FPN14-18

Progress at KSTAR

April 26, 2014

Dr. Hyun Jong You and his team at the National Fusion Research Institute (NFRI) in Korea have developed a Liquid-Helium-free, conductively-cooled Electron Cyclotron Resonance (ECR) ion source in collaboration with the Korean firm JH Engineering. Scientists there consider the accomplishment to be "ground-breaking in terms of cost-saving and potential for broad industrial application. Previously, only France, Russia and Japan have succeeded in developing a conductively-cooled superconducting ECR ion source. The technology results in approximately a ten-fold improvement in both efficiency and cost and a 4-fold decrease in equipment size. The Korean source is named "SMASHI" for "Superconducting Multi-Application Source of Highly-charged Ions".

The 2014 KSTAR Conference, the largest international academic conference held in Korea in the field of fusion energy, was held in February. Three hundred researchers from around the world attended the 3-day conference beginning on February 24. On the last day of the conference six high school students were selected from NFRI's Fusion School Intensive Program for a three day field trip to Japan.

Beginning March 24, the 6th Program Advisory Committee (PAC) for KSTAR met for three days to review plans for the 2014 experimental campaign. The PAC consists of 12 experienced scientists from around the world. The PAC noted the accomplishment in 2013 of multiple experiments achieving 20 seconds of stable plasma confinement in H-mode on KSTAR. The 2014 campaign is scheduled to run from June through December.

There will be a Korea-China Joint Coordinating Committee in Korea June 30-July1, 2014 in Korea and a Korea ITER Business Forum July 2-3, 2014. Plans are underway to host the 12th International Symposium on Fusion Nuclear Technology (ISFNT) in Korea September 14-18 2015.

For more information on the fusion program in Korea visit http://www.nfri.re.kr/english/