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The Nuclear Fusion Prize

The Nuclear Fusion prize is awarded annually to recognise outstanding work published in the journal.

Each year, a shortlist of ten papers is nominated for the Nuclear Fusion prize. These are papers of the highest scientific standard, published in the journal volume from two years previous to the award year. Nominations are based on citation record and recommendation by the Board of Editors. The Board then votes by secret ballot to determine which of these papers has made the largest scientific impact.

Visit the journal website at http://www.iop.org/journals/nf for more information on Nuclear Fusion and on how to publish in the journal.

The 2008 Nuclear Fusion Journal prize

The 2008 prize was presented at the 2008 Fusion Energy Conference in Geneva, Switzerland to Todd Evans for the paper ‘Suppression of large edge localized modes with edge resonant magnetic fields in high confinement DIII-D plasmas’ (Nucl Fusion 45 595-607). This is a landmark experimental paper demonstrating the efficacy of using resonant magnetic field perturbations (RMPs) for the suppression of large amplitude edge localized modes (Type I ELMs); a critical issue for ITER and other reactor grade machines because of the erosion of the divertor target that would occur if ELMs are not controlled. This demonstration of ELM suppression without a reduction in H-mode global confinement performance has stimulated much subsequent work in the field, both experimental and theoretical, and encouraged the proposal that a similar RMP coil set be included in the design for ITER. The experiment was based on the expectation that ergodization of the edge magnetic fields could reduce the pressure gradient that drives MHD instability to trigger ELMs. The paper examined the extent to which this is borne out by experiment and raised plasma physics issues which are currently subject to intense examination.

Evans

Dr. Evans receiving the award from Professor W. Burkart (Deputy Director General, Department of Nuclear Sciences and Applications, IAEA), and Dr. M. Kikuchi (Chairman of Nuclear Fusion's Board of Editors) at the IAEA Fusion Energy Conference

The 2007 Nuclear Fusion journal prize

The 2007 prize was presented at the 2008 Fusion Energy Conference in Geneva, Switzerland to Clemente Angioni for the paper ‘Density response to central electron heating: theoretical investigations and experimental observations in ASDEX Upgrade’ (Nucl Fusion 44 827-845). The dependence of density profile on plasma parameters is a key area of research with implications for fusion performance in ITER and the understanding of turbulent transport in high temperature plasmas. The paper deals with the long-existing issue of density flattening, or density pump-out, with central electron heating and presents a superb combination of theory, modelling and experimental observation.

Angioni

Dr. Angioni receiving the award from Professor W. Burkart (Deputy Director General, Department of Nuclear Sciences and Applications, IAEA), and Dr. M. Kikuchi (Chairman of Nuclear Fusion's Board of Editors) at the IAEA Fusion Energy Conference

The inaugural Nuclear Fusion journal prize 2006

The inaugural Nuclear Fusion prize was presented at the 2006 Fusion Energy Conference in Chengdu, China for a paper that demonstrates how one of primary physics goals of ITER might be more safely realized.

Lead author TC Luce, was awarded the prestigious prize for the paper ‘Stationary high-performance discharges in the DIII-D tokamak’ (Nucl Fusion 43 321 - 329). The paper outlines a tokamak scenario that can maintain high fusion performance at reduced plasma current (compared with the conventional tokamak operational scenario), thereby lessening the potential for structural damage in the event of a major disruption. Projections in the paper show that realization of this scenario in ITER could lead to fusion performance at or above an energy gain of 10 for longer duration with reduced risk.


The Award	Dr. Luce receiving the award from Professor W. Burkart (Deputy Director General, Department of Nuclear Sciences and Applications, IAEA), and Dr. M. Kikuchi (Chairman of Nuclear Fusion's Board of Editors) at the IAEA Fusion Energy Conference.