Travel to collaborate on experiments and analysis of data for the JET and MAST fusion devices

This is a grant application for travel funds for researchers from the Universities of Manchester and York, and Imperial College (London University) to visit the Joint European Torus (JET) and Mega-Amp Spherical Tokamak (MAST) experiments (both located at the Culham site near Abingdon Oxfordshire). This travel funding will allow an increased level of participation by these UK Universities in the MAST and JET programme. This proposal represents an excellent opportunity to strengthen links between these UK universities, and MAST and JET. JET is the European Fusion Programme's flagship device operated under the European Fusion Development Agreement, and is the largest tokamak in the world, while MAST is a spherical tokamak in which the plasma resembles a cored apple (in JET it looks more like a lorry tyre). Leading fusion scientists from throughout Europe come to JET to conduct experiments, along with other international collaborators in some cases. Similarly MAST is a leading centre for studying the physics of spherical tokamaks, which both benefits understanding of the conventional tokamak line (like JET) and the possible long term applications of the spherical tokamak. During the visits, for which travel funding is proposed, the UK university researchers will work on analysing data from the JET and MAST devices, and in some cases directly on experimental studies. The work will cover the areas of plasma stability including in the presence of high energy particles, spectroscopic studies, and mechanisms that determine plasma rotation and edge electric fields. There are expected to be strong mutual benefits from these UK University collaborations with JET and MAST. Given the recent decision to site the next-step ITER tokamak in France, this represents a timely opportunity to increase the base of UK university involvement in magnetic confinement fusion.