If we succeed in harnessing its potential, nuclear fusion – the same reaction that powers the Sun – promises clean, abundant energy. Various international initiatives are underway to build the power plants, also known as a tokamaks, required to generate fusion power at scale – and shut them down quickly should something go wrong.
One recognized safety mechanism for controlling plasma instabilities is by shooting frozen hydrogen pellets into the plasma using a shattered pellet injector. In Hungary, the Fusion Plasma Physics Department of the HUN-REN Centre for Energy Research (HUN-REN EK-CER)) was one of the first to produce and shoot large enough frozen hydrogen pellets according to the specifications set out by ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor), the world’s largest tokamak presently being built in France.
EK successfully designed, built and commissioned the experimental injector and began producing frozen hydrogen pellets. The entire system was developed using the 3DEXPERIENCE platform on the cloud.
“We built the fully operational experimental system in record time,” said Sándor Zoletnik, head of EK’s Fusion Plasma Physics Department. “Projects like this involve teams of physicists and engineers working together to understand these complex plasma systems. As we approach 2030, we need to achieve meaningful results and it’s through collaborative technology like the 3DEXPERIENCE platform that we’ll progress faster.”
Read the full story to discover how engineers and physicists benefited from the ability to easily collaborate and share information within the 3DEXPERIENCE platform and achieve traceability throughout the product development lifecycle of their pioneering shattered pellet injector.
Rebecca Lambert est journaliste et copywriter freelance basée en Grande-Bretagne.