A 1-day Workshop to review the status of the Korean KSTAR (Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research) Project and to discuss future (2005 and thereafter) opportunities for expanded US collaboration with KSTAR will be held at General Atomics on 19 May 2004. The Workshop will be followed by executive session on May 20 to prepare a Workshop Report. Hyeon Park (hparkpppl.gov) and John Wesley (wesleyfusion.gat.com) are the local organizers. The Workshop focus will be on presentation of ways in which US fusion science and technology institutions and staff can collaborate with the KSTAR Project to support timely attainment of KSTAR goals to achieve 'baseline' plasma operation and science study capabilities by 2008. Four topics identified by the KSTAR team of being of high interest have been selected for discussion: 1) near-term application of the Grid-Computing based Collaboratory for KSTAR physics design and pre-operation plasma simulation; 2) physics and technology collaboration in ancillary systems (IC, LH and EC) intended to support eventual steady-state operation; 3) physics design collaboration on plasma operation and control and MHD stability (eg., axisymmetric and RWM control in AT/SS regimes) and 4) collaboration on conventional and innovative diagnostics and turbulence-visualization means that will address both near-term and advanced-tokamak/steady-state goals of the KSTAR Program. A provisional Agenda comprising a series of short invited presentations on these topics has been established. The organizers expect that these presentations will focus on primarily on schedule and resource requirement aspects of the proposed collaborations and will serve as input to the preparation of a coherent US plan for future US-Korea collaborations on KSTAR.

Background and Suggestions for Contributions

The KSTAR project is the centerpiece of the Korean National Fusion Program, which includes fusion science and technology R&D at several Korean national laboratories, universities, and industry. Korea's goal in establishing this program and in constructing KSTAR is to make a major impact on world fusion research. Ground was broken on the new KSTAR facility in the fall of 1997 and all major aspects of the facility construction are now complete. Site preparation and tokamak system construction and initial assembly are currently underway, with first plasma expected in 2006 and 'baseline' plasma (with NBI heating) expected in 2008.

A program of reciprocal information exchange and US physics and engineering design support for selected KSTAR tokamak systems has been in place since 1995, and significant recent progress has been made in joint design and analysis of key systems including the electron cyclotron current drive system, diagnostic port cassette designs and the plasma control system architecture and software. In a recent development, Korea has officially joined the ITER negotiations as a junior partner and is currently planning to contribute to necessary ITER R&D through enhanced international collaboration on the KSTAR facility. Given these new developments in the KSTAR project and Korea's recent entry into the ITER negotiations, it is timely and appropriate for us to hold a US-Korea Workshop aimed at exploring and strengthening bilateral ties between our two programs.

Owing to time and travel cost limitations, this one-day Workshop will focus on Korean presentations of KSTAR status and needs for future ex-Korea collaboration, and on presentations by potential US collaborating institutions and staff on what they see as promising opportunities for US-to-Korea collaboration with KSTAR. In order to facilitate effective communication at the Workshop, presenters are asked to limit the lengths their oral presentation to 15 minutes (plus 5 minutes of discussion), to focus primarily on resource and schedule aspects (additional scientific and technical details can be incorporated into the electronically distributed version) and to deliver complete draft copies of their presentation (pdf or Powerpoint files) to Wesley no later than 12 May 2004. This will allow posting of these presentations on the Workshop website (http://web.gat.com/kstar/) for advance reading by Workshop attendees. A CD of the final versions of all presentations will be distributed to all participants by the end of or shortly after the Workshop.

Content of the electronically-submitted presentations can go beyond what can be presented at the Workshop, but should as a minimum include:

A. A brief summary of what is proposed, what will be furnished to KSTAR and why the proposed contribution will lead to long-term benefit to the US in fusion science and/or technology.

B. Discussion of what can realistically be done by the US with a modest investment sufficient to provide consulting services to the KSTAR program to share existing design studies and analysis. How does the proposed program relate to on-going base program activities or other on-going or proposed international collaboration activities?

C. Discussion of what more could be done by the US with increased funds sufficient for design, prototype development, fabrication and/or testing of key technology in collaboration with the KSTAR team. How do hardware-related activities and project timeline fit with the planned KSTAR schedule?

D. Presentation should include a table showing approximate scope, fiscal magnitude and time-line of their proposed activity. For continuing KSTAR-related US programs, these data can include the proposed incremental in FY 05 and new proposals can start from FY 06. These inputs will be incorporated into an 'expanded collaboration' White Paper that will be drawn up afterwards. Cost and planning can be divided into engineering consulting, full system engineering design, prototype system fabrication if needed, and full system fabrication.

In return, the Korean scientists will discuss the present progress in their programs and the areas which they feel the US can make a significant impact on their program. Through such a dialogue we aim to develop a list of mutually beneficial bilateral collaboration activities between the US and Korea.