Henrik Bindslev new director Fusion for Energy
Fusion for Energy (F4E) has elected the Dane Henrik Bindslev as the new director of the organisation, which is based in Barcelona. F4E coordinates the in-kind contributions of European companies to the international nuclear fusion project ITER at Cadarache in the south of France. These contributions are worth 6.6 billion euros. From 1998 to 2001 Bindslev was group leader at the Dutch centre for nuclear fusion research: FOM Institute for Plasma Physics Rijnhuizen, the current FOM institute DIFFER. He succeeds the current F4E director Frank Briscoe.
Henrik Bindslev worked for almost ten years as a researcher at the European test reactor JET in the United Kingdom. From 1998 to 2001, he was a senior researcher and group leader at the FOM Institute for Plasma Physics Rijnhuizen (now Dutch Institute for Fundamental Energy Research DIFFER). Together with his team he developed a unique measurement device for fast particles in fusion plasmas. Upon returning to his home country of Denmark, he became head of fusion research at the Energy Research Centre in Risø and later director of the Energy Research Institute in Risø, which employs 700 staff. In 2011, he became the vice-dean of the Faculty of Science and Technology at the University of Aarhus. Bindslev is one of the founders of the European Energy Research Alliance (EERA) and was its chair until recently. He is a charismatic and exceptionally competent physicist and will superbly shape the European contribution to the international ITER project.
F4E and ITER
F4E coordinates European in-kind contributions to the unique ITER project such as buildings, infrastructure facilities and, in particular, high-tech components. Two- thirds of the world's population are collaborating in ITER: the EU, Russia, Japan, China, India, South Korea and the United States. The aim is to construct a prototype nuclear fusion reactor (the type of energy that powers stars) to provide a clean source of energy for the future. Numerous companies are contributing to the project at the moment, including the Dutch companies 3D-metalforming and DeMaCo. They are contributing via ITER-NL, a consortium of TNO, FOM, NRG and Eindhoven University of Technology that seeks to maximise Dutch participation in ITER. Mammoet, Heemskerk Innovative Technologies and Dutch Space are also interested in participating in what is possibly the world's biggest project since the landing on the moon. In 2020, the nuclear fusion reactor will produce the first star plasma that will be used to demonstrate the technical feasibility of fusion energy.
Further information
· Full press release F4E
· Fusion for Energy
· ITER-NL
· ITER
· The construction of ITER