2009 Press Releases
Fusion Expo comes to Cork
17.11.2009
A travelling exhibition on fusion energy will be in Cork this week. The fusion Expo is held in conjunction with Discovery 2009, where Dr Paddy Mc Carthy from the Physics Department UCC and colleagues will be present to explain to school groups and members of the public the science and societal importance of this and other developing energy sources.
17.11.2009
A travelling exhibition on fusion energy will be in Cork this week. The fusion Expo is held in conjunction with Discovery 2009, where Dr Paddy Mc Carthy from the Physics Department UCC and colleagues will be present to explain to school groups and members of the public the science and societal importance of this and other developing energy sources.
The Fusion Expo will be open to the general public in the Elysian Marketing Suite, Eglinton St on Wednesday, November 18th, 2.30pm-5.30pm and Saturday, November 21st, 10am -5pm. For more information visit http://www.fusion-expo.si
Nuclear fusion is the fundamental energy source of the universe. It is the process that powers the sun and the stars. In the most easily achieved fusion reaction, large amounts of energy are released when the nuclei of two light atoms (deuterium and tritium) fuse together to form a heavier one, helium. Tapping into this energy source offers the prospect of a long-term, safe and environmentally friendly option to meet the energy needs of a world population faced with the prospect of fast diminishing fossil fuel resources.
Fusion Energy Research has been carried out in UCC for more than two decades according to Dr. Paddy Mc Carthy who leads a research group in the Department of Physics. During this time, UCC researchers and graduate students have made significant contributions to a number of major fusion experimental projects in the Germany, Italy, Switzerland and the UK. Together with colleagues in the National Centre for Plasma Science and Technology in DCU, UCC groups are involved in research projects for ITER, the largest fusion experimental facility in the world, presently under site construction at Cadarache, near Marseille. ITER takes the form of a giant hollow doughnut or tokamak with a volume of some 1000 cubic metres in which an electric current of 15 mega amps will flow, heating up the gaseous deuterium and tritium fuel to many millions of degrees, in fact to temperatures well in excess of that at the centre of the sun! Maintaining such enormous temperatures are possible because the ionized gas, or plasma, is confined by strong magnetic fields in a "magnetic bottle" which prevents it from coming into contact with the walls of the tokamak.
Dr Mc Carthy, who spends several months a year at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in Garching, Munich, has developed sophisticated methods used in real time control of the plasma current and shape in the ASDEX Upgrade tokamak, one of the most successful fusion experiments in the world, and his techniques will be applied to ITER which is planned to begin operation in 2018. CLISTE is an Irish word with wide recognition in the fusion research community as the acronym for CompLete Interpretive Suite for Tokamak Equilibria, a large computer code developed by Dr Mc Carthy for the challenging task of identifying the magnetic structure inside the plasma from measurement probes that must necessarily be located outside.
Picture: Dr Paddy Mc Carthy, Department of Physics, UCC, pictured in front of the ASDEX Upgrade tokamak at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, Garching, Germany, where he and his group have been contributing to the research programm for over two decades.
RMcD
Nuclear fusion is the fundamental energy source of the universe. It is the process that powers the sun and the stars. In the most easily achieved fusion reaction, large amounts of energy are released when the nuclei of two light atoms (deuterium and tritium) fuse together to form a heavier one, helium. Tapping into this energy source offers the prospect of a long-term, safe and environmentally friendly option to meet the energy needs of a world population faced with the prospect of fast diminishing fossil fuel resources.
Fusion Energy Research has been carried out in UCC for more than two decades according to Dr. Paddy Mc Carthy who leads a research group in the Department of Physics. During this time, UCC researchers and graduate students have made significant contributions to a number of major fusion experimental projects in the Germany, Italy, Switzerland and the UK. Together with colleagues in the National Centre for Plasma Science and Technology in DCU, UCC groups are involved in research projects for ITER, the largest fusion experimental facility in the world, presently under site construction at Cadarache, near Marseille. ITER takes the form of a giant hollow doughnut or tokamak with a volume of some 1000 cubic metres in which an electric current of 15 mega amps will flow, heating up the gaseous deuterium and tritium fuel to many millions of degrees, in fact to temperatures well in excess of that at the centre of the sun! Maintaining such enormous temperatures are possible because the ionized gas, or plasma, is confined by strong magnetic fields in a "magnetic bottle" which prevents it from coming into contact with the walls of the tokamak.
Dr Mc Carthy, who spends several months a year at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in Garching, Munich, has developed sophisticated methods used in real time control of the plasma current and shape in the ASDEX Upgrade tokamak, one of the most successful fusion experiments in the world, and his techniques will be applied to ITER which is planned to begin operation in 2018. CLISTE is an Irish word with wide recognition in the fusion research community as the acronym for CompLete Interpretive Suite for Tokamak Equilibria, a large computer code developed by Dr Mc Carthy for the challenging task of identifying the magnetic structure inside the plasma from measurement probes that must necessarily be located outside.
Picture: Dr Paddy Mc Carthy, Department of Physics, UCC, pictured in front of the ASDEX Upgrade tokamak at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, Garching, Germany, where he and his group have been contributing to the research programm for over two decades.
RMcD