PWJan17news-p12
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physicsworld.com Physics World January 2017 12 News & Analysis Sidebands Mars lander hit by computer glitch The European Space Agency (ESA) has confirmed that the recent crash of a Mars probe was caused by a computer glitch that made it assume it had already landed on the red planet. ESA’s Entry, Descent and Landing Demonstrator, known as Schiaparelli, was launched together with ESA’s Trace Gas Orbiter and arrived at Mars in October. It was supposed to test landing techniques that would be used on the upcoming ExoMars rover. However, as the probe entered Mars’s atmosphere, ESA scientists lost contact with Schiaparelli after it cast its parachute. Investigations have now shown that the parachute was deployed too early – at some 4 km above the surface of the planet – and that the probe also briefly fired its breaking thrusters too soon. The problem was due to a sensor failure that generated a negative altitude reading and made the probe think it was below ground level. A full report on the cause of the crash is expected early this year. Argentina hit by funding protests Physicists in Argentina have bemoaned cuts to the science budget for 2017 that they say will hurt research and lead to a brain drain. Following a series of protests around the country, spending on science will be around 32 billion pesos (about $2bn) in 2017 – a cut of 7% in real terms from the 2015 budget. Particularly hit will be the National Scientific and Technical Research Council, which will see the number of new researchers supported reduce to 385 in 2017 – down from 900 last year. Fukushima costs double The costs of clearing up the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident will double to some 20 trillion yen ($180bn), according to the Japanese government. The original estimate had been $50bn, but that already rose to nearly $100bn three years later. Most of the costs will go on compensation as well as the decontamination effort. The Fukushima nuclear accident was caused by an earthquake and tsunami that struck north-eastern Japan on 11 March 2011. The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, located some 225 km north-east of Tokyo, seemed to withstand the 9.0 Richter-scale earthquake. However, the tsunami that followed poured over a seawall, which flooded the plant and caused the back-up diesel generators to fail. With nothing to cool the reactors, their cores began to melt. Better late than never? ITER will not use a deuterium–tritium plasma until 2035. Joining the club Physicists in Brazil want the country to become an associate member of the CERN particle- physics lab, which would involve a membership fee of around €10m per year. Physicists in Brazil have called on the government to support a bid to become an associate member of the CERN particle-physics lab near Geneva. After a meeting last month with Gilberto Kassab, the country’s minister of science and technology, senior physicists noted that the gov- ernment’s support was said to be positive. Big hurdles remain, how- ever, before Brazil can join the Euro- pean lab – in particular it will have to clear a two-year debt to CERN and faces a lack of funds for high-energy physics in the 2017 federal budget. Brazilian physicists have been working at CERN for over three dec- ades, participating in a number of experiments at the lab including the Large Hadron Collider’s ALICE, ATLAS, CMS and LHCb detectors. The country, which is a non-member but has a co-operation agreement with CERN, was invited to be an associate member in late 2013. If that happens, then it would be required to pay an annual fee based on a per- centage of its gross domestic product – amounting to around € 10m in Bra- zil’s case. In return, the country can then join the CERN Council. In return, companies in Brazil can then participate in tendering bids for contracts. “The Brazilian govern- ment sympathizes with the country’s accession to CERN as an associate member,” says physicist Ronald Shel- lard, director of the Brazilian Centre for Research in Physics (CBPF) in Rio de Janeiro. “However, because of the current economic crisis, it has been extremely cautious in making commitments it could not honour.” But Brazil is not even honouring its current financial commitments. According to Ignacio Bediaga, a CBPF physicist who is president of the National Network of High Energy Physics in Brazil (RENA- FAE), the country has accumulated debts of € 1.1m with the lab due to existing commitments. “Every year, our federal budget provides R$1m (€260 000) to RENAFAE – money that covers operation and maintenance of the experiments at CERN”, says Bedi- aga. “However, the Brazilian fed- eral government has not disbursed the resources due this year and, in addition; they withdrew it from the 2017 budget.” Bediaga adds that if the Brazilian government does not begin to repay its debts, then future participation will be at risk. “Losses will be enor- mous,” he says. “The lack of credibil- ity of Brazil would affect the future of our participation in international scientific collaborations.” Alicia Ivanissevich Rio de Janeiro Latin America Brazilians push for CERN membership The ITER Council has approved an updated schedule for the huge fusion experimental facility that is currently being built in Cadarache, France. At a meeting held in Novem- ber 2016, the council approved the plan that was proposed by the ITER Organization earlier in the year, with first plasma now set for 2025 – a delay of five years – and ITER only moving on to deuterium–tritium fuel in 2035. ITER is a collaboration between China, the EU, India, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the US that aims to demonstrate that nuclear fusion can generate useful energy. It will involve a giant doughnut-shaped chamber, known as a tokamak, which will use strong magnetic fields to contain a heated plasma of deuterium and tritium at a temperature of tens of millions of degrees so that atomic nuclei collide and fuse. In theory, the reactor will produce 10 times the power it takes to heat it. The slip in the schedule was initially announced in June after French nuclear physicist Bernard Bigot, former head of France’s Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission, was brought in as ITER director-general in 2015 to shake up the organization and draft a credible schedule. In its November meeting, ITER Council reported that all 19 project milestones for this year had been completed on time and on budget. Michael Banks ITER council endorses new ‘baseline’ schedule Fusion CERN ITER Organization
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Transcript of PWJan17news-p12
physicswor ld.com
Physics Wor ld Januar y 201712
News & Analysis
SidebandsMars lander hit by computer glitchThe European Space Agency (ESA) has confirmed that the recent crash of a Mars probe was caused by a computer glitch that made it assume it had already landed on the red planet. ESA’s Entry, Descent and Landing Demonstrator, known as Schiaparelli, was launched together with ESA’s Trace Gas Orbiter and arrived at Mars in October. It was supposed to test landing techniques that would be used on the upcoming ExoMars rover. However, as the probe entered Mars’s atmosphere, ESA scientists lost contact with Schiaparelli after it cast its parachute. Investigations have now shown that the parachute was deployed too early – at some 4 km above the surface of the planet – and that the probe also briefly fired its breaking thrusters too soon. The problem was due to a sensor failure that generated a negative altitude reading and made the probe think it was below ground level. A full report on the cause of the crash is expected early this year.
Argentina hit by funding protestsPhysicists in Argentina have bemoaned cuts to the science budget for 2017 that they say will hurt research and lead to a brain drain. Following a series of protests around the country, spending on science will be around 32 billion pesos (about $2bn) in 2017 – a cut of 7% in real terms from the 2015 budget. Particularly hit will be the National Scientific and Technical Research Council, which will see the number of new researchers supported reduce to 385 in 2017 – down from 900 last year.
Fukushima costs doubleThe costs of clearing up the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident will double to some 20 trillion yen ($180bn), according to the Japanese government. The original estimate had been $50bn, but that already rose to nearly $100bn three years later. Most of the costs will go on compensation as well as the decontamination effort. The Fukushima nuclear accident was caused by an earthquake and tsunami that struck north-eastern Japan on 11 March 2011. The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, located some 225 km north-east of Tokyo, seemed to withstand the 9.0 Richter-scale earthquake. However, the tsunami that followed poured over a seawall, which flooded the plant and caused the back-up diesel generators to fail. With nothing to cool the reactors, their cores began to melt.
Better late than never? ITER will not use a deuterium–tritium plasma until 2035.
Joining the club Physicists in Brazil want the country to become an associate member of the CERN particle-physics lab, which would involve a membership fee of around €10m per year.
Physicists in Brazil have called on the government to support a bid to become an associate member of the CERN particle-physics lab near Geneva. After a meeting last month with Gilberto Kassab, the country’s minister of science and technology, senior physicists noted that the gov-ernment’s support was said to be positive. Big hurdles remain, how-ever, before Brazil can join the Euro-pean lab – in particular it will have to clear a two-year debt to CERN and faces a lack of funds for high-energy physics in the 2017 federal budget.
Brazilian physicists have been working at CERN for over three dec-ades, participating in a number of experiments at the lab including the Large Hadron Collider’s ALICE, ATLAS, CMS and LHCb detectors. The country, which is a non-member but has a co-operation agreement with CERN, was invited to be an associate member in late 2013. If that happens, then it would be required to pay an annual fee based on a per-centage of its gross domestic product – amounting to around €10m in Bra-zil’s case. In return, the country can then join the CERN Council.
In return, companies in Brazil can then participate in tendering bids for contracts. “The Brazilian govern-ment sympathizes with the country’s accession to CERN as an associate
member,” says physicist Ronald Shel-lard, director of the Brazilian Centre for Research in Physics (CBPF) in Rio de Janeiro. “However, because of the current economic crisis, it has been extremely cautious in making commitments it could not honour.”
But Brazil is not even honouring its current financial commitments. According to Ignacio Bediaga, a CBPF physicist who is president of the National Network of High Energy Physics in Brazil (RENA-FAE), the country has accumulated debts of €1.1m with the lab due to existing commitments.
“Every year, our federal budget provides R$1m (€260 000) to RENAFAE – money that covers operation and maintenance of the experiments at CERN”, says Bedi-aga. “However, the Brazilian fed-eral government has not disbursed the resources due this year and, in addition; they withdrew it from the 2017 budget.”
Bediaga adds that if the Brazilian government does not begin to repay its debts, then future participation will be at risk. “Losses will be enor-mous,” he says. “The lack of credibil-ity of Brazil would affect the future of our participation in international scientific collaborations.”Alicia IvanissevichRio de Janeiro
Latin America
Brazilians push for CERN membership
The ITER Council has approved an updated schedule for the huge fusion experimental facility that is currently being built in Cadarache, France. At a meeting held in Novem-ber 2016, the council approved the plan that was proposed by the ITER Organization earlier in the year, with first plasma now set for 2025 – a delay of five years – and ITER only moving on to deuterium–tritium fuel in 2035.
ITER is a collaboration between China, the EU, India, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the US that aims to demonstrate that nuclear fusion can generate useful energy. It will involve a giant doughnut-shaped chamber, known as a tokamak, which will use strong magnetic fields to contain
a heated plasma of deuterium and tritium at a temperature of tens of millions of degrees so that atomic nuclei collide and fuse. In theory, the reactor will produce 10 times the power it takes to heat it.
The slip in the schedule was initially announced in June after French nuclear physicist Bernard Bigot, former head of France’s Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission, was brought in as ITER director-general in 2015 to shake up the organization and draft a credible schedule. In its November meeting, ITER Council reported that all 19 project milestones for this year had been completed on time and on budget.Michael Banks
ITER council endorses new ‘baseline’ schedule Fusion
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