CERN and ITER begin cooperation
CERN and the International Fusion Organization (ITER) signed a first cooperation agreement at a meeting on 6 March. The agreement was approved by the councils of the two organizations last year, with the aim of sharing knowledge and information on technologies.
One of the main purposes of this agreement is for CERN to give ITER, through the provision of consultancy services, the benefit of its experience in specific technologies developed for the LHC project, as well as in administrative domains such as finance, procurement, human resources and informatics.
Currently in its start-up phase at its Cadarache site, 70 km from Marseilles, ITER will focus its research on the scientific and technical feasibility of using fusion energy as a future source of power generation on Earth. In doing so, the organization will need to call on certain key technologies, such as superconductivity, cryogenics, control systems and data acquisition, which are already in use at CERN.
The steering committee meeting for the cooperation agreement held its first meeting in Cadarache earlier this year, on 14 February. This meeting marked the first step towards sharing the key common technologies involved in the LHC and ITER, such as superconductivity, magnet coils and cryogenics. The collaboration has already assisted the ITER organization and domestic agencies in preparing technical specifications for the procurement arrangements for the toroidal field coils. These procurements are among the largest individual items for ITER and work is due to start later this year.
Neil takes the reins at JLab's FEL division
George Neil has been named associate director at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (Jefferson Lab) with responsibility for the free-electron laser (FEL) division. He has served as acting associate director for FELs since March 2007 and as the programme's deputy since 1996.
Neil's professional career has spanned many areas, including plasma physics, nuclear engineering, lasers and accelerator technology development. He spent 10 years at TRW Defence and Space Systems Group in Los Angeles, with responsibility for isotope separation sources and FEL development. That was followed by three years as FEL chief scientist for TRW at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. Among his many honours, Neil is a Fellow of the American Physical Society. He is also a co-winner of the 2000 International FEL prize and the 2005 R&D 100 award.
Jefferson Lab's FEL uses superconducting radio-frequency technology to convert electron-beam energy into light, which is used to conduct defence, industrial and academic research. It is the world's most powerful tunable FEL and incorporates a unique energy-recovery design.