A New UK Fusion Plasma Physics Programme at Warwick University
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Warwick
Department Name: Physics
Abstract
The UK has recently become a net importer of energy. It is recognized that commercial fusion power development will provide an important strategic option for energy supply by mid century. Fusion is uniquely attractive because it does not rely on the conversion of fossil fuels to greenhouse gases, nor give rise to issues associated with the long term storage of nuclear waste. The physical principles underlying thermonuclear fusion in plasmas are also central to the UK's strategic defence science capabilities. The UK is a key stakeholder in the new generation of international fusion plasma research facilities. These include the magnetic confinement facility ITER, supported by six treaty partners: the EU, the USA, Russian Federation, Japan, the People's Republic of China, and the Republic of Korea. The Culham Science Center hosts the world's flagship magnetic fusion facility, JET, together with the pioneering MAST experiment. The UK's defence science needs in this field are met in part by the US National Ignition Facility (NIF, at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory) and by the new laser facility ORION being initiated at Aldermaston. The UK Government endorses the Fast Track strategy for magnetic confinement fusion power development and is funding the new defence-related facilities.Fusion plasma research is central to the energy, environmental, and defence needs of UK PLC. In addition, contemporary fusion plasma research offers the attractions of a scientific grand challenge, combined with a new generation of advanced large scale international facilities. This proposal seeks to create a new centre of excellence in fusion plasma physics at Warwick, with strong links to the UK magnetic fusion programme at Culham. This will be a step change enhancement that builds on the successful interdisciplinary track record of the Warwick-Culham collaboration, whose work is supported both by EPSRC (primarily through Culham) and by PPARC (primarily through a rolling grant to Warwick). The project will be jointly directed by Prof Sandra Chapman (Warwick) and Prof Richard Dendy (Culham) who have an extensive record of joint scientific and managerial collaboration. To create a new group in fusion plasmas, Warwick would appoint a permanent academic in each of three fields of fusion plasma research: experimental plasma data interpretation and prediction; analytical theory; and computational plasma physics using high performance supercomputing (HPC), linked to the Warwick Centre for Scientific Computing (CSC). The initial scientific focus will be on collisionless, kinetic effects; these are a distinctive feature of fusion plasmas approaching the ignition regime. These appointments are designed to increase UK capacity in this field, and therefore must be attractive internationally as well as nationally. Warwick will therefore in addition undertake to advertise, and subsequently support, these permanent academic posts up to the level of Reader where merited by the quality of the candidate. Each academic will be assisted by two postdocs and a PhD project student. The appointment of up to six postdocs will provide a UK-based career development channel which does not at present exist: this is particularly timely given the recent surge in numbers of high quality UK PhDs in fusion plasma physics. Close engagement with the experimental programme at Culham (MAST and JET) will be developed, and it is expected that some appointees will, for example, participate actively in JET Task Forces.
Publications
Vorberger J
(2012)
Dynamic ion structure factor of warm dense matter.
in Physical review letters
Regan SP
(2012)
Inelastic x-ray scattering from shocked liquid deuterium.
in Physical review letters
Furno I
(2008)
Experimental observation of the blob-generation mechanism from interchange waves in a plasma.
in Physical review letters
Osman K
(2014)
Magnetic Reconnection and Intermittent Turbulence in the Solar Wind
in Physical Review Letters
Cook JWS
(2017)
Stimulated Emission of Fast Alfvén Waves within Magnetically Confined Fusion Plasmas.
in Physical review letters
Guttenfelder W
(2008)
Effect of quasihelical symmetry on trapped-electron mode transport in the HSX stellarator.
in Physical review letters
Camenen Y
(2010)
Experimental Evidence of Momentum Transport Induced by an Up-Down Asymmetric Magnetic Equilibrium in Toroidal Plasmas
in Physical Review Letters
Kritcher AL
(2009)
Measurements of ionic structure in shock compressed lithium hydride from ultrafast x-ray Thomson scattering.
in Physical review letters
Medvedev N
(2011)
Short-time electron dynamics in aluminum excited by femtosecond extreme ultraviolet radiation.
in Physical review letters
Chapman DA
(2011)
Analysis of Thomson scattering from nonequilibrium plasmas.
in Physical review letters
Turner AJ
(2012)
Nonaxisymmetric anisotropy of solar wind turbulence as a direct test for models of magnetohydrodynamic turbulence.
in Physical review letters
Barbrel B
(2009)
Measurement of short-range correlations in shock-compressed plastic by short-pulse x-ray scattering.
in Physical review letters
Wünsch K
(2009)
Ion structure in warm dense matter: benchmarking solutions of hypernetted-chain equations by first-principle simulations.
in Physical review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics
Kiyani K
(2006)
Extracting the scaling exponents of a self-affine, non-Gaussian process from a finite-length time series.
in Physical review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics
Kampfrath T
(2007)
Long- and short-lived electrons with anomalously high collision rates in laser-ionized gases.
in Physical review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics
Hnat B
(2011)
Scale-free texture of the fast solar wind.
in Physical review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics
Wünsch K
(2008)
Structure of strongly coupled multicomponent plasmas.
in Physical review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics
Wicks RT
(2007)
Mutual information as a tool for identifying phase transitions in dynamical complex systems with limited data.
in Physical review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics
Gericke DO
(2010)
Screening of ionic cores in partially ionized plasmas within linear response.
in Physical review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics
Falk K
(2013)
Comparison between x-ray scattering and velocity-interferometry measurements from shocked liquid deuterium.
in Physical review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics
Vorberger J
(2010)
Energy relaxation in dense, strongly coupled two-temperature plasmas.
in Physical review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics
Watkins NW
(2009)
Kinetic equation of linear fractional stable motion and applications to modeling the scaling of intermittent bursts.
in Physical review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics
Strintzi D
(2008)
The toroidal momentum diffusivity in a tokamak plasma: A comparison of fluid and kinetic calculations
in Physics of Plasmas
Bergmann A
(2009)
The bootstrap current in small rotating magnetic islands
in Physics of Plasmas
Dewhurst J
(2009)
The effects of nonuniform magnetic field strength on density flux and test particle transport in drift wave turbulence
in Physics of Plasmas
Bottino A
(2007)
Nonlinear low noise particle-in-cell simulations of electron temperature gradient driven turbulence
in Physics of Plasmas
Gregori G
(2009)
Low frequency structural dynamics of warm dense matter
in Physics of Plasmas
Ricci P
(2009)
Langmuir probe-based observables for plasma-turbulence code validation and application to the TORPEX basic plasma physics experiment
in Physics of Plasmas
Zhu H
(2015)
A quantitative model for heat pulse propagation across large helical device plasmas
in Physics of Plasmas
Peeters A
(2009)
The influence of the self-consistent mode structure on the Coriolis pinch effect
in Physics of Plasmas
Chapman S
(2009)
Macroscopic control parameter for avalanche models for bursty transport
in Physics of Plasmas
Sharapov S
(2014)
Bi-directional Alfvén cyclotron instabilities in the mega-amp spherical tokamak
in Physics of Plasmas
Fletcher L
(2013)
X-ray Thomson scattering measurements of temperature and density from multi-shocked CH capsules
in Physics of Plasmas
Merrifield J
(2007)
Intermittency, dissipation, and scaling in two-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic turbulence
in Physics of Plasmas
Casson F
(2009)
Anomalous parallel momentum transport due to E×B flow shear in a tokamak plasma
in Physics of Plasmas
Chin R
(2010)
Self-organization of magnetoacoustic waves in a thermally unstable environment
in Physics of Plasmas
Furno I
(2008)
Mechanism for blob generation in the TORPEX toroidal plasma
in Physics of Plasmas
Smith H
(2008)
Hot tail runaway electron generation in tokamak disruptions
in Physics of Plasmas
Sharma A
(2015)
A reanalysis of a strong-flow gyrokinetic formalism
in Physics of Plasmas
Lai W
(2013)
Self-consistent nonlinear kinetic simulations of the anomalous Doppler instability of suprathermal electrons in plasmas
in Physics of Plasmas
Chapman S
(2018)
Control system-plasma synchronization and naturally occurring edge localized modes in a tokamak
in Physics of Plasmas
Lai W
(2015)
Velocity space evolution of a minority energetic electron population undergoing the anomalous Doppler instability
in Physics of Plasmas
Guttenfelder W
(2009)
Edge turbulence measurements in electron-heated Helically Symmetric Experiment plasmas
in Physics of Plasmas
Gogoberidze G
(2012)
Generation of residual energy in the turbulent solar wind
in Physics of Plasmas
Hornsby W
(2010)
The nonlinear coupling between gyroradius scale turbulence and mesoscale magnetic islands in fusion plasmas
in Physics of Plasmas
Calderon F
(2013)
Identifying low-dimensional dynamics in type-I edge-localised-mode processes in JET plasmas
in Physics of Plasmas
Peeters A
(2009)
Comment on "Turbulent equipartition theory of toroidal momentum pinch" [Phys. Plasmas 15, 055902 (2008)]
in Physics of Plasmas
McMillan B
(2011)
Interaction of large scale flow structures with gyrokinetic turbulence
in Physics of Plasmas
Dura P
(2012)
Vorticity scaling and intermittency in drift-interchange plasma turbulence
in Physics of Plasmas
Description | See our International Advisory Panel reports to EPSRC please see the relevant research papers- we continue to actively publish in this area |
Exploitation Route | please see the relevant research papers |
Sectors | Energy,Environment,Financial Services, and Management Consultancy |
Description | We created a new centre for interdisciplinary plasma physics research. The Centre for Fusion, Space and Astrophysics has continued to grow and to facilitate research across laboratory and astrophysical plasmas. Young researchers trained at the Centre have found permanent positions across academia and at the leading facilities for fusion research worldwide, as well as in the mathematical modelling, finance and data analytics sectors. |
First Year Of Impact | 2008 |
Sector | Energy,Environment,Financial Services, and Management Consultancy |
Impact Types | Economic |
Description | A radiation-hydrodynamic ALE code for laser fusion energy |
Amount | £255,109 (GBP) |
Funding ID | EP/I029117/1 |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 10/2011 |
End | 09/2013 |
Description | Centre for Computational Plasma Physics |
Amount | £264,129 (GBP) |
Organisation | Atomic Weapons Establishment |
Sector | Private |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 10/2017 |
End | 09/2022 |
Description | Centre for Computational Plasma Physics |
Amount | £326,643 (GBP) |
Funding ID | Contract V30286915 |
Organisation | Atomic Weapons Establishment |
Sector | Private |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 07/2014 |
End | 06/2017 |
Description | Enabling Research |
Amount | £11,728 (GBP) |
Organisation | EUROfusion |
Sector | Public |
Country | European Union (EU) |
Start | 01/2017 |
End | 01/2018 |
Description | Enabling Research |
Amount | € 30,000 (EUR) |
Funding ID | TNT |
Organisation | European Atomic Energy Commission (EURATOM) |
Sector | Public |
Country | Belgium |
Start | 01/2017 |
End | 12/2020 |
Description | Eurofusion MST1 |
Amount | £11,570 (GBP) |
Organisation | EUROfusion |
Sector | Public |
Country | European Union (EU) |
Start | 01/2017 |
End | 01/2018 |
Description | Extension and optimisation of the EPOCH code |
Amount | £236,478 (GBP) |
Funding ID | EP/P02212X/1 |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 06/2017 |
End | 05/2019 |
Description | Fulbright-Lloyd's of London Scholarship 2017/18 |
Amount | $60,000 (USD) |
Organisation | US-UK Fulbright Commission |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 10/2017 |
End | 09/2018 |
Description | H2020-PROTEC-2014 |
Amount | € 386,531 (EUR) |
Funding ID | 637302 - PROGRESS |
Organisation | European Commission |
Sector | Public |
Country | European Union (EU) |
Start | 01/2015 |
End | 12/2017 |
Description | JET campaign 2016 |
Amount | £22,999 (GBP) |
Organisation | EUROfusion |
Sector | Public |
Country | European Union (EU) |
Start | 01/2016 |
End | 01/2017 |
Description | JET campaign 2017 |
Amount | £23,000 (GBP) |
Organisation | EUROfusion |
Sector | Public |
Country | European Union (EU) |
Start | 01/2017 |
End | 01/2018 |
Description | JET campaign 2018 |
Amount | £22,999 (GBP) |
Organisation | EUROfusion |
Sector | Public |
Country | European Union (EU) |
Start | 01/2018 |
End | 01/2019 |
Description | Multi-scale simulations of intense laser-plasma interactions |
Amount | £439,082 (GBP) |
Funding ID | EP/G054940/1 |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 01/2010 |
End | 03/2014 |
Description | Newton-CONICYT |
Amount | $1,438,000 (CLP) |
Organisation | Newton Fund |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 03/2015 |
End | 10/2016 |
Description | ODIN |
Amount | £255,110 (GBP) |
Funding ID | EP/I029117/1 |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 10/2011 |
End | 09/2013 |
Description | Standard Grant |
Amount | £422,595 (GBP) |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 07/2012 |
End | 06/2015 |
Title | Field-line map based mesh-free method |
Description | A type of mesh-free element method for representing continuous functions has been found. This can be used in computational simulations of movement and transport in systems with elongated structures. It is particularly appropriate for describing turbulence in tokamaks, especially when the field topology is complicated beyond the X-point. |
Type Of Technology | New/Improved Technique/Technology |
Year Produced | 2017 |
Impact | A user-friendly software implementation of this newly developed software technique is under design: this has not yet been found end-user application. |
Title | Odin |
Description | Odin is a 2D r-z geometry multi-material MHD ALE code. This is maintained on a private gitlab server along with detailed documentation. |
Type Of Technology | Software |
Year Produced | 2017 |
Impact | This is the first full release of the Odin code but is currently restricted to the development team only. This includes researchers at Exeter, Warwick, Imperial College and York. This release is the first full Odin release which is able to complete simulations of pellet implosion for inertial confinement fusion (ICF). It includes MHD, conduction and a generalised Ohm's law. The ability to begin ICF simulations, albeit with an early release version of the Odin code, is essential for keeping the UK academic community actively involved in international ICF programmes. |
URL | https://cfsa-pmw.warwick.ac.uk/Odin/Odin |
Title | Release of EPOCH code |
Description | Release of the EPOCH particle-in-cell code as a publicly available software package. EPOCH has been developed primarily at the University of Warwick as a multi-purpose plasma simulation code. QED algorithms and code to model gamma-ray and electron-positron pair production were developed at Oxford. Warwick implemented the QED package in the publicly released version of EPOCH. The fully documented code is available at https://cfsa-pmw.warwick.ac.uk/EPOCH/epoch. It is being used by experimentalists and theorists from many countries. This initial release of EPOCH was in 2011 but this is continually updated. |
Type Of Technology | Software |
Year Produced | 2016 |
Open Source License? | Yes |
Impact | The UK is now recognised as a world leading centre for kinetic plasma simulations for laser-plasmas |
URL | https://cfsa-pmw.warwick.ac.uk/EPOCH/epoch |
Description | Electrical wire explosion in water |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Invited Talk at Warm Dense Matter School, Berkeley, California, USA (2008). |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2008 |
Description | Invited Talk: Int. Conference on Frontiers of Plasma Physics and Technology |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | talk initiated discussions and further collaborations group of presenter is seen as active with influencial results group of presenter is seen as active with influencial results |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
Description | Invited main talk: Annual meeting of the German physical Society |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | talk initiated discussions and further collaborations group of presenter is seen as active with influencial results |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
Description | Invited main talk: European Conference on Laser Interaction with Matter |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | talk initiated discussions and further collaborations group of presenter is seen as active with influencial results |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2010 |
Description | Invited talk: EPS Conference on Plasma Physics |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | talk initiated discussions and further collaborations group of presenter is seen as active with influencial results |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2008 |
Description | Invited talk: Expert Meeting on Heavy Ion Fusion |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | talk initiated discussions and further collaborations group of presenter is seen as active with influencial results |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2007 |
Description | Invited talk: Int. Conference on Inertial Fusion Science and Applications |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | talk initiated discussions and further collaborations group of presenter is seen as active with influencial results |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2007 |
Description | Momentum conservation law for the Gyrokinetic Vlasov-Poisson equations |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Primary Audience | |
Results and Impact | Round table intervention at Festival de Théorie, Aix-en Provence,France, (2011). |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |