Latvian–French collaboration leads to unique R&D project

Latvia and France have a long tradition of collaboration in the field of liquid metal research and technologies. France has achieved pioneering work in the domain of nuclear reactors using liquid sodium. Latvia, on the other hand, is the only country to have been successful in a development of a large scale Dynamo experiment (demonstration of the primary mechanism by which magnetic fields are generated in the universe) in magnetohydrodynamics (MHD).

Device for Dynamo experiment at the University of Wisconsin (similar to the one used in Latvia)

These fields are of particular interest today in the context of new technology development for the ITER project (a research project aimed at fusion power feasibility studies, find out more on www.iter.org) and sodium reactors which are of interest to France, Japan, and the USA as next generation reactors for nuclear energy.

The success stories in these research fields stimulated the proposal of the joint Ampere Initiative between France and Latvia to develop a unique world facility in Latvia, centred on the use of liquid metals.

A series of meetings held in 2005 and 2006 at both the ministerial level and research level in both countries confirmed the serious interest in a flagship joint Latvian–French research infrastructure for liquid metal research and MHD phenomena in liquid metals using large volumes of sodium and in interdisciplinary subsectors. This platform would permit various researches, both scientific and technological, notably of interest both to the nuclear giants such as Areva (http://www.areva.com/) and metallurgical industries. This research initiative named Ampere Initiative is an important step to subsequently evolve into a European MHD research centre.

Recent Events

Subsequent to this joint declaration, the Latvian-French  workgroup invited German colleagues to meet with representatives of the European Commission’s (EC) Research Directorate in order to identify the best strategy to position the Ampere Initiative for future EC funding in the context of the EC’s desire to create a European Institute of Technology.

In September 2007, the University of Latvia (http://www.lu.lv/) allocated 22 000 EUR to support organisational activities within the Ampere Initiative and there is now an agreement between the faculty of the University of Latvia and the Physics Institute of the University of Latvia (IPUL) that each year about 4 master students will  be involved in IPUL projects.

Latvia is organizing a submission to the Framework Program 7 (FP7) on Common Infrastructure Maintenance and Upgrade call to be launched soon to support the Dynamo infrastructure for the ITER project in France (Cadarache) and in Latvia (IPUL) within one joint project. This EC project involves researchers from 6 EU countries who signed the Dynamo proclamation in Paris in January 2007.

Latvia is also initiating the preparation of an application to the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) to apply for EU structural funds (approximately 14 m EUR) for construction of a modern Dynamo Platform and other infrastructure for MHD research.

IPUL has been included in the consortium of the European Spallation Source (ESS). Application for design study has been submitted in May 2008 to the EU FP7 Large Infrastructure program. Leader of the consortium is Paul Sheerer Institute in Switzerland.

Researchers from IPUL have been working in Grenoble University for summer of 2007 and the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) has approved financing for a joint project between Grenoble University, IPUL and the Paton Institute from Ukraine for research of MHD impact on properties of titan-aluminium alloy remelting.  

Finally, French and Latvian scientists are expecting an approval from the CNRS on a virtual laboratory on magnetic nanodevices research (including magnetotactic bacteria).

All in all, the progress showed so far is remarkable and probably Latvians will become the co-authors of the next generation power plants.