CZ-US meeting focused on collaboration within the COMPASS-U Project
The meeting was organized with the support of the United States Department of Energy (DOE) and
the Czech Attaché for the Science and Technology in the USA Luďek Moravec. The meeting was attended
by 22 leading scientists and executives from the top laboratories dealing with the thermonuclear
research in the US, such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the Princeton Plasma
Physics Laboratory (PPPL), General Atomics (GA) and representatives of IPP. The aim of the meeting
was to discuss new areas of cooperation concerning the development and construction of the new
COMPASS-U tokamak and its future scientific use.
The COMPASS-U tokamak will be an experimental device for studying the thermonuclear fusion as
a new energy source. The project is funded by the call „Excellent Research“ within the Operational
Programme Research, Development and Education, which is under the jurisdiction of the
Ministry of Education, Youth and Sportsof the Czech Republic. With a budget of 797 million
CZK, COMPASS-U will have unique global parameters. This is, in particular, due to the very high
magnetic field (5 T) being used to keep a hot plasma in which an electric current of up to 2
million Amperes will be generated.
The meeting was opened by Director of IPP, Radomír Pánek, who welcomed guests from the USA,
representatives of the US Department of Energy and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Martin Tlapa.
In his opening speech, Martin Tlapa expressed his support for the development of co-operation in
the field of thermonuclear fusion research and said that it was necessary to: "Increase the
cooperation between leading scientific institutions in the Czech Republic and the USA as an
important prerequisite for the further economic development of our society". Subsequently, after a
brief presentation of the scientific activities of IPP, Radomír Pánek acquainted the members of the
delegation with the Project COMPASS-U tokamak construction. In particular, he emphasized that:
"This facility will be a part of technological and physical research in the leading US institutions
such as MIT, PPPL, General Atomics and others". During a fruitfull discussion, the representatives
of these institutions expressed eminent interest in the cooperation, both on the construction of
the facility itself and also on its future scientific use. In particular, the discussion mainly
concerned the following issues: research of liquid metal technology for fusion reactors,
development of high-frequency plasma heating systems and physics of new operational scenarios
etc.
In connection with this meeting, the next meeting will be held in Washington DC in October
2018. The representatives of IPP at the United States Department of Energy (DOE) will
meet. The current issues for a cooperation in the field of fusion research will be formulated.
DOE might provide a financial support for this issues. The meeting will include also lectures
and discussion at PPPL and MIT.
CZ-US meeting at IPP
CZ-US meeting at IPP
COMPASS-U - distribution of a basic diagnostic systems and a plasma
heating system
The COMPASS-U tokamak in the experimental hall
The COMPASS-U tokamak cross section
Photos and pictures: Michael Komm (IPP) and the COMPASS-U team.
