Boeing seeks Australian interest in fusion power collaborations

18 Jun 08

Boeing seeks Australian interest in fusion collaborations for ITER and beyond.

Australian scientists, through the Australian ITER Forum, have been approached by Boeing Phantom works, which is coordinating an international bid for the ITER Control Data Access and Communication (CODAC) contract.

Boeing is planning to propose an international team for this contract, and would like to scope Australian capability and talent for inclusion, as well as determine the wider possibilities to grow projects with Boeing in fusion control. The detail of Boeing's interest, which is written by staff from Boeing Phantom Works, Missouri (in consultation with Boeing's corporate headquarters, Seattle) , is supplied below.

Dr Matthew Hole, Chair of the Australian ITER Forum, requests anyone interested in participating in an ITER CODAC international team and/or developing a fusion control project with Boeing o rother organisations, please email him a very short description of their, or their groups/ business activities, and how these might be of interest to Boeing (see below). If possible, Dr Hole requests expressions of interest by June 30, 2008. Expressions of interest should be emailed to matthew.hole@anu.edu.au

Message From Boeing Phantom Works

Boeing is interested in working as part of a collaborative team to develop control laws that will prevent disruptions in long-pulse tokamak plasmas. Boeing is interested in identifying simulations and experiments that are not necessarily on tokamaks, which would lead to better understanding of control of instabilities in tokamaks. Boeing sees its role in this work as one of integrating knowledge available in the fusion community of the physics of plasma behavior into integrated control software for the plasma. Such an activity builds on Boeing's strength in dealing with interactions among multiple subsystems in an overall unstable system. Therefore, Boeing is interested in working with multiple people in the Australian fusion community who could develop and provide insight into multiple aspects of plasma behavior, the individual control of which must be integrated to achieve overall plasma control.

A related area of interest for Boeing is the development of models for inferred parameters; that is, developing from measurements we can make an understanding of plasma parameters which must be controlled, but which cannot be directly measured.

In addition, Boeing is interested in what might be called "Design for maintenance in harsh environments". There are many environments, such as in space and undersea in which equipment maintenance must be performed, but the environment is hazardous to people. Studies of hypothetical fusion power plants indicate that some of the core components will require regular removal and replacement, which would require work in a harsh nuclear environment. Much work is being done on robotic systems that could perform such maintenance, Boeing is interested in examining the other aspect of the maintenance, which is, what can be done in design of devices requiring maintenance to facilitate maintenance by remote manipulators and semiautonomous robots?

Please note that this list is not exclusive. It is likely that there are useful fields of collaboration in fusion energy that Boeing has not thought of at this time, so Boeing is interested in discussing concepts in areas that are similar to, but may not exactly described by, the areas of interest above.