Short Course descriptions

Fundamentals of Fusion Neutronics

Organizer: Ethan Peterson

As part of SOFE 2025, a special two–day mini-course on Fundamentals of Fusion Neutronics will be offered on Saturday and Sunday June 21/22, 2023. The mini-course will be held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA. International experts from academia and national labs will provide a set of comprehensive lectures on the impact of fusion neutronics.

This workshop will provide an introduction to the fundamentals of fusion neutronics through a combination of theory and simulation exercises to be carried out with OpenMC. OpenMC is a general-purpose Monte Carlo neutron and photon transport simulation code. It is capable of simulating 3D models based on constructive solid geometry as well as CAD-based geometries using the DAGMC library. OpenMC was originally developed by members of the Computational Reactor Physics Group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology starting in 2011 with a specific focus on high performance computing and has now evolved into a community developed code with contributions from many institutions across the world. The specific programming and analysis exercises that will be explored in the workshop include: neutron and photon transport, activation simulations, tritium production, nuclear heating, radiation damage, shutdown dose rates, and advanced variance reduction techniques employing new adjoint capabilities provided by the Random Ray method. All levels of experience with fusion neutronics are welcome. Our only recommendation is that attendees have some experience with the Python programming language.

Lecturers:

Dr. Ethan Peterson (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

Agenda for fundamentals of fusion neutronics:

Day 1 – Saturday, 21 June 2025

07:30 – 08:15  Registration

08:15 – 08:30  Introductory comments – Daniel Andruczyk

08:30 – 10:15  Transport and activation theory primer – Ethan Peterson

10:15 – 10:30  Coffee break

10:30 – 12:30  OpenMC fundamentals I – Ethan Peterson

12:30 – 13:30  Lunch

13:30 – 14:45  OpenMC dundamentals II – Ethan Peterson

14:45 – 15:00  Coffee break

15:00 – 16:30  Coupled neutron-photon transport – Ethan Peterson

Day 2 – Sunday, 22 June 2025

08:30 – 10:15  Advanced variance reduction – Ethan Peterson

10:15 – 10:30  Coffee break

10:30 – 12:30  Activation and depletion – Ethan Peterson

12:30 – 13:30  Lunch

13:30 – 14:45  Shutdown dose rates with R2S and D1S – Ethan Peterson

14:45 – 15:00  Coffee break

15:00 – 16:30  Facilitating CAD-centric workflows – Ethan Peterson

Tritium Transport in Materials

Organizer: Dr. Remi Delaporte-Mathurin

As part of SOFE2025, a special two-day mini-course on Tritium Transport in Materials will be offered on Saturday and Sunday June 21/22, 2025. The mini-course will be held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA. International experts from academia and national labs will provide a set of comprehensive lectures on Tritium interaction with materials, modeling, experiments and a FESTIM workshop.

The aim of the minicourse is to provide a comprehensive introduction of tritium transport in materials with an emphasis on fusion applications. In this mini-course, you will learn the fundamentals of hydrogen transport in materials from theory to experimental techniques and gain experience with a hands-on modelling tutorial!

The first day will be dedicated to lectures by international experts covering the theory of hydrogen transport and how it is studied both numerically and experimentally. After an introduction of hydrogen (and tritium) in the field of nuclear fusion, the lecturers will cover a wide range of modelling techniques, from the atomistic scale to modelling entire reactor fuel cycles. This course will cover the experimental techniques to measure, understand, and quantify hydrogen isotope properties in materials. The topics will cover the measurement of hydrogen diffusivity, solubility, permeability, surface reaction kinetics, and trapping sites in solid materials. The techniques and experiments relevant to hydrogen transport in fluid systems for blanket processes. As well as an overview of tritium specific diagnostics.

The second half of the mini-course will be a hands-on work shop where you will learn how to use the open-source code FESTIM (Finite Element Simulations of Tritium In Materials). Here you will learn how to run basic simulations, simulate/reproduce experiments, visualize data, and model plasma facing components. At the end of this mini-course, you will have a very broad understanding of hydrogen transport, how to study it with experimental techniques, and have hands-on experience with simulation tools.

Lecturers:

Dr. Remi Delaporte-Mathurin (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

Dr. James Dark (Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Dr. Thomas Fuerst (Idaho National Laboratory)

Dr. Stephen Lam (University of Massachusetts Lowell)

Dr. Samuel Meschini (Poletecnico di Torino)

Agenda for tritium transport in materials:

Day 1 – Saturday, 21 June 2025

07:30 – 08:00  Registration

08:00 - 08:15  Introduction – Daniel Andruczyk

08:15 – 09:15  General Introduction, tritium in fusion – Remi Delaporte-Mathurin

09:15 – 09:30  Coffee Break

09:30 – 10:30  Modelling hydrogen transport: reactor scale and fuel cycle – Samuele Meschini

10:30 – 11:30  Modeling hydrogen transport: component to reactor scale – Remi Delaporte-Mathurin

11:30 – 12:30  Modelling hydrogen transport: atomistic scale – Stephen Lam

12:30 – 13:30  Lunch

13:30 – 15:30  Experimental techniques and material characterization – Thomas Fuerst, Hans Gietl

15:30 – 15:45  Coffee break

15:45 – 17:00  Question & Answer

Day 2 – Sunday, 22 June 2025

08:30 – 16:00  FESTIM workshop – Remi Delaporte-Mathurin, James Dark

Tokamak Operation

Organizer: Dr. George Sips

As part of SOFE2025, a special two-day mini-course on Tokamak Operations will be offered on Saturday and Sunday June 21/22, 2025. The mini-course will be held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA. International experts from academia and national labs will provide a set of comprehensive lectures on Tokamak operations, plasma scenarios and a special capstone session on plasma discharges in DT.

How do we operate a tokamak to create and sustain high-performance fusion plasmas? This short course, designed for physicists and engineers, takes a hands-on approach to tokamak operations from a physics pilot’s perspective based on experience from JET and DIII-D. Over two days, we will explore plasma scenarios, advanced control methods, heating systems, complexity of the operation of large-scale facilities and the steps on how to set up a plasma discharge in practice. The final capstone session will focus on DT operations, providing participants with a comprehensive view of how the JET DT plasma discharges were developed and executed to achieve the world record in fusion power.

Lecturers:

George Sips – Director of Operations of DIII-D, General Atomics, CA, USA

George Sips graduated in 1987 from the Technical University in Eindhoven, the Netherlands and obtained his PhD in 1991. He worked at JET from 1988 to 1999, participating in various JET experiments, including DT experiments in 1997. From 2000 to 2008, George continued his work on scenario development at ASDEX Upgrade. He returned to JET in 2009 to prepare a second DT phase, while overseeing requirements for JET operations. From 2004 to 2015, George was chair of the steady state operation and integrated operating scenario topical groups of the ITPA and he is currently the chair of the Fusion Technology Committee of the IEEE. Since 2020, George is the Director of Operations at DIII-D.

Fernanda Rimini – Head of Operations, Control and Tokamak Systems, UKAEA, UK

Arrived at JET in 1987 with a 1-year post-doc grant … and didn’t leave until 1999, including participation in the 1997 record DTE1 experiments. After a few years at CEA Cadarache, France, came back to JET in 2009 and started working for the UKAEA in JET Plasma Operations Group, later as JET Senior Exploitation Manager for EUROfusion. I am now Head of Operations, Control and Tokamak Systems and my main role is participation in, and management of, scientific and technical research and engineering developments in the UK and International Fusion programme. Main area of competence lies in plasma physics, real-time plasma control, scenario development and integrated machine commissioning. I was one of the JET Expert Session Leaders with overall responsibility for safe tokamak operation close to the technical boundaries of the JET machine, and I have been part of the group of international experts tasked, in 2016/2017 and again in 2023/24 to revise with IO the ITER Research Plan.

Eva Belonohy – Principal Operations Expert, UKAEA, UK & Training and Education Manager, EUROfusion, Germany

Eva Belonohy qualified as physics pilot on ASDEX Upgrade, MAST and JET as part of her post-doc at the Max-Planck-Institute for Plasma Physics, Germany and the European Goal Oriented Training in Tokamak Operations. She worked at JET from 2012 to 2019 as a member of the Operations Group and led the technical rehearsals in preparation for the JET tritium campaigns. From 2019 to 2022 she was deputy Naka-site Coordinator and later Operations Subproject Leader leading the EUROfusion activities in support of the first commissioning of JT-60SA. Since 2021, Eva is the Operations Subproject Leader of the Preparation for ITER Operations work package in EUROfusion. She is a member of the ITER Operations Network and has set up the EUROfusion Operations Network creating operator communities to share experience and know-how between the European operations teams and collaborators. Since 2023, she is also the Training and Education Manager at EUROfusion expanding training opportunities across Europe including operator training and mobility.

Agenda for tokamak operation:

Day 1 - Saturday, 21 June 2025

07:30 – 08:45  Registration

08:45 – 09:00  Introduction – Daniel Andruczyk 

09:00 – 10:30  Introduction to tokamak operations – Eva Belonohy

10.30 – 11:00  Coffee break

11:00 – 12:30  Plasma operation and scenario – George Sips

12:30 – 14:00  Lunch

14:00 – 15:30 Plasma control from basic to advanced concepts – Fernanda Rimini

15:30 – 16:00  Coffee break

16:00 – 17:00 Question & Answer

Day 2 – Sunday, 22 June 2025

09:00 – 10:30  Heating systems – George Sips

10:30 – 11:00  Coffee break

11:00 – 12:30  How to set up a plasma discharge – Eva Belonohy

12:30 – 14:00  Lunch

14:00 – 15:30  Capstone session: How to operate and develop a plasma discharge in DT – Fernanda Rimini

15:30 – 16:00  Coffee break

16:00 – 17:00 Question & Answer