Experiences with remote collaborations in fusion research

The magnetic fusion research community has considerable experience in placing remote collaboration tools in the hands of real users. The ability to remotely view operations and to control selected instrumentation and analysis tasks has been demonstrated. University of Wisconsin scientists making turbulence measurements on TFTR were provided with a remote control room from which they could operate their diagnostic, white keeping in close contact with their colleagues in Princeton. LLNL has assembled a remote control room in Livermore in support of a large, long term collaboration on the DIII-D tokamak in San Diego. From the same control room, a joint team of MIT and LLNL scientists has conducted full functional operation of the Alcator C-Mod tokamak located 3,000 miles away in Cambridge Massachusetts. These early efforts have been highly successful, but are only the first steps needed to demonstrate the technical feasibility of a complete "facilities on line" environment. These efforts have provided a "proof of principle" for the collaboratory concept and they have also pointed out shortcomings in current generation tools and approaches. Current experiences and future directions will be discussed.