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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 5 - EUROfusion (Implementation of activities described in the Roadmap to Fusion during Horizon 2020 through a Joint programme of the members of the EUROfusion consortium)

Teaser

Summary

An ambitious yet realistic roadmap to fusion electricity by 2050 was adopted by EFDA at the end of 2012 in line with the European Commission proposal for the EURATOM programme in Horizon 2020. In 2018, the fusion roadmap has been updated taking into account a number of events and developments such as the revised ITER schedule towards first plasma and DT operation; the development of the Early Neutron Source to test materials for DEMO and power plants; and next steps to be taken to address the challenges in the field of plasma exhaust physics. This programme has the goal of implementing the activities described in the Roadmap during Horizon 2020 through a joint programme of the members of the EUROfusion Consortium.

Work performed

The EUROfusion mission to bring the stellarator design to maturity progressed with the successful completion of the experimental campaign of the flagship EU stellarator W7-X (Germany) with the demonstration of 30 second pulses with detached plasma conditions at a heating power of 5 million Watts with uncooled plasma facing components.
The focus of the JET programme remains on the preparation of high performance and stationary plasma scenarios for the next Deuterium â€“ Tritium experiments with the ITER-like Wall. Regarding the 2018 Medium Size Tokamaks programme, all experiments, data-analysis activities, and modelling efforts took place within pre-defined and cross machine High-Level Topics. Plasmas were developed in the ASDEX-Upgrade Tokamak (Germany) with the same shape as the plasmas foreseen in ITER baseline with stable conditions at the plasma edge and in the right parameter regime for a direct size scaling between the ASDEX-Upgrade Tokamak (Germany) and the TCV Tokamak (Switzerland).

Plasma-wall interaction studies and qualifications of plasma-facing materials and components focussed on ITER and DEMO-relevant Beryllium and Tungsten-based materials as well as steels such as EUROFER. Experiments were performed on the EUROfusion facilities such as the linear devices PSI-2, MAGNUM-PSI, WEST tokamak, on the High Heat Flux facilities GLADIS, JUDITH, and the plasma gun MAGNUM, GyM, and SIESTA, to address the key questions in the areas of power handling, material erosion and mixing, fuel retention and release, material migration, and diagnostic qualification. Successful tests and qualification of ITER tungsten monoblocks at high fluence of 1030 ions/m2 have been performed in MAGNUM-PSI in Deuterium and Helium plasmas to mimic ITER plasma operation. Successful WEST tokamak operation was carried out with a full tungsten plasma first wall. A Liquid Metal divertor module has been prepared for insertion into the COMPASS tokamak (Czech Republic) using the divertor manipulator system to study vapour-shielding and material migration.
The new Marconi-Fusion High Performance Computer dedicated to fusion research in Europe operated by CINECA in Bologna, Italy has been upgraded and the Gateway Computer dedicated to integrated modelling has been transferred from Garching to CINECA.
Regarding the staged design approach being implemented to design DEMO in Europe, the emphasis in 2018 has been on the study of the Key Design Integration Issues and the implementation of a design readiness and maturation strategy for the critical technologies. A more systems-oriented approach has brought clarity to a number of critical design issues; more attention was given to industrial feasibility, costs, nuclear safety and licensing; and a multiple decision gate process has been developed with the implementation of gate reviews. The â€œconsolidatedâ€ design of the Helium Cooled Pebble Bed and Water Cooled Liquid Lead Breeding Blankets have been issued as planned; the two designs will be used as basis for the documentation to be presented to the Final Design Review and to the Gate Review. Both options of using helium and water as breeding blanket coolants were considered in advancing the design of an â€œindirectâ€ balance of plant option. For the case of the Water Cooled Liquid Lead Breeding Blanket, a substantial reduction of the Energy Storage System size was achieved reducing it from 22000 m3 to 1300 m3. Equilibrium control simulations of the burn phase have been further advanced, including realistic diagnostic and actuator properties. A second round of high-heat-flux qualification tests for target concept down-selection was completed. Small-scale mock-ups of four water-cooled target concepts were tested at 20 MW/mÂ² up to 500 loading cycles with hot coolant (130Â°C) using the GLADIS hydrogen neutral beam and at 25 MW/mÂ² up to 100 cycles with cold coolant (20Â°C). In tests of the 170 GHz coaxial 2 MW Gyrotrons, the design power was reached using a