NBIA Colloquium via Zoom by Volker Naulin (DTU, EUROfusion)
We would like to invite you to this week’s (Zoom) Colloquium on
Friday, April 23 at 3:15 PM
Speaker: Volker Naulin (DTU, EUROfusion)
Title: Fusion energy, always 20 years away?
Abstract: In 1955, when scientists met in Geneva for the Atoms for Peace conference, the chairman H. Bhabha promised commercially available fusion power to be no further away than 20 years. 65 years later one needs to ask: Is fusion energy still only the dream of scientists?
It is obvious that generating fusion energy is a much, much harder problem to solve than electricity from fission reactions. Being a sustainable, large scale, non-intermittent source of energy fusion could be the important player towards a solution of the CO2 problem. So, where are we regarding the physics of fusion and its technical feasibility? Will fusion be available in time to make an impact on the climate problem?
The main effort of the international fusion programme is focused on the construction of ITER, a large scale tokamak device, conceived from 1992 on. ITER is in the phase of machine assembly and is probably the most complex device ever build. It is planned that in 2025 ITER will produce its first plasma and a couple of years later generate net fusion power from plasmas of more than 1000s duration.
The talk will give an overview on which issues of fusion energy need still to be solved and if we are ready to go into solution mode for the engineering optimization of devises that shall produce energy 24/7 for many years. What is the status of industry and private endeavours with respect to fusion? Can we accelerate the programme? And finally, what are researchers in Denmark doing to contribute to the success of fusion power?
Brief bio-sketch: Volker Naulin received his PhD in Theoretical Physics from Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf on the role of non-linear structures in plasma turbulence. He went as Marie Curie fellow to Risø National Laboratories in 1996, where he continued to work on large scale plasma turbulence simulations. He spent seven years at JET (currently the largest fusion research laboratory and tokamak in the world) working on tokamak heat, particle and momentum transport, specifically through the outer layer of a confined plasma. He contributed to the developing understanding of non Gaussian statistics displayed by plasma structures in this region. His work included longer and shorter working stays to numerous plasma physics laboratories worldwide. He has been the leader, since 2013 of the Danish Fusion activities. Since 2021 he is Head of the Fusion Science Department within EUROfusion.
To participate on Friday, click on
https://ucph-ku.zoom.us/j/61333932427
The colloquium will be moderated by Michele Burello and we strongly encourage you to participate actively by asking questions during the talk. Michele will briefly remind you how this can be done just before the colloquium starts.