Operating a full tungsten actively cooled tokamak: overview of WEST first phase of operation

WEST is an MA class superconducting, actively cooled, full tungsten (W) tokamak, designed to operate in long pulses up to 1000 s. In support of ITER operation and DEMO conceptual activities, key missions of WEST are: (i) qualification of high heat flux plasma-facing components in integrating both technological and physics aspects in relevant heat and particle exhaust conditions, particularly for the tungsten monoblocks foreseen in ITER divertor; (ii) integrated steady-state operation at high confinement, with a focus on power exhaust issues. During the phase 1 of operation (2017–2020), a set of actively cooled ITER-grade plasma facing unit prototypes was integrated into the inertially cooled W coated startup lower divertor. Up to 8.8 MW of RF power has been coupled to the plasma and divertor heat flux of up to 6 MW m−2 were reached. Long pulse operation was started, using the upper actively cooled divertor, with a discharge of about 1 min achieved. This paper gives an overview of the results achieved in phase 1. Perspectives for phase 2, operating with the full capability of the device with the complete ITER-grade actively cooled lower divertor, are also described

EvolVE: Smart charging at CEA

International audienceThe CEA is established in nine centers spread throughout France. The CEA has installed large-scale electric vehicle charging infrastructures (EVCI) in its main research centers. The EVCI of Cadarache, near Aix-En-Provence, is constituted of more than 80 22kW-charging points spread over 30 zones. This EVCI was set up in 2016 and currently supplies more than 200 vehicles including taxis, service vehicles as well as employees' vehicles. This infrastructure constitutes one of the largest private EVCI in the region.As part of a R&D project, the CEA will synchronize the consumption of a fraction of the EVCI of Cadarache (about 20 charging point spread over 5 zones) with the production of the Mégasol solar photovoltaic plant located near the research center. This lecture will present the method that it applied to carry out these experiments and will describe the main results

EV (SOLAR) CHARGING @CEA: EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

International audienceSales of electric vehicles, for commercial use and personal use, keep rising. In parallel of the development of the associated Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure (EVCI), systems for controlling the charging of EVs will have to be developed in order to reduce the impact of such a development on the power grid. In this paper, we present a supervision system that controls the electric vehicle charging of employees of CEA Cadarache research center. The EVCI of Cadarache, set up in 2016, is constituted of more than 80 22-kW AC charging points spread over 30 zones. This EVCI currently supplies more than 376 vehicles including taxis, service vehicles as well as employees’ vehicles. This infrastructure is one of the largest private EVCIs in the region. The supervision system controls electric vehicle (EV) charging in real-time according to two objectives: respecting user preferences, by fully charging the EV battery, and synchronizing the power consumption of a fraction of the EVCI, i.e., 24 charging points, with the power production of a solar photovoltaic plant. This paper details the supervision system that is used to carry out these experiments and presents experimental results. These results show that it is technically feasible to increase (up to 60 percentage points) the self-production ratio while satisfying EV users

Flexibility of electric vehicles: experimental results @CEA

National audienceSales of electric vehicles, for commercial use and personal use, keep rising. In parallel of the development of the associated Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure (EVCI), systems for controlling the charging of EVs will have to be developed in order to reduce the impact of such a devel-opment on the power grid. In this paper, we present a supervision system that controls the electric vehicle charging of employees of CEA Cadarache research center. The EVCI of Cadarache, set up in 2016, is constituted of more than 80 22-kW AC charging points spread over 30 zones. This EVCI currently supplies more than 376 vehicles including taxis, service vehicles as well as employees vehicles. This infrastructure is one of the largest private EVCIs in the region. The supervi-sion system controls Electric Vehicle (EV) charging in real-time according to two objectives: respecting user preferences, by fully charging the EV battery, and synchronizing the power con-sumption of a fraction of the EVCI, i.e., 24 charging points, with the power production of a solar photovoltaic plant. This paper details the supervision system that is used to carry out these ex-periments and presents experimental results. These results show that it is technically feasible to increase (up to 60 percentage points) the self-production ratio while satisfying EV users

Solar Charging of Electric Vehicles: Experimental Results

Sales of electric vehicles, for commercial use and personal use, keep rising. In parallel of the development of the associated Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure (EVCI), systems for controlling the charging of EVs will have to be developed in order to reduce the impact of such a development on the power grid. In this paper, we present a supervision system that controls the electric vehicle charging of employees of CEA Cadarache research center. The EVCI of Cadarache, set up in 2016, is constituted of more than 80 22-kW AC charging points spread over 30 zones. This EVCI currently supplies more than 376 vehicles including taxis, service vehicles as well as employees’ vehicles. This infrastructure is one of the largest private EVCIs in the region. The supervision system controls electric vehicle (EV) charging in real-time according to two objectives: respecting user preferences, by fully charging the EV battery, and synchronizing the power consumption of a fraction of the EVCI, i.e., 24 charging points, with the power production of a solar photovoltaic plant. This paper details the supervision system that is used to carry out these experiments and presents experimental results. These results show that it is technically feasible to increase (up to 60 percentage points) the self-production ratio while satisfying EV users

Functional white-laser imaging to study brain oxygen uncoupling/recoupling in songbirds

International audienceThis corrects the article "Functional white-laser imaging to study brain oxygen uncoupling/recoupling in songbirds" in volume 31 on page 393.Following the publication of this article, the authors noted the following errors:(1) Two authors were omitted from the author list. The correct and complete author names appear above. The affiliation for Drs Vignal and Mathevon is the Université de St-Etienne, CNRS, ENES/CNPS UMR8195, Saint-Etienne, France.(2) The grants should have included the following note: ‘These experiments were supported by the Program ‘Emergence' of the Région Rhône-Alpes and the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (Project ‘Birds' voices, ANR-06-BLAN-0293-01)'

Time-resolved and spectral-resolved optical imaging to study brain hemodynamics in songbirds

International audienceContrary to the intense debate about brain oxygen dynamics and its uncoupling in mammals, very little is known in birds. In zebra finches, picosecond optical tomography (POT) with a white laser and a streak camera can measure in vivo oxy-hemoglobin (HbO2) and deoxy-hemoglobin (Hb) concentration changes following physiological stimulation (familiar calls and songs). POT demonstrated sufficient sub-micromolar sensitivity to resolve the fast changes in hippocampus and auditory forebrain areas with 250 μm resolution. The time-course is composed of (i) an early 2s-long event with a significant decrease in Hb and HbO2, respectively -0.7 μMoles/L and -0.9 μMoles/L (ii) a subsequent increase in blood oxygen availability with a plateau of HbO2 (+0.3μMoles/L) and (iii) pronounced vasodilatation events immediately following the end of the stimulus. One of the findings of our work is the direct link between the blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signals previously published in birds and our results. Furthermore, the early vasoconstriction event and post-stimulus ringing seem to be more pronounced in birds than in mammals. These results in bird, a tachymetabolic vertebrate with a long lifespan, can potentially yield new insights for example in brain aging