Towards fusion energy: ITER
Description
The world has started building ITER, A reactor that will generate 500 MW of fusion power, 10 Times more than the power needed to sustain the reaction. The world in this case is: Europe, Japan, Russia, The United States, China, Korea and India.
In fact, the fusion community has been scientifically ready to start ITER for more than 10 years, because the main objective, the confinement of a sufficiently dense plasma at the relevant temperature of a few hundred million degrees, is now a breeze.
Nevertheless, some major technological and scientific hurdles still need to be addressed at ITER before we can deploy fusion energy on a large scale: the interaction of the enormous heat and particle flow on the reactor wall, the control of the fusion fire and the new phenomena associated with sustaining the reaction and making tritium to name just a few.
This presentation will bring you up to speed on the history, present and future of fusion research and will address the main challenges facing us to realise a fusion reactor, while the topic is embedded in a broader discussion on the global need for renewable energy.
Speaker(s)
Dr R.J.E. Jaspers
Associate Professor at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e)
Location
Lecture room 10 (Auditorium TU/e)
Den Dolech 2, Eindhoven
Organiser
Southern Region
Name and contact details for information
Huub de Ridder