Nuclear fusion fascinates and divides. Beyond the major international collaboration ITER, set up in the 1980s to provide a prototype power plant that could actually be used to supply electricity to the grid, recent advances have seen the emergence of new players in the field, including start-ups.
To take stock of the scientific and technological challenges of fusion, and to better understand how researchers are coping with being involved in such long-term projects, Elsa Couderc, Science and Technology Editor at The Conversation France, spoke to Yannick Marandet. A plasma physics researcher, he has long been director of the French Research Federation on Fusion by Magnetic Confinement (FR-FCM), and is currently co-directing a major research project on superconductors and fusion, funded by France 2030.
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HWS 2024
Sixty scientists from thirteen different countries gathered in the heart of the French Alps to share their latest developments in the understanding the interaction between hydrogen isotopes and materials, a necessity for the use of nuclear fusion as a sustainable energy source.
Forty oral presentations and fifteen poster presentations were given during the workshop, covering a large spectrum from hydrogen recycling in materials, tritium removal technics to the influence of neutron damage on hydrogen retention in materials. The PIIM laboratory was very well represented, with oral presentations by Aleksandr Afonin, Yosvany Silva-Solís, Matthieu Latournerie and Federica Pappalardo, and two poster presentations by José-David Cremé and Julien Denis.
The PATP, Plasma-Surface and administrative teams of the laboratory were involved in the organisation of the event. The event was supported by the CNRS, Aix-Marseille University, the CEA, the Société Française de Physique, the Fr FCM federation and the ISFIN institut.
