Topic outline

  • General

    Fusion Energy Technology aims to teach the basic principles and underlying physics of producing energy from fusion of hydrogen. The course consists of three principal components: the first section gives an overview of the physical conditions for fusion and presents the main fusion reactor concepts. The second part deals with the technical characteristics of a fusion reactor, in particular, with material issues, vacuum technology, heat transfer and fuel technology. The third section covers the potential of fusion power plant features, security, and the future of fusion generated electricity. 

    The course includes lectures, exercises, and an exam. Upon completion, graduates will have a basic understanding of what fusion is, an overview of major fusion research topics and challenges in constructing a fusion power plant, and how the fusion-fired power plant will potentially work.

    The grade for the course will be determined on the scale 0-5 based on three factors:

    • 50% for attending the exercise classes and getting the exercises done 
    • 25% for attending lectures and responded to the quiz questions
    • 25% for the (final) exams

    The final exam can be either oral or written exam depending on the number of students attending the course.

    Generally, the course schedule will be according to the "Upcoming events" on the right.

    Room Y309a is booked for the lectures and Y309b for the exercise classes. The general COVID-19 rules and restrictions within Aalto University are applied if needed.

    Tentative schedule of the course (to be confirmed):

    Week Jan 9-13, 2023: Fusion principles. Lecture (Dr. Timo Kiviniemi) Monday, Jan 9, 2023, 12am-2pm,  exercise session (MSc Roni Mäenpää) Wednesday, Jan 11, 2023, 10am - 12pm

    Week Jan 16-20, 2023: Fusion concepts. Lecture (Dr. Timo Kiviniemi) Monday, Jan 16, 2023, 12am-2pm, exercise session (MSc Roni Mäenpää) Wednesday, Jan 18, 2023, 10am - 12pm

    Week Jan 23-27, 2023: Tokamaks 1. Lecture (Dr. Timo Kiviniemi) Monday, Jan 23, 2023, 12am-2pm, exercise session (MSc Roni Mäenpää) Wednesday, Jan 25, 2023, 10am - 12pm

    Week Jan 30 - Feb 3, 2023: Tokamaks 2. Lecture (Dr. Timo Kiviniemi) Monday, Jan 30, 2023, 12am-2pm, exercise session (MSc Roni Mäenpää) Wednesday, Feb 1, 2023, 10am - 12pm

    Week Feb 6-10, 2023: Stellarators. Lecture (Dr. Timo Kiviniemi) Monday Feb 6, 2023, 12am-2pm, exercise session (MSc Roni Mäenpää) on Wednesday, Feb 8, 2023, 10am - 12pm

    Week Feb 13-17, 2023: Inertial confinement fusion. Lecture (Dr. Timo Kiviniemi) Monday, Feb 13, 2023,12am-2pm exercise session (MSc Roni Mäenpää) on Wednesday, Feb 15, 2023, 10am - 12pm

    Week Feb 20-24, 2023: Exam week - no lectures or exercises

    Week Feb 27 - Mar 3, 2023: ITER. Lecture (Prof. Mathias Groth) Monday, Feb 27, 2023, 12am-2pm, exercise session (MSc Roni Mäenpää) Wednesday, Mar 1, 2023, 10am - 12pm

    Week Mar 6-10, 2023: Plasma diagnostics. Lecture (Prof. Mathias Groth) Monday, Mar 6, 2023, 12am-2pm, exercise session (MSc Roni Mäenpää) Wednesday, Mar 8, 2023, 10am - 12pm

    Week Mar 13-17, 2023: Plasma heating. Lecture (Dr. Ray Chandra) Monday, Mar 13, 2023, 12am-2pm, exercise session (MSc Roni Mäenpää) Wednesday, Mar 15, 2023, 10am - 12pm

    Week Mar 20-24, 2023: Scrape-off layer and plasma-wall interaction. Lecture (Dr. Ray Chandra) Monday, Mar 20, 2023, 12am-2pm, exercise session (MSc Roni Mäenpää) Wednesday, Mar 22, 2023, 10am - 12pm

    Week Mar 27-31, 2023: Tritium cycle. Lecture (Dr. Ray Chandra) Monday, Mar 27, 2023, 12am-2pm, exercise session (MSc Roni Mäenpää) Wednesday, Mar 29, 2023, 10am - 12pm

    Week Apr 3-7, 2023: Fusion energy as part of the future energy mix. Lecture (Dr. Ray Chandra) Monday, Apr 3, 2023, 12am-2pm, exercise session (MSc Roni Mäenpää) Wednesday, Apr 5, 2023, 10am - 12pm

    Week Apr 10-14, 2023: exercise session (MSc Roni Mäenpää) Wednesday, Apr 12, 2023, 10am - 12pm


  • Supplementary material

    Lecture notes are the main material for the course. For the exercises, you might need some look up some additional information. This page contains some useful references and additional resources for those who want to learn more about the science and history of nuclear fusion.

    If you feel like that you want to learn more about plasma physics in general and not just fusion, make sure you check out the course "Introduction to plasma physics for fusion and space applications" 

    Physics resources and learning material:

    Tokamaks by John Wesson - A basic textbook on tokamaks and fusion physics.

    Lecture notes by Richard Fitzpatrick of University of Texas, at Austin: available here.

    IAEA Fusion Physics - A more hardcore book on fusion physics, available here.

    Plasma Physics and Fusion Energy by Jeffrey P. Freidberg - A textbook on tokamaks and other magnetic confinement concepts

    Reading material:

    A Piece of the Sun: The Quest for Fusion Energy by Daniel Clery - An overview on the history of fusion research from the beginning to recent developments in the 21st century.

    The Science of JET by John Wesson - An overview of the Joint European Torus project and the related science, available here.

    Fusion related websites:

    FusionWiki - A Wiki site for fusion related information.

    Eurofusion - European consortium for the development of fusion energy.

    ITER - Website for the international ITER project, the largest tokamak ever.

    Fusenet - The European fusion education network.

    Tri Alpha Energy - American fusion startup.

    Tokamak Energy - British tokamak startup.

    General Fusion - Canadian fusion startup.

    Operation Tokamak - A mobile game in which you control a tokamak. Really.

  • Lectures

    The lectures are given on Mondays during periods III and IV in 2023 as listed below from 12.15am (sharp) until 2.00pm in room Y309a and, also, online via Zoom:https://aalto.zoom.us/j/65475330447.

    To participate in online quizzes during the lectures a computer or mobile device (phone or tablet) is required. For online participants, quizzes are also used to monitor attendance.

  • Exercises

    On January 11th: you do not need to complete any exercises before the first exercise session. We will simply try to get everyone started on the exercises for next week, and answer any questions that arise. You need Matlab for the exercises, so it is recommended to bring a laptop.

    On January 18 and later:

    The students will get exercise points by preparing the exercises to be presented at the session. In other words, the problems should be solved before the exercise session. Each exercise is worth one point, and attending the session is required to claim points. The students will present the solutions and the group will discuss them.

    To get points for the exercises, you do not need to have a perfect solution to the problem. It is okay to simply present how far you were able to get with the problem, and the group will then discuss how to proceed.
     
    The exercise sheets can be found on this page at least one week before each session. 
     

    If you have any questions about the exercises, you are encouraged to ask for additional help in the MyCourses Q&A. That way, other students who might also be wondering about the same issue can also see your question (preferred over email).

    If you for some reason cannot attend the exercise session, you can also send your exercise solutions by email.

    E-mail: roni.maenpaa@aalto.fi

    Room: Y430a, Otakaari 1


  • Q&A

    Here is a forum for you to post questions to the lecturers and assistant regarding the course in general, or regarding specific topics.

  • Exam

    The oral exams, lasting one hour each, will be organized as follows:

    Group Date Time Location Students
    1 Monday 17th 10.00-11.00 Otakaari 1, Y338b  Aaron Geindreau, Arttu Tupala
    2 Monday 17th 11.00-12.00 Otakaari 1, Y338b  Mikolaj Wojnicki, Tatu Heikkinen
    3 Monday 17th 12.00-13.00 Otakaari 1, Y338b  Quanzeng Zhang, Joona Sissonen
    4 Monday 17th 13.00-14.00 Otakaari 1, Y338b  Nicolas Michaut
    5 Friday 21st 12.00-13.00 Otakaari 1, Y338b  Nina Cederlöf, Reksoprodjo Heru
    6 Friday 21st 13.00-14.00 Otakaari 1, Y338b  Joni Munukka, Haneef Azher