Education/offer/index

Tokamak GOLEM for (worldwide) fusion education

The smallest and oldest tokamak with the biggest control room in the world

Universities are welcome to exploit the possibilities of the both remote and in-situ operation of the tokamak GOLEM for educational purposes. Half or whole day sessions for group of students are excellent introduction to the physics and technology practice of thermonuclear fusion in the magnetic confinement.

Training courses: left) on site; right) remote.

Introduction

Tokamak GOLEM is ready to serve as an hands-on or a remote educational tool for various presentations, lectures and training courses in the field of physics and technology of tokamaks. Students can operate the tokamak via web interface:

and instantly can access the results via shot homepage:

Tokamak GOLEM

Main parameters:

  • Vessel major radius \(R_0=0.4\) m
  • Vessel minor radius \(r_0=0.1\) m
  • Toroidal magnetic field \(B_t<0.5\) T
  • Plasma current \(I_p<8\) kA
  • Length of the discharge \(τ<20\) ms
  • Central electron density \(n_e(0)≈0.5−3×10^{19} m^{−3}\)
  • Central electron temperature \(T_e(0)≈100−300\) eV

Experimental set-up:

Basic experimental menu

Example reports from educational events worlwide

  • Basic tokamak operation and measurements
  • Electron energy confinement \(\tau_E\) time determination
  • Breakdown Studies
  • Magnetic Measurements
  • Probe Measurements
  • Isotopic studies
  • Plasma MHD Activity Observations via Magnetic Diagnostics
  • Plasma Position Monitoring and Controlling
  • Spectroscopy Studies
  • Vessel Conditioning

Examples

Quotations

  • Dear GOLEM team, let me congratulate you to the first plasma in GOLEM achieved in the frame of the Summer Training Course 2009. This success is a result of your enormous effort to put the GOLEM tokamak in operation during the period of about one year. I can confirm that the participants (students and supervisors) found the experiments performed yesterday extremely interesting and enjoyed them very much.

    On behalf of the old CASTOR and new COMPASS team, Jan Stockel

  • First of all, we would like to express our gratitude for this remarkable opportunity. To perform a remote measurement on a tokamak, and to be part of such an international operation for the first time in our life, is way beyond our earlier expectations as physics students. We wish you luck for the future, and lots of plasma :)

    Andras Karman, Gergely Klujber, Mate Ferenczy and Peter Nemetvarga (BME Hungary)

  • Thanks for the operation! The lab exercise went perfectly well, and the students were really enjoying it.

    Gergo Pokol (supervisor and teacher at HUNTRAIC)

  • I just wanted to thank you for coming in Cadarache to introduce us to the amazing work you’ve done with the GOLEM tokamak. It is fascinating to be able to work on such a device, and were really enjoying the possibility to make our very first discharges .. From all of us, thank you again.

    FUMTRAIC 2012 participants

  • Thanks for the operation! The lab exercise went perfectly well, and the students were really enjoying it.

    Training course for the 3rd plasma nuclear fusion training course @ Bangkok, Thailand

  • The EUROfusion consortium has taken note of the systematic and successful efforts of the FNSPE CTU in the field of education of future fusion experts, with a significant impact on the European level. Remote experiments on the GOLEM tokamak in Prague are in the curriculum of several European summer schools in the fields Last year, ….

    prof. Tony Donné, EUROfusion Programme Manager

  • Thank you very much for leading the experiment! Students say, that is the most interesting thing happened to them during university studying.

    Georgiy Alexandrovich Sarancha, (coordinator for MIPT students, winter 2020-2021)

The chronicle of all educational activities performed at the tokamak GOLEM from 2009 up to now

References

Useful materials

Production issues

(difficult to describe, this is only for basic understanding, please contact us for more details)

  • The fundamental question is who will guide the students in the measurement. It can’t be the GOLEM operator, who should take care about tokamak proper operation. So, on the remote side, it is necessary to find someone who will familiarize (him/her)self with the GOLEM tokamak in advance (it is not a problem for him/her to organize a private GOLEM session in advance) and guide the students. The classic run-of-the-mill scenario here is that we deliver an introductory lecture about this tokamak, roughly in this form and then next, either a day or a week later, the training course itself will take place
  • Various models to consider (student group somewhere in the world undergoing some thermonuclear fusion education specific event - training course, plasma/tokamak school/subject, etc. ):
    • Somebody from the GOLEM team can come to the institution and deliver the presentation about the tokamak GOLEM, it’s operation, data manipulation and possible task to perform personally (preferably) or remotely via some kind of video-conferencing. Then one or more days later the real remote session could be established.
    • Somebody experienced in the field of tokamak physics, technology and operation learn the GOLEM specific issues, undergoes introductory GOLEM operation training in advance and then it is possible proceed to the the real remote session for students.
  • Contact: Vojtech Svoboda
  • Fee: a postcard sent from the town of remote measurement to the GOLEM address: Brehova 7, 115 19, Prague 1, Czech republic
  • Common issues: virtual model & GOLEM tours & data handling & production

Pandemic set-up

We can do it in e.g. this way:

  • Tokamak operator at the Golem
  • Local student’s tutors at their homes/labs/offices.
  • Students at their homes.
  • Possibly up to 3 GOLEM tokamak PhD students ready to guide or assist with everything concerning tokamak GOLEM physics/technology/diagnostics/operation.
  • It is possible to divide students into a certain number of groups each having its own videoconference room and tokamak control room. We are familier with the zoom, teams, skype & jitsi videoconference technology.