REPORT FROM THE
FUSION TECHNOLOGY COMMITTEE:

20th SOFE Presentations Indicate a Period of Strong Growth for the Worldwide Fusion Program

A successful 20th Symposium on Fusion Engineering was held on October 14-17, 2003 at the Bahia Resort Hotel in San Diego, California under the leadership of General Chair Richard Callis of General Atomics and Program Chair James Luxon, also of General Atomics. Approximately 200 engineers and scientists from 13 countries attended the event. Presentations covered the technological, scientific, and engineering issues of fusion research. Particularly noteworthy was the number of presentations on new experimental fusion facilities. After several decades of modest growth, the worldwide fusion program can now look forward to a period in which a number of major new experimental facilities will be commissioned.

Currently under construction are:

• The National Ignition Facility (NIF) at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, CA, USA. This multi-billion dollar facility utilizes 192 laser beams to generate a total of 1.8 MJ of energy per shot to create the extreme temperatures and pressures required to create fusion in small target pellets. Commissioning will begin this spring.
• The Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Reactor (KSTAR) being built at the Korea Basic Science Institute in Daejon, Korea. This device has a 1.8 m. major radius and a plasma current of 2 MA. First plasma is scheduled for 2006.
• The Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) under construction at the Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Science in Hefei, China. It has a major radius of 1.7 m., and a plasma current of 1 MA. First plasma is scheduled for late 2005.
• The steady state tokamak SST-1 being built at the Institute for Plasma Research in Bhat, India. This is also a superconducting tokamak; it has a major radius of 1.1 m. and a plasma current of 220 kA. Commissioning is scheduled to begin this year.
• The Wendelstein 7-X advanced stellarator under construction at the Max Planck Institute in Greifswald, Germany. It features superconducting coils and is designed to demonstrate the feasibility of stellarators as fusion reactors. It is scheduled for completion in 2010.
• The National Compact Stellarator Experiment (NCSX) under construction at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory in Princeton, NJ USA. This new type of stellarator is designed to take advantage of tokamak-like magnetic symmetry in a 3D configuration to produce stable plasmas at a smaller aspect ratio than a conventional stellarator. It is scheduled for completion in 2008.

In addition, discussions are now underway to decide on the siting and an implementation plan for the ITER (“the way”) international collaboration on a burning-plasma experiment whose mission is to demonstrate the scientific and technological feasibility of fusion energy for peaceful purposes. ITER has a major radius of 6.2 m, a plasma current of 15 MA, and is expected to begin operation in 2014.

We look forward to the opportunity to discuss the progress on these new experimental devices at the 21st SOFE, which is scheduled to be held in the fall of 2005 in the Oak Ridge, Tennessee area. Nermin Uckan of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory is the General Chair, and David Rasmussen of Oak Ridge National Laboratory is the Program Chair.

Phil Heitzenroeder, Fusion Technology Technical Committee chair, can be reached at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, MS-8, P.O. Box 451, Princeton, NJ 08543-0451; Phone: +1 609 243-3043; Fax: +1 609 243-3030; E-mail: pheitzen@pppl.gov.