On October 30, 2014, the KIVI Department of Nuclear Engineering, the Department of Technical Physics and the Netherlands Nuclear Society (NNS) organized the symposium: “Nuclear Fusion Energy: Physicist’s Dream, Engineer’s Nightmare?”.

The symposium at at the TU Eindhoven focused on the current status and future of nuclear fusion as a sustainable source of energy. Chaired by Ms. Micaela dos Ramos, director of KIVI, various aspects of fusion were covered. Dr.Ir. G.T.A. (Guido) Huijsmans presented an overview of the state of the ITER project. Prof. Dr. MR (Marco) de Baar from DIFFER presented an overview of fusion research in the Netherlands.

Dr. Ir. C.J.M. (Cock) Heemskerk (HIT), elaborated on a new spin-off application: Doing maintenance analysis for maintenance operations (shutdown, turnaround) in complex chemical plants. The interactive simulation technology developed by HIT for application in ITER maintenance seems ideally suited to analyse and prepare complex maintenance procedures in detail. Based on the same technology the maintenance staff can be intensively trained for the maintenance job, allowing the maintenance job itself to be carried out efficiently, without unexpected interruptions and achieving considerable savings in the processing time.