Japanese-Dutch cooperation on fusion
On Friday February 4th the Japanese National Institute for Fusion Sciences and the Dutch fusion-center FOM-Rijnhuizen signed an agreement to cooperate in the development of nuclear fusion as a clean, sustainable source of energy. NIFS Director-General Professor Akio Komori and Professor Richard van de Sanden, Director of the FOM Institute for Plasma Physics Rijnhuizen, signed the document during a mini-symposium on Japanese and Dutch fusion research. The two institutes will join forces in work on plasma-surface interactions, plasma control, and diagnostics development.
The central research facility at NIFS is the Large Helical Device (LHD), a large superconducting stellarator (a type of fusion reactor) which can confine a plasma with temperatures of tens of millions degrees by using magnetic fields. Because the LHD plasmas can last very long, in the order of hours, the walls of the machine are exposed to long lasting bombardment of fast particles escaping the magnetic field. The Magnum-PSI plasma simulator at FOM-Rijnhuizen was built specifically to study such interactions of a hot plasma with all kinds of wall materials. The device can expose materials to intense plasma beams in order to discover what processes happen at the surface.
Fusion research aims at producing clean, safe energy by using the same energy source powering the sun; the fusing together of hydrogen nuclei in a hot plasma. This research has a strong international focus and is performed in large consortia of scientists and industry. The basis for the cooperation between NIFS and FOM-Rijnhuizen was the visit to Japan of Dutch Minister of Economic Affairs mrs. Maria van der Hoeven in April 2010. The resulting symposium at FOM-Rijnhuizen was put together in close cooperation with the Dutch Ministry of Economy, Agriculture and Innovation, and the Technical Scientific Attaché to the Dutch Embassy in Tokyo. Scientists of both institutes and representatives of both Japanese and Dutch companies interested in participating in the construction of the future fusion reactor ITER joined the symposium.
As part of the symposium, the Japanese delegation toured the Rijnhuizen facilities. The visit centered around the Magnum-PSI device, used to expose prospective reactor wall materials to plasmas with conditions as will arise in future fusion reactors: hotter than the sun. Also on the itinerary was a visit to the virtual reality remote handling control room. In this facility, remotely control tools and operations for servicing the ITER reactor can be tested in virtual reality.
About ITER
The international research reactor ITER is the next step in the development of fusion energy as a sustainable power source. ITER has been designed to produce 500 MW of fusion power, needing only 50 MW of power to heat and control the fusion fuel and thus producing net fusion energy for the first time in history. The reactor is being built in an international cooperation of the European Union, the US , Japan , the Russian Federation , China , India , and South Korea. ITER is one of the most complex and innovative science projects of our time, and is a true driver of technological innovation. Because of the unprecedented wide international collaboration, the ITER project is high on the political agendas of the participating countries.
Contact
Prof.dr. Tony Donné, Head of Fusion Physics division, FOM Institute for Plasma Physics Rijnhuizen, donne@rijnhuizen.nl, +31 (0)30 609 69 60.
Drs. Gieljan de Vries, Head of Communications, FOM Institute for Plasma Physics Rijnhuizen, g.devries@rijnhuizen.nl, (0)30 609 69 02.