Partnership between Kazakhstan Materials Research Tokamak (KTM) and Joint European Torus (JET)

One of the most promising, ambitious and expensive projects of recent times involving the National Nuclear Centre of the Republic of Kazakhstan (NNC) involves the establishment in Kurchatov of KTM - the Kazakhstan Materials Research Tokamak.

The project was launched in 1999, with funding from the Government of Kazakhstan and is being carried out in close collaboration with Russian specialists and organisations. KTM embodied Kazakhstan’s efforts to preserve and develop the scientific, technological and human potential generated in the cluster of nuclear organisations which had been created in the town of Kurchatov. KTM’s basic scientific and technical responsibilities consist of research into materials and methods relating to heat removal in plasma-physics and fusion facilities involved in the very large international ITER scientific programme. So far, the site and the infrastructure have been prepared, the KTM facility itself has been fabricated, delivered, and is being assembled, adjusted and prepared for start-up.

In 2007, during a study tour to Great Britain, organised by CNCP for Programme participants from Armenia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan, a first visit was held to the JET (Joint European Torus) scientific centre at Culham. JET is the largest Tokamak in the World and is playing a crucial part in preparations for the ITER project. It has been operating since 1983 and is an example of successful international collaboration, involving more than 300 scientists from 20 countries.

CNCP’s idea was to help KTM and JET leaders and specialists to get to know each other better and to facilitate exchange and adoption of experience, both organisational and technical, involving JET and colleagues from Kurchatov. From the point of view of CNCP’s objectives, it was very important that KTM achieved a sustainable work regime. International scientific collaboration and integration into the worldwide knowledge system could offer a way to stable employment and good working conditions for some 120 highly qualified scientists, engineers and technicians in Kurchatov, a significant proportion of whom would be former weapons specialists.

Sustainability in these circumstances would involve ensuring that regular experiments were carried out in KTM, funded both from the Khazakhstan state budget and by attracting external sources of finance, for example, by carrying out international research and training contracts and offering experimental work for groups of scientists from other countries.

A big step towards the development of partnership between KTM and JET was taken with the organisation by CNCP in November 2007 of a visit to Kurchatov by the leading Culham fusion specialist and IAEA expert Mikhail Gryaznevitch. During the visit, meetings were held with leaders of NNC and the Institute of Atomic Energy, which is responsible for КТМ, as well as with technical specialists and managers from different levels. This led to the preparation of recommendations, which were later carried out with support from CNCP. These included a visit by KTM project leaders to JET and to the UK Government’s MAST (Mega Amp Spherical Tokamak) Tokamak facility in Great Britain in 2008, a course of focused training in English language for a group of KTM specialists, and the holding of an IAEA seminar on Tokamaks in Kurchatov in September 2009. In addition, discussions were held between KTM and JET on participation by JET experts in the test start-up of KTM in 2011.

The plan is that collaboration between KTM and JET will continue. Immediate questions which need to be examined are the further integration of KTM into the international fusion research system, the involvement of NNC/KTM in UKAEA/EURATOM activities, raising KTM’s international profile and obtaining access to international funding and organizational resources.

Roman Tertychnyy,
CNCP Project Manager

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