Portrait of Alberto Loarte

Alberto Loarte

Objectives, status of the ITER project and research plan

Alberto Loarte

ITER

Friday, October 29, 2021

10:00am

Virtual

PSFC Seminars

Abstract: In his talk Alberto will describe : a) how ITER’s fusion production goals will be demonstrated through a range of plasma scenarios addressing specific physics issues of fusion plasmas, b) the basis and the design of the ITER tokamak and the status of its construction, c) the plan for ITER’s scientific exploitation to the demonstrate the project’s goals, d) Outstanding R&D issues to be addressed in present fusion experiments to refine the ITER Research Plan.

Bio: Alberto is the head of the Science Division at the ITER Organization, which is responsible for developing the ITER Research Plan, the Plasma Control System, and building a world-class integrated modelling and analysis infrastructure, the Integrated Modelling and Analysis Suite. The ITER Science Division also actively coordinates physics R&D activities to support the ITER Research Plan with the fusion communities of the ITER Members through the International Tokamak Physics Activities (ITPA), the ITER Scientist Fellow Network, and the Monaco-ITER Postdoctoral Fellowship Program.

Alberto has a PhD in Atomic and Nuclear Physics by Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain, and carried out his PhD and postdoc research at the Joint European Torus. He later joined the EFDA-Close Support Unit at the Max Planck Institut für Plasmaphysik in Garching, where he was responsible for the EFDA Technology Programme in the area of plasma-wall interactions for ITER. In 2008, he joined the ITER Organization Science Division. Alberto’s research has focused on the characterization and control of stationary and transient wall power fluxes in tokamaks and on issues related to the integration of high confinement core plasmas with edge plasma requirements for power and particle exhaust. This has included modelling work and participation in experiments in many tokamaks including JET, Alcator C-Mod, ASDEX Upgrade, COMPASS, DIIII-D, EAST, KSTAR and JT-60U.  He has been co-Chair of the Edge Plasma and Divertor Physics, Edge Plasma and Pedestal Physics, Transport and Confinement topical groups of the International Tokamak Physics Activities and secretary to the ITER Council Science and Technology Committee.