Review of the NLTE-5 kinetics workshop

We review the 5th non-LTE kinetics code comparison workshop, held in November 2007. Both steady-state and time-dependent cases for elements ranging from carbon to gold were examined in detail. Calculations of radiative power losses and specific spectra were requested in addition to typical plasma quantities such as the ionization balance. Non-Maxwellian electrons, external Planckian radiation and opacity effects in spectra were also included in the comparisons. We discuss the organization of the workshop and present a set of representative results. The particular case of a tungsten plasma at tokamak operating densities was considered for the first time. Due to its importance to the ITER project, more detailed results of these comparisons will be published elsewhere.