Evening Lecture – ITER: A Key Step Towards Fusion Power
In a first part, the main principles of thermonuclear fusion and the potentialities offered by fusion as a power source will be presented. Fusion offers indeed a number of features (availability of fuel; limited risks) which are so attractive that it justifies the significant development effort which is presently being made.
The challenges posed by fusion power R&D will then be addressed, in particular the need to develop radiation resistant low activation material, tritium breeding technology etc. An ambitious program has been set-up in Europe to engage the first preparatory steps towards a power demonstration reactor which should follow the ITER program.
Finally, the key role and the status of the ITER project will be presented. ITER is an experimental device aiming at demonstrating the scientific and technical feasibility of fusion as an environmentally friendly power source. The facility is being constructed in the frame of an unprecedented international collaboration involving the European Union, China, India, Japan, Korea, the Russian Federation and the USA. The construction site is located at Cadarache in southern France.
Speaker
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Jérôme PamelaDirector of Agence ITER France
Jérôme Pamela is Director of Agence ITER France since 2010, and is the former leader of the European Fusion Development Agreement (EFDA).
Jérôme Pamela was born in France, in 1955. He graduated from the “Ecole Polytechnique” in Paris in 1977, and in 1978 he obtained a diploma in nuclear and particle physics at Orsay University. In 1984, Jérôme Pamela finished his PhD on CELLO, a high energy physics experiment run on the Petra e+/e- Collider located at the DESY Laboratory in Hamburg. Between 1983 and 1984, Dr. Pamela was also involved in the DELPHI Project at the LEP/CERN, Geneva.
After his PhD, he changed his field of research from High Energy Physics to Thermonuclear Fusion. In 1984, Dr. Pamela joined the French Atomic Energy Agency (CEA) Controlled Thermonuclear Fusion Department in Fontenayaux-Roses near Paris, and then moved to Cadarache in southern France in 1986. Jérôme Pamela was involved in the development of negative ion-based neutral beam heating, first as a physicist, and then as Group and European Task Area Leader. During several years he was responsible for collaboration with Japan in that field.
In 1995-1996, he was involved in and ultimately led a first phase of studies preparing Cadarache to bid for siting ITER. In 1996, Jérôme Pamela was appointed Head of the Controlled Thermonuclear Fusion Department of the CEA and Head of the Euratom-CEA Association. In September 1999 he was seconded to Culham, UK, as EFDA Associate Leader, in charge of the Joint European Torus (JET).