Culham scientists will share their expert research at the 47th European Physical Society’s (EPS) Plasma Physics conference this week (June 21 – June 25).
Of particular note at the event – Europe’s premier fusion science conference, hosted online for the first time ever – will be a plenary talk from UKAEA Chief Scientist William Morris. Entitled “Towards a Fusion Reactor: Integration of Physics and Technology”, William’s talk aims to provide an overview of the scientific and technical challenges facing the development of fusion energy and the importance of an integrated approach to developing designs for power plants, such as the EU DEMO and UK STEP programmes.
Further UKAEA contributions include Kevin Verhaegh’s talk accompanying his EPS PhD research award. This focuses on developing techniques to understand divertor detachment (techniques used to minimise contact between the fusion device’s plasma fuel and its ‘divertor’ exhaust system) using spectroscopic techniques on the Swiss tokamak, TCV. This has led to new insights into understanding what drives the dissipation of particles in tokamak divertors – something essential for future fusion devices, including ITER and beyond. These techniques will be applied to UKAEA’s MAST Upgrade experiment to better understand the potential benefits of advanced divertor configurations.
Other work presented by UKAEA at the event ranges from disruption mitigation in JET and stability in the core and edge of tokamak plasmas, to instabilities caused by fusion reactions, exhaust physics and the importance of confronting scientific and engineering challenges to develop integrated power plant designs.
UKAEA’s Science Programme Leader for MAST Upgrade, James Harrison, said: “It’s great to see such strong participation in Europe’s most prestigious plasma physics conference, with over 12 UKAEA researchers attending.
“The breadth of contributions, on key topics for ITER and other future fusion devices, shows how we’re making a strong contribution to the success of fusion energy.”
For more information please visit the EPS website.
