Translation. Region: Russian Federation –
Source: Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University –
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A meeting between SPbPU students and researchers and representatives of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) organization, including Alexander Alekseev, Deputy Head of the Science and Integration Department and Igor Rodin, Deputy Head of the Tokamak Program, took place at the SPbPU Resource Center.
Alexander Alekseev is a 1986 graduate of the Polytechnic University's Faculty of Physics and Mechanics, Department of Mechanics and Control Processes. Igor Rodin is a graduate of ETU "LETI." Both guests worked for many years at the D. V. Efremov Research Institute of Electrophysical Equipment (NIIEFA).
"The ITER project is of particular importance to the Polytechnic University, as the Institute of Physics and Mechanics, the successor to the Faculty of Physics and Mechanics, carries out a number of projects for it," emphasized Nikolai Ivanov, Director of the Institute of Physics and Mechanics, opening the meeting. "The Higher School of Mechanics and Control Processes is actively involved in the design and construction of ITER. The Higher School of Applied Mathematics and Computational Physics is involved in solving problems related to cooling systems for various types of equipment. But the project's primary focus is on the former Department of Plasma Physics; today, the Higher School of Fundamental Physics Research is one of the drivers of our institute's growth."
Professor of the Higher School, Head of the Scientific Laboratory "Theory and Modeling of Tokamak Plasma" Vladimir Rozhansky, who has been a member of the ITER scientific team since 2018, also offered a few welcoming remarks. He recalled that the first ITER project in Russia took place at SPbPU. Nature conference on plasma physics, which inspired many young polytechnicians to participate in the ITER project.
The central event of the meeting was Alexander Alekseev's lecture, "The ITER Project: From Concept to Implementation," dedicated to one of the key international initiatives of our time. Research into the possibilities of controlling thermonuclear fusion began, in part, thanks to Soviet scientists. Academicians Igor Tamm and Andrei Sakharov developed the tokamak concept—a toroidal chamber with magnetic coils that confines plasma using a magnetic field.
Alexander Alekseev shared recently declassified documents from the archives of Rosatom and the Kurchatov Institute, dating back to 1951. Since 1968, a boom in tokamak construction has occurred worldwide. But ITER will be the first tokamak fusion reactor. The project began in 1985 at the initiative of the Soviet Union. Today, scientists and engineers from 35 countries (seven of which represent the world's largest economies) are developing a next-generation fusion facility as part of the international ITER project. Its goal is to demonstrate the scientific and technical feasibility of using fusion energy to generate electricity in a continuous mode. The design capacity is 500 megawatts, with 50 megawatts invested in plasma heating. The advantages of fusion energy include its inexhaustibility, efficiency (one gram of fuel is equivalent to eight tons of oil), and safety due to the small amount of fuel. Russian scientific organizations, including the Polytechnic University, are among the project participants.
So, the scientific group of Professor Rozhansky is engaged in modeling of the edge plasma of the ITER tokamak reactorThe interaction of hot plasma with material surfaces is key to selecting reactor operating modes. Scientists developed a numerical code for modeling the parameters of tokamak edge plasma, called SOLPS-ITER, and collaborated with Russian and international colleagues to refine it. This resulted in the development of an extended-mesh mathematical method, which enabled a new level of numerical modeling.
In 2023, the Polytechnic University received a task from the ITER management to create a model of the near-edge plasma in the region that contacts the tokamak wall. Researchers from the Tokamak Plasma Theory and Modeling Laboratory at the PhysMech Institute (PhysMech) were the first in the world to conduct calculations on an extended grid, allowing for the prediction of particle and energy fluxes on material surfaces. Supercomputers from SPbPU and ITER were used for the calculations. The data obtained convinced the ITER management to fabricate the tokamak's first wall from tungsten (instead of beryllium, as planned).
PhysMech scientists are currently calculating how tungsten will be sputtered by the energetic particle streams hitting the first wall, what impurities might reach the center of the facility, and how this will affect the reactor's operating mode. These calculations are being shared with ITER engineering teams working on wall sputtering issues to determine a method for controlling this process and, ultimately, the reactor's operating mode.
Following Alexander Alekseev, Igor Rodin spoke. He discussed the project's technical aspects and the contributions of Russian participants in more detail.
The speakers also answered numerous questions from the audience.
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