On 11 October, the 5th European Teacher Day on Controlled Fusion took place. Every year, this event takes place in October and combines European national sessions and a pan-European session. The sessions are devoted to the promotion of plasma physics, plasma technologies and the phenomenon of fusion, which is a greatly anticipated inexhaustible, safe and environmentally friendly source of energy.
The goal of the European Fusion Teacher Day (EFTD) remains the same: to introduce fusion to secondary school teachers across Europe, to discuss teaching fusion to secondary school students, and to generate interest in fusion at the secondary level.
Ukraine is represented in fusion research primarily by the Kharkiv School of Physicists, which traditionally took over the organisation of the national EFTD session (Education and Research Institute “School of Physics and Technology” of V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, National Science Center Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology).
The Ukrainian session of the 5th European Teacher’s Day on Controlled Fusion was held by Professor Ihor Hirka of Karazin University and Head of the Euratom National Contact Point Serhii Pugach. The main speakers of the session were Karazin FTF alumni.
Sophia Malko, a research group leader at the Plasma Physics Laboratory of Princeton University (USA), spoke about the basics of her research on inertial fusion, which is based on the use of high-power lasers and the localisation of this energy in a small volume of fuel material.
Ilya Mysyura, researcher and engineer of plasma heating systems at the Institute of Plasma Physics, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic. Ilya spoke about the magnetic confinement of plasma and the advantages of fusion reactions over fission reactions, the scale of research and research infrastructure. In the end, he added about plasma technologies that were obtained as collateral bonuses from fundamental research on controlled fusion and that have long exceeded research costs by many orders of magnitude and made a significant contribution to the global economy.
Academician of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Ihor Harkusha, spoke about how Ukraine participates in global fusion research, what research infrastructure we have and what scientific tasks it solves. He noted the mobility of Ukrainian scientists who conduct research campaigns at various facilities around the world. The war makes adjustments to all spheres of life, science is no exception, but the high international integration of controlled fusion research allows us to participate in research during the war.
The main participants of the Teacher’s Day were 35 teachers from all over Ukraine. Some of the teachers brought their students to the event, who also had the opportunity to hear directly from scientists about fusion, plasma physics and plasma technologies.
We are grateful to all teachers for their participation and for your work with children. We are waiting for you at the next educational events and your students at the Faculty of Physics and Technology of V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University. Let’s build the technologies of the future together!
