Highlights from SOFT 2010

Home to the globe circumnavigation navigator, Ferdinand Magellan, Porto is probably otherwise best known for its Port wine and football team. However, during the week of 27 September – 1 October, Porto played host to the 26^th Symposium On Fusion Technology (SOFT), the event for the international fusion technology community. F4E representatives were obviously at the event, and a newly designed F4E stand which presented general information about the organisation and the four main EU contributions to ITER: Buildings, Vacuum Vessel, Neutral Beam and Neutral Beam Test Facility, and Magnets, was on display in the industrial exhibition where visitors could get feedback to questions regarding F4E’s mission and job opportunities, procurement and contracts, the roadmap for future Calls.

A bi-annual event, SOFT is a forum to exchange information on the design, construction and operation of fusion experiments and on the technology for present fusion machines, next-step devices and power plants. This year’s SOFT brought together over 1000 scientists, engineers, policy-makers and industry representatives to participate at a series of lectures, seminars and workshops. There was also the poster “Walk of Fame” session, which includes over 170 poster presentations per day where all participants interact and show what they have been working on lately.

On Tuesday 28 September, Fusion for Energy participated in the morning sessions with two keynote speeches delivered by Frank Briscoe, Director of F4E, and Pietro Barabaschi, Head of the F4E Broader Fusion Development Department. Frank Briscoe presented an update on F4E progress, stating that Europe is moving ahead in line with the new baseline and has already made substantial progress in terms of technical work for the fabrication of components and in terms of contacts with industrial suppliers in preparation for the procurements. Pietro Barabaschi held a presentation on JT-60, its progress and recent developments.

The next SOFT will be held on 24-28 September 2012 in Liège, Belgium.