Akio Sagara

Completed the doctoral program in nuclear engineering at Nagoya University in 1979. Doctor of engineering. Specializes in fusion engineering. After working as Research Associate at the Institute of Plasma Physics of Nagoya University, Assoc.Professor at Nagoya University, Professor at the National Institute for Fusion Science, and Director of Fusion Engineering Research Center, became Executive Director of Fusion Engineering Research Project in 2010. During this time, engaged in the launch of the Large Helical Device (LHD), the launch of the US-Japan Fusion Engineering Project JUPITER-II and TITAN, the conceptual design supervision of the LHD-type fusion reactor FFHR, the Editor of "Fusion Engineering and Design", etc., and served as chairman of the External Evaluation Committee of the High Temperature Plasma Research Center of the University of Tokyo, chief of the Technical Committee of the Science and Technology Council in MEXT, The International Advisory Committee Members of IAEA Technical Meeting on Research Using Small Fusion Devices, A member of the review panel of the Helmholtz Research-Programme, Visiting Professor at Hokkaido University and Shizuoka University. In 2017, became Professor Emeritus at the National Institute for Fusion Science and the Graduate University for Advanced Studies, and at the same time Research Professor (Visiting) of quantum energy engineering at Tohoku University. Fellow of The Japan Atomic Energy Society, 2012 Outstanding Achievement Award from Fusion Energy Division of American Nuclear Society (first from outside the United States), 2014 Award for Notable Contribution on Technology from The Japan Society of Plasma Science and Nuclear Fusion Research. Since 2021, a scientific advisor to Helical Fusion, Inc. 504 peer-reviewed academic papers, 34 leading author papers, 3 books (share), 1 patent.

Main research history:
(1) Nuclear heating and neutronics of fusion blanket
(2) Ion impact desorption cross section measurement of surface adsorbed gas by low-energy ion scattering analysis (ISS)
(3) Comparison between hydrogen depth distribution analysis by elastic recoil detection method (ERD) and stereoscopic analysis by transmission electron microscope
(4) Development of lithium depth analysis method using 7Li (p, α) 4He nuclear reaction
(5) ALT-II pump limiter experiment at TEXTOR
(6) Development of wall conditioning method using surface modification test equipment (SUT)
(7) High heat flux divertor development and LHD divertor design using forced cooling test equipment (ACT)
(8) Proposal and verification of analytical model of net erosion distribution of divertor plate by CHS
(9) Demonstration of the effect of real-time boronization in CHS
(10) Development of active plasma wall interaction research methods such as variable temperature limiters and high frequency application limiters
(11) Correlation between redistribution distribution of graphite by PISCES and hydrogen particle flux distribution
(12) Wall conditioning and quantitative evaluation at the beginning of LHD startup
(13) Carbon sheet pump idea and demonstration
(14) World's first correlation demonstration between erosion and redeposition distribution measurement of graphite divertor plate and magnetic field structure
(15) Japan's first real machine dust distribution analysis
(16) World's first experimental identification of the precursory process of real-time dust generation
(17) Conceptual design of helical reactor FFHR
(18) Study of self-cooled tritium breeding blanket using molten salt Flibe
(19) Modeling of blanket material system by Japan-US joint project
(20) FFHR design system code development, basic parameter setting, 3D structure / neutronics design
(21) Idea and demonstration of hydrogen solubility control of molten salt by mixing fine metal particles
(22) Construction of "Innovative Energy Circulation Engineering" Experimental Platform
34 first-author papers (with peer-review), 504 co-authored papers (with peer-review) (including the main author)