This September, students from the Fusion CDT will be hosting the first European Students’ Divertor Research Workshop at the University of Oxford. This workshop will bring together students from across Europe to present their research and hear keynote talks from academics working on divertor research at KIT, CCFE and University of Oxford.
The fusion divertor is appearing to be one of the most significant challenges for designing a tokamak on an energy producing scale. The need to bring the plasma into contact with a divertor to extract helium ash from the fusion reaction results in an extreme environment. Heat fluxes of up to 20 MW/m2 must be managed alongside radiation damage from energetic neutrons and erosion as atoms are sputtered away by the incoming plasma.
There is no doubt that this challenge must be met by a combination of plasma physics, materials science and engineering. Advanced plasma physics is required to control and spread the heat load on the divertor, while maintaining a burning plasma within the reactor. Further materials research is needed to develop divertor materials that are capable of handling extreme temperatures while maintaining strength and ductility under neutron irradiation. Finally, entirely new engineering designs and methods are required in order to extract the heat and to allow for maintaining of the divertor in a challenging environment.
This workshop aims to bring together the next generation of researchers from across Europe on these topics, in order to encourage future collaboration and inter-disciplinary understanding that will be required to meet the challenge of designing and building a divertor for a demonstration fusion reactor in the 2030s.
Dates: 26-28th September 2016
Location: University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
Cost: £100 (non-residential), £200 (residential)
Five sessions are proposed:
- Divertor Physics
- Advanced Divertor Designs
- Divertor Materials in a Fusion Environment
- Manufacturing Divertor Materials and Components
- Divertor Engineering
If you are interested in attending please email your abstract to robert.abernethy@materials.ox.ac.uk. The deadline for abstract submission is 8th August 2016.
More information can be found at: mffp.materials.ox.ac.uk