Sunday, October 31, 2010

Experts Meet for Largest Ever IAEA Fusion Conference

iter The ITER Tokamak will be nearly 30 metres tall, and weigh 23 000 tons. The Tokamak is a doughnut-shaped vessel surrounded by coils that produce an intense magnetic field ? in which the conditions needed for fusion are created and maintained.

Say It!

More than 1000 scientific experts met for the six-day, IAEA Fusion Energy Conference, held in Daejeon, the Republic of Korea from 11-16 October 2010. Hosted by Korea's National Fusion Research Institute, this meeting was the largest gathering the IAEA has organized on the means to use fusion as a source of energy since the Conference series began in 1961.

As the search for greener forms of electricity production intensifies, the rising attendance and the scope of the research presented at the Conference are indicative of the scientific community's growing attention to pursuing peaceful nuclear fusion. During the Conference, scientists provided 460 poster presentations, delivered over 80 lectures, in addition to more than 20 overview presentations, as well as an additional 7 overview posters, displaying the outcome of the work done by larger groups, often over a period of many years. The Youth Conference on Fusion Energy was held prior to the Conference and was attended by about 100 young researchers. This new Conference was organized by the National Fusion Research Institute in cooperation with the IAEA.

"For the world at large, fusion energy remains a distant dream but the large group of distinguished scientists gathering in Deajeon recently made important headway to move the dream closer to reality," said Werner Burkart, Head of the IAEA's Nuclear Sciences and Applications Department, who opened the Conference on behalf of IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano.

The next Fusion Energy Conference will be held in San Diego, USA from 8 to 13 October 2012.

See Story Resources for more information.

View the original article here

No comments: