Our 7th IFMIF Workshop took place during three days the 3rd week of May in Brasimone under the warm host of ENEA.
The scenarios we are living, with DONES in Europe and A-FSN in Japan being discussed, allows to state that this has been our last, so called, IFMIF Workshop, what does not mean that future similar encounters will take place.
The technical discussions were intense and fruitful, also were the unforgettable gastronomical satellite meetings organized by Gioacchino.
The Spanish Scientific Counsellor, Santiago Herrero Amigo, visited Rokkasho on 7 September and witnessed the recently arrived components of the RF Power system, one of the various top technology hardware of Spanish contribution to LIPAc.
In the afternoon, he had an official encounter with Mamoru Toda, the mayor of Rokkasho, accompanied by IFMIF/EVEDA Project Manager, Shigeru O’hira and IFMIF/EVEDA Project Leader, Juan Knaster.
We are proud to announce that the first components of the LIPAc’s RF Power System have arrived at Rokkasho site.
After a long sea travel from Spain, three containers reached Hachinohe port on 28th August. Devanning at the port and transportation from Hachinohe to Rokkasho took three days starting from 31st August.
Containers at Hachinohe Port (left); and truck loaded and ready to depart to Rokkasho (right)
A total of fifteen packages were delivered to Rokkasho site; including seven RF high voltage power supplies (HVPS), two RF Modules, three electrical distribution cabinets, and auxiliaries.
From 2nd to 4th September, NKK Company opened all the wooden crates and started the installation of the components, which is expected to be completed by the end of the month.
RF Power System’s wooden crates staged at the RF Power Bay Area (right) and two RF Modules (main and circulator platform) ready for its installation (right)
After almost five years since we arrived in Japan, my wife and I continue to astonish ourselves for the attractiveness and oddities that surround us.
We were impressed of the simplicity, morality and straightforwardness of the Japanese people; even though various events of daily life are often diametrically divergent and sometimes appear to me strange compared to the standards and customs of my home country, Italy.
For instance, it was a surprise to me to see the Japanese postman delivering the mail during wintertime; this might be normal worldwide, but in Japan, the peculiarity is that the postman delivers mail during winter, driving a motorcycle even during heavy snowfalls, with roads covered in white and slippery snow, and often icy! Saturday and Sunday they still work regularly, 365 days per year the service is available and very efficient.
In Italy, Postmen use as well the motorcycle or bike, season allowing, normally is preferable a small car.
The 5th LIPAc Technical Meeting (LTM05) was held at Legnaro (PD)-LNL (Italy) from 3rd to 5th June 2014.
From 3rd to 5th June more than 40 participants coming from CEA (Saclay, France), INFN (Legnaro, Italy), JAEA (Rokkasho, Japan), CIEMAT (Madrid, Spain), F4E (Garching, Germany) and PT of IFMIF/EVEDA involved in the design, the manufacturing, the installation and the commissioning of LIPAc (Linear IFMIF Prototype Accelerator), met in Legnaro during our 5th LIPAc Technical Meeting.
Coupler under test
The status of the different components was presented. An important progress has been shown as well as important achievements reached:
The construction progress at Rokkasho site, with the injector installation ready for check-out and the first phase of the commissioning
The successful high power tests on the RFQ couplers developed by LNL, which reached a RF power above the initially specified 200 kW
The RF power system and its readiness for factory performance test at INDRA (Spain)
The MEBT components integration will be completed within January 2015.
The LPBD, which final design report was recently approved, will be delivered in August 2014.
The SRF Linac design and manufacturing are ongoing under the supervision of a dedicated working group.
Two couplers tip modules and aluminum coupling cavity will be ready on September 2014.
D-Plate will be completely assembled by November 2014 and ready for shipment by the end of 2015.
The HEBT and Beam Dump main components have been completely designed; technical specifications are almost fully prepared and several manufacturing contracts have been launched.
IMS (Interface Management System) was explained in details and emphasized its importance for the project.
The Central Control System – MPS – PPS & Diagnostics was properly addressed and the need of an important coordinated work among all stakeholders was agreed.
RFQ super module ready for power test
During the meeting a dedicated session was devoted to the visit of the RFQ test bench set-up for the high power tests which have to be performed on last 3 module of the high flux Super module planned in the forthcoming weeks. During the visit we get the chance to see the clean room for the module assembly as well as the RFQ full size aluminum mock-up used to experiment the tuning of the cavity during the bead pull measurement.
Within the forthcoming months, it was clearly highlighted that the components needed for the 2nd phase of the commissioning will arrive like a “tsunami” at Rokkasho. A lot of integration activities will have to be performed within our tight schedule.
The next LTM06 is planned from 26 to 28 November 2014 in Rokkasho (Japan)
A key milestone related with the LIPAc Installation and Commissioning activities, that are going on in Rokkasho, took place on Tuesday 14 October. The project management from JAEA, F4E and PT went together to Hachimangu Shintoist Shrine in Noheji to pray for the success of LIPAc. Each of us made an offer to the Gods asking for their divine support to our project. Our actions were blessed with wind and rain from the strong typhoon that was passing over Japan those days.
Project management from JAEA, F4E and PT at the Hachimangu Shrine in Noheji
From left to right: M. Sugimoto, K. Shoji, S. O’hira, K. Ushigusa, J. Knaster, Y. Okumura, P. Cara, R. Heidinger, A. Kasugai, K. Iizuka
Rokkasho, Japan, 07 August 2014 ; (courtesy of ITER newsline)
In Rokkasho, on the eastern coastline of Japan, Europe and Japan are jointly carrying out advanced R&D activities in support of ITER and for successful development of the phases after ITER. Termed the “Broader Approach,” these efforts have been underway since 2007.
In early August, the Director-General of the ITER Organization, Osamu Motojima, and ITER Council Secretary, Sachiko Ishizaka, visited Rokkasho for an update on Broader Approach activities and to share information about progress at ITER.
The activities of the Broader Approach are essential for the phases after ITER in the world fusion program. One project, IFMIF/EVEDA, is validating the concept for a fusion-relevant neutron source based on Li(d,xn) reactions and will permit the rapid construction of such a facility within cost and schedule less than a decade from the time that a decision is taken. IFERC, another BA project, not only holds a supercomputer dedicated to plasma simulations for the world fusion community (Helios), but is also implementing research efforts towards a (post-ITER) DEMO reactor. JT-60SA, being a BA project as well, is a fusion experiment designed to support the operation of ITER and to investigate how best to optimise the operation of fusion power plants that are built after ITER
After visiting the facilities, including the injector of LIPAc, the Linear IFMIF Prototype Accelerator (LIPAc) that is presently under installation and commissioning, the visitors from ITER were able to appreciate the sound advancements and robust health of the Broader Approach projects.
Photo caption: After meeting the management of the Japan Atomic Energy Agency, ITER Director-General Motojima (second from left) gave a seminar to Broader Approach staff on the evolution of ITER. Juan Knaster, Project Leader of IFMIF/EVEDA (far left) and Noriyoshi Nakajima (not pictured), Project Leader of IFERC, explained the status of their respective projects and plans for the future. Council Secretary Sachiko Ishizaka is pictured fifth from right. Kenkichi Ushigusa, Director-General of Rokkasho Fusion Institute (JAEA) is pictured third from right.
The New Year brought a very important event for the IFMIF agenda: the 6th International IFMIF Workshop, kindly hosted by the universities of Nagoya and Kyoto, from Monday 20 to Friday 24 January 2014, where the most recent advances and achieved milestones of our project were shared among the community. In particular, the recent achievement of the IFMIF IIEDR (Intermediate IFMIF Engineering Design Report) submitted on schedule on June 2013, stamping the end of the IFMIF Engineering Design Activities, was thoroughly covered during the first day. Also, the on-going activities on the different EVEDA prototyping subprojects were discussed, with special relevance to the latest advances of the LIPAc accelerator, which installation is about to start.
The time we all passed together reinforced the links and allowed lots of valuable parallel discussions to exchange ideas and to clarify points of view, which are essential for the important coming milestones that we will have to overcome in the next months. Our project is entering a decisive phase but the global enthusiasm shared these days in Nagoya and Kyoto reflect a strong will to face the difficulties ahead, and are a foretaste of the coming successes.
Rokkasho, Japan, 26-28 November 2014
LTM-06 Participants (Group photo)
The 6th LIPAc Technical Meeting (LTM06) was held in Rokkasho, BA site Fusion Energy Research Center (Japan), from 26th to 28th November 2014.
More than 40 participants, from CEA (Saclay, France), INFN (Legnaro, Italy), JAEA (Rokkasho, Japan), CIEMAT (Madrid, Spain), F4E (Garching, Germany) and PT of IFMIF/EVEDA attended the meeting to discuss progress in the design, manufacturing, installation and commissioning of the LIPAc (Linear IFMIF Prototype Accelerator).
Much technical information was exchanged by the various presenters, showing the status of the different components. After the previous LTM05, held in Legnaro (Italy), a lot of progress has been made, demonstrating the strong effort of the entire LIPAc community in Japan and Europe.
Partial view of attendees to LTM06
Important milestones were reached in the project and presented in detail during the meeting:
Injector First Plasma! On 23th of October 2014. The first plasma was produced with 80W of RF power and a gas flow of 1.9 sccm at 75kV. The following day the RF power was incrementally to 130W.
Injector First H+ Beam (Accelerator Vault was set under controlled area) 4th November 2014 at 16:18 the first beam was extracted; H+ Beam at 70KeV/40mA, 46.7 mA, Faraday cup current 100 ms/s 10% duty. In the two following days of Injector commissioning were reached 105mA of beam current, great result!
The RF power systems; 8 HVPS dedicated to the RFQ have already been manufactured, three of them have already been tested, and the remaining five are ready for test. They are expected to be delivered to Rokkasho in the first trimester of 2015.
Production of the first plasmaInjector operator station in the control room
Key MEBT components are already integrated and the conditioning of the buncher is progressing well. The MEBT is expected to arrive in Rokkasho after summer 2015.
The LPBD final report was delivered and design for manufacture is now ongoing. The cooling system was confirmed stand-alone system, and the licensing strategy clarified.
Injector LEBT-FC and beam stopper
The SRF Linac design is basically finished and manufacturing contracts for the critical components are now being placed. The licensing strategy is ongoing…
The D-Plate will be completely assembled by the end of 2014 and ready for shipment after summer in 2015.
The HEBT and Beam Dump main components have been completely designed, the associated technical specifications are nearing completion and several manufacturing contracts have been launched.
PPS-MPS and LCS are now in operation controlling the injector operation, some modifications will be necessary for the next phase.
A site visit of the Accelerator Prototype Building was held, so all participants could see the installed injector. The injector was assembled by JAEA and their subcontractor, with the assistance of CEA experts, positively demonstrating the close collaboration between all parties.
HV Platform and ion source view
We are now eagerly awaiting the end of the commissioning phase of the Injector, with an expected completion date of July 2015. The next step will be the installation of the RF power system components, followed by the installation of the RFQ, MEBT, D-plate and LPBD. Since it was announced the arriving of a wealth of components in 2015, we must be all ready for their installation in parallel with other activities.
See you next LTM07 in Rokkasho:
LTM07 is planned for the 15th -19th June 2015, and will be held again in Rokkasho (Japan).
On 19- 20 March, the 13th Meeting of the IFMIF/EVEDA Project Committee (IFMIF PC-13) was held at the JAEA Rokkasho site.
The meeting was mainly devoted to the review of the updated Project Plan and the Annual Report 2013 for the IFMIF/EVEDA Project, to be submitted to the next Broader Approach Steering Committee (BA SC) for approval.
The IFMIF PC welcomed the relevant results of the investigations carried out with respect to the cavitation phenomena and observed thinning of the stainless steel conduits in the EVEDA Lithium Test Loop Experiments (ELTL), and encouraged JAEA to consider additional experimental time beyond the presently agreed test campaign scheduled termination date. Additional efforts towards the long term operation under vacuum were also deemed advisable to be taken into consideration in the near future.
Good news were also reported with regards the progress of the Linear IFMIF Prototype Accelerator (LIPAc) Installation and Commissioning activities. The IFMIF PC participants had the opportunity to see the advances of the on-site activities being jointly carried out by JAEA, Project Team, and CEA experts. The installation of the Ion Source and Low Energy Beam Transport line is now progressing at full speed moving forward the LIPAcfs 1st Stage Commissioning, which is presently planned to start by summer this year.
The successful NaK filling of the High Flux Test Module (HFTM) has unblocked the related test facilities validation activities, allowing in particular to launch the preparatory work for the BR2 fission reactor irradiation campaign at SCK-CEN (Mol, Belgium).
The next IFMIF/EVEDA Project Committee meeting will be held in Rokkasho (Japan) on 8-9 October 2014.
Containers at Hachinohe Port (left); and truck loaded and ready to depart to Rokkasho (right)
RF Power System’s wooden crates staged at the RF Power Bay Area (right) and two RF Modules (main and circulator platform) ready for its installation (right)
