Research in plasma physics and fusion nuclear technology in the Department of Physics of UPC

Abstract

Advanced Nuclear Technologies (ANT) Research Group of Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) has diverse fields of activity; research lines in the field of Nuclear Fusion are summarized in this article. Activities of ANT group in this field encompass from Plasma Physics to Control Engineering, including studies of plasma instabilities, fluid-dynamics and heat and mass transfer analyses; and relate to a variety of subsystems, from the plasma itself to the ancillary systems, including the plasma facing components and the Breeding Blankets. Breeding Blankets are complex components that perform three functions in a fusion reactor: shielding the magnets, recovering the heat produced in the plasma, and producing tritium, which is one of the fuels of fusion. Most of ANT group activities are framed within the EUROFusion program (www.euro-fusion.org), in close collaboration with existing experimental fusion devices and with ITER, the large international R&D fusion project (www.iter.org)