PhD position in physics: neutron emission from fusion reactors

PhD student in Physics with focus on modelling of the neutron emission from fusion reactors

Are you interested in working with the development of neutron diagnostics for future fusion energy experiments, with the support of competent and friendly colleagues in an international environment? Are you looking for an employer that invests in sustainable employeeship and offers safe, favourable working conditions? We welcome you to apply for a PhD student position in fusion neutron diagnostics at Uppsala University.

The Department of Physics and Astronomy conducts world-class research and education in both theoretical and experimental physics and has extensive collaboration with the outside world. The research is carried out at 10 research divisions and touches everything from the unimaginably small to the unimaginably large within, for example, energy supply, climate development, new materials and the universe. At the Department of Applied Nuclear Physics there is, among other things, a research group that focuses on the development of nuclear fusion as an energy source. The basis of this research is to use the neutron emission that is emitted from a hot fusion plasma to obtain information about the temperature, density and other properties of the fusion fuel. The group is world leading in this field and for several decades has developed instrumentation and analysis methods for many of the world's largest fusion facilities, most notably the JET and MAST experiments, both of which are located outside Oxford in England. A large part of the group's activities is also focused on developing and optimizing neutron instrumentation for one of the great fusion experiments of the future, ITER, which is under construction in Cadarache, France. As a PhD student in this group, you get a unique opportunity to work with advanced neutron measurements and data analysis methods, as well as to contribute to the development of a safe and non-fossil energy source, with the potential to make a significant contribution to humanity's energy supply in the second half of the 21st century.

This PhD project is part of a collaboration between Uppsala University, Chalmers University of Technology and the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH). The collaboration is called Fusion Power Plant Platform (FP3), and is financed by the Swedish Energy Agency. An overall goal of the collaboration is to develop and validate digital tools that enable modelling of various aspects of a fusion power plant (plasma heating, energy and particle transport, plasma-wall interaction, synthetic diagnostics, etc.) and to combine these tools into a coherent modelling framework that can be used for to evaluate and optimize the design of future fusion power plants.

Duties

The goal of the PhD project is to further develop existing computer programs for calculating the expected neutron emission from a given fusion plasma (so-called synthetic diagnostics), as well as to integrate these synthetic diagnostics into the modelling framework being developed within FP3. Special focus will be on (i) implementing a more detailed calculation of the neutron emission resulting from elastic collisions between the energetic alpha particles formed in the fusion reactions and the thermal fuel ions (deuterium and tritium), (ii) validating the calculations against experimental data from JET, and (iii) using the refined computational tools to make more detailed predictions of the neutron emission at future fusion facilities, e.g. ITER and DEMO. These types of calculations form important input for the development and optimization of fusion neutron diagnostics and associated data analysis methods, which in turn play an important role for maximizing the delivered power in future fusion facilities. The work within the PhD project will take place in close collaboration with other researchers, mainly at Uppsala University, Chalmers and KTH, but also at foreign universities and research institutes.

The duties of a PhD student also include participation in postgraduate courses, amounting to 40 credits. The duties may also include participation in teaching and other departmental work, however max. 20% of working time. More information about the postgraduate program is available via this link.

Requirements
To meet the entry requirements for doctoral studies, you must

• hold a Master’s (second-cycle) degree in physics, or
• have completed at least 240 credits in higher education within relevant subjects, with at least 60 credits at Master’s level including an independent project worth at least 15 credits, or
• have acquired substantially equivalent knowledge in some other way.

In addition, the applicant is required to have

• very good oral and written skills in English.
• ability to work both independently and in a project group,
• a structured way of working and good initiative.

Additional qualifications

• Experience with scientific computing, e.g. with one of the programming languages ​​Python, Julia, Matlab, Octave, Fortran, C or C++, is desirable.
• Good knowledge of plasma physics and/or particle kinematics is desirable.
• Experience of working with plasma diagnostics, in particular neutron diagnostics, is advantageous.
• Experience with experimental nuclear physics is advantageous.
• Familiarity with the Linux operating system is advantageous.

Rules governing PhD students are set out in the Higher Education Ordinance chapter 5, §§ 1-7 and in Uppsala University's rules and guidelines.

About the employment
The employment is a temporary position according to the Higher Education Ordinance chapter 5 § 7. Scope of employment 100 %. Starting date 2024-10-15 or as agreed. Placement: Uppsala

For further information about the position, please contact: Jacob Eriksson, jacob.eriksson@physics.uu.se.

Please submit your application by 2 October 2024, UFV-PA 2024/2913.

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