An investment into nuclear fusion research

Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands, is allocating €1 million to a High Potential Research Program aimed at achieving a deeper understanding of nuclear fusion.

Understanding fusion science
The project in receipt of the €250,000 per year for four years is geared towards plasmas for nuclear fusion. The university aims to be a leader in the field of producing clean energy from the ITER nuclear fusion reactor, and is therefore investing in scientific research required to develop the project. It will focus on three important aims: to make better images of the flow inside a plasma reactor, to gain a better understanding of the plasma flow, and in due course, to be able to more effectively control the burning plasma.

ITER: producing commercial energy
ITER is a large-scale scientific experiment that aims to demonstrate that it is possible to produce commercial energy from fusion.

The ratio of fusion power (Q) to input power can be represented thus: Q = 10. The scientific goal of the ITER project is to deliver 10 times the power it consumes. From 50 MW of input power, the ITER machine is designed to produce 500 MW of fusion power - the first of all fusion experiments to produce net energy.

The ITER machine is based on the ‘tokamak’ concept of magnetic plasma confinement, in which the fusion fuel is contained in a doughnut-shaped vessel. With a height of 29 m and a diameter of 28 m, ITER will be the world's largest tokamak.

Investing in new research
The High Potential Research Programs, which are expected to acquire a national and international standing, are also a way to encourage young (associate) professors to initiate new and risky multidisciplinary research. The leader of the programme is professor Niek Lopes Cardozo, of the Department of Applied Physics.The first four programmes started in 2009.

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