International fusion energy project to be discussed

 

An international fusion energy project that involves Oak Ridge National Laboratory will be discussed in an online meeting on Wednesday, May 19.

The featured speaker will be David Rasmussen, the leader of the technical integration of the U.S. contributions to the international fusion project, which is under construction in France and known as ITER.

Rasmussen’s areas of responsibility have included the ITER plasma heating and fueling systems, a press release said. He has been a plasma research scientist at ORNL since 1981. He has more than 35 years of fusion and plasma science experience in diagnostic measurements and the technology development needed for magnetic confinement fusion and other plasma technology applications, the release said. Rasmussen received a Ph.D. in applied science, specializing in plasma physics, from the University of California at Davis in 1981 where his graduate work was a study of inertial laser fusion wave plasma interactions.

The May 19 talk is hosted by ORION, an amateur science and astronomy club based in Oak Ridge. The talk is scheduled to begin on Zoom at 7 p.m. May 19, and it is open to the public. If you are interested in joining, the Zoom meeting ID is 885 2873 5960, and the passcode is 716689. Alternatively, you can follow this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88528735960?pwd=KzY4bnBHcjlhTzg3L3pOcjY0TFovUT09.

Rasmussen’s talk is titled “ITER Fusion Science and Engineering.”

Here is a submitted summary of the discussion: Delivering energy from fusion is considered one of the most significant challenges for engineering in this century. Fusion power has been successfully achieved for limited periods of time, but the operating periods, plasma performance, and output power levels needed for energy delivery remain to be demonstrated. To support an essential step towards fusion energy, the international ITER project will demonstrate an industrial-scale 500 megawatt long-duration burning plasma. The ITER facility is under construction in southern France, with tokamak assembly now under way. Components are arriving regularly from all the ITER partners: China, European Union, India, Japan, Korea, Russia, and the United States. (A tokamak is an experimental machine designed to harness the energy of fusion.)

“As an ITER partner, the United States is providing 12 hardware systems that are essential for meeting the fusion science and technology goals of ITER,” the press release said. “These include superconducting magnets, microwave and radiofrequency based plasma heating systems, and high temperature plasma measurement systems that span the electromagnetic spectrum.”

ORION is an amateur science and astronomy club centered in Oak Ridge that was founded in April 1974 by a group of scientists at the United States Department of Energy facility in Oak Ridge. The purpose is to promote learning and inquiry in Oak Ridge and Knoxville, and the counties of Anderson, Knox, and Roane, the press release said. Topics covered include physics, solar system astronomy, and education.

Learn more about ITER here.