst - packing mixtureStandard parts catalogues in CATIA V5 for tritium-containing systemsDevelopment of 2-D and 3-D symbols for WDS components

Assesment of detritiation with Ar plasma torch

Installation for studies on Water Detritiation

ASSESSMENT OF DETRITIATION WITH A SMALL Ar PLASMA TORCH

Figure 7a. Image of the plasma torch during scanning procedure

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

0.23

0.24

0.25

0.26

m/t ~ 2.5 10-4 g/min

scanned surface = 170 mm2

density =2700 kg/m3

erosion rate: 0.5m/min

m [

g]

t [min]

Figure 7b. Mass variation of a CFC sample with the treatment time

Easy access to details of wall.

Collaboration with CEA.

Technology for fusion applicationsSuperconductors

Fabrication of YBCO high temperature superconducting coated conductorsNbAl multifilamentary strands for fabrication of Nb3 Al superconducting conductorsDeposition of thick YBCO films on metallic substrates (chemical)

SEM image of YBCO film grown on CeO2/YSZ/CeO2/Pd buffered Ni-W substrate at 8500C at two different magnifications (left 20.00 K X and right 135.66 K X ).

Technology for fusion applicationsIrradiated ceramics and optical fibers

Visible-UV response of optical fibres to gamma irradiation

Effects on semiconductor optical detectors of gamma-ray and electron beamRadiation

Ionizing and neutron-irradiation effects on optoelectroniccomponents (semiconductor lasers and embedded detector)

UV transmission for large diameter optical fibres

X-ray micro-tomography

Non-destructives analysis of fusion materials samples by microtomography (2003)

Implementation of suitable NDT inspection methods for the structural integrity assessment of instrumented capsules and rigs by micro-tomography (2004)

X-ray microtomography for HFTM capsules and rigs

Influence of the sample radioactivity on the tomographic reconstruction quality (2005)

Cross-sections of the 3D tomographic reconstruction of the HFTM irradiation capsule obtained for optimum combination of the irradiation parameters (High Voltage= 220 kV, X-ray tube current ~ 300 mA) with full object scanning geometry

IFMIF / EVEDA requests

Nuclear Data

Comparison of calculated and experimental [11] neutron total cross sections (left), and the corresponding collective inelastic scattering cross sections obtained by DWBA method for 55Mn nucleus

First Romanian contribution to ITER

Enhancement of gamma-ray diagnostics at JET

JET KN3 neutron/gamma diagnostics with neutron attenuators and their steering and control system (LUC: Local Unit Cubicle); HC-NA: Horizontal Camera Neutron Attenuator; VC-NA: Vertical Camera Neutron Attenuator

Vertical Camera Neutron Attenuator prototype

Optimization and Manufacturing of 10 m W-coatings for the CFC tiles to be installed in JET

W coated tiles during the HHF testCMSII coating equipment general view

ITER-like Wall at JET

Extension to JET divertor 2009

CMSII discharge with 6 magnetrons running

Tungsten markers deposited on various substrates by CMSII technology

To measure net errosion of W on divertor tiles

PRODUCTION OF BERYLLIUM COATINGS FOR INCONEL CLADDING AND BERYLLIUM TILE MARKERS FOR THE ITER-LIKE WALL PROJECT

Thermionic vacuum arc (TVA) method

Beryllium coatings on inconel: (a) “as produced”; (b) after HHF test of 20 MJ m-2.

Interest expressed by Fusion for Energy, for ITER applications (2009)

Photograph of the equipment used for Beryllium tile Markers coatings

Conclusions

Major achievements:physics: decorrelation trajectory methodW- and Be – coating on JET Wall micro-tomographydiagnostics

Missed opportunities High Performance Computer for Fusion Physics

PerspectivesITER participation with Tritium, Beryllium and Nuclear data

Still to solve:Do-we have a strategy for ITER?Are-we at the periphery or on the main stream?How to conserve the physics expertise

Suggested perspective: after ten years of challenging experience, we will certainly find the correct answer