Periodic Reporting for period 2 - EUROfusion (Implementation of activities described in the Roadmap to Fusion during Horizon Europe through a joint programme of the members of the EUROfusion consortium)
Reporting period: 2022-01-01 to 2022-12-31
Disruptions occur in fusion plasmas because of a sudden loss of plasma stability control and may result in an event in which the plasma loses its magnetic and thermal energy very rapidly to the surrounding materials. A Shattered Pellet Injector, a device designed to inject frozen pellets few milimeters in diameter made from different combinations of the Hydrogenic isotopes or neutral elements such as Neon or Argon, was used and tested at the ASDEX-Upgrade and JET Tokamaks in a collaborative effort to help ITER design its Disruption mitigation system.
The DEMO Concept Design Phase is proceeding as planned and the DEMO Central Team has grown in a continued effort to establish the necessary foundations required to consolidate the DEMO project towards the second gate review (G2). In the second half of the year, design efforts were focussed on three critical categories with an increased iterative cycle: 1) the consolidation of plant design space including reviewing high field magnets, a low aspect ratio design point, and the assessment of stakeholder requirements, 2) maturation and selection of critical system design variants for the breeding blanket, divertor and limiter, and 3) the tokamak building layout and hazardous substance inventories.
The technology maturity assessments, conducted by independent expert panels, were launched as a critical step in the preparation of G2. The primary objectives of the assessments are to obtain technical recommendations from the panel on the current technical activities and provide a progress status. The methodology is aligned with industry norms by reviewing and evaluating the technical readiness level.
A critical point raised during the first DEMO gate review (G1) on the remote maintenance and associated facilities was addressed. The panel reviewing the remote handling test facilities proposal, highlighted the most urgent and relevant test facilities and strategy; the DEMO-relevant existing ITER test-rigs and mock-ups, and the identification of parameters, missing R&D and priorities from the DEMO central team and affected work packages.
Two grant schemes for excellent early career scientists and engineers have been continued and improved. In 2022 a total of 36 new grants (EUROfusion Engineering and Researcher Grants) were awarded. An Engineering Training Program for the grantees was further developed and will be expanded in the upcoming years. In academic education, EUROfusion co-funds more than 630 doctoral thesis projects on fusion annually and stimulates education on earlier levels via FuseNet.
The relocation of the MaPLE-U facility from the University of California, Los Angeles to the Karlsruher Institut für Technologie was successfully completed. MaPLE-U has been recommissioned as a EUROfusion facility open for use by its partners. MaPLE-U is a key facility that will support European scientists in understanding magnetohydrodynamics phenomena together with heat transport in liquid metal and will enhance the verification and validation of the codes used for studying these issues. This will reinforce the design assumptions providing results of higher reliability. MaPLE-U will be used both for the ITER Test Blanket Module and DEMO blanket development.