The techniques Theodore Biewer and his colleagues are using to measure whether plasma has the right conditions to create fusion have been around awhile.
Injecting pellets of hydrogen ice rather than puffing hydrogen gas improves fusion performance. Studies by PPPL and ORNL physicists compared the two methods on the DIII-D National Fusion Facility, looking ahead to the injection fueling planned for ITER.
New application of deep learning allows prediction of disruptions from raw, high-resolution data from fusion energy experiments.
Advanced design of the world's largest and most powerful stellarator demonstrates the ability to moderate heat loss from the plasma that fuels fusion reactions.
Feature highlights PPPL accomplishments over the past 10 years.
Recent experiments in the DIII-D tokamak demonstrate that more turbulence at the edge of the plasma can result in it being hotter.
Story Tips: Fusion squeeze, global image mapping, computing mental health and sodium batteries
Researchers at the DIII-D National Fusion Facility recently achieved a scientific first when they used machine learning calculations to automatically prevent fusion plasma disruptions in real time, while simultaneously optimizing the plasma for peak performance. The new experiments are the first of what they expect to be a wave of research in which machine learning–augmented controls could broaden the understanding of fusion plasmas. The work may help deliver reliable, peak-performance operation of future fusion reactors.
The American Physical Society (APS) has recognized a former PPPL summer intern for producing an outstanding research poster at the world-wide APS Division of Plasma Physics (DPP) gathering last October. The student used machine learning to accelerate a leading PPPL computer code known as XGC.
State-of-the-art simulation confirms a key source of heat and energy loss in spherical fusion facilities.
PPPL will use INCITE-award time on Summit and Theta supercomputers to develop predictions for the performance of ITER, the international experiment under construction to demonstrate the feasibility of fusion energy.
Scientists often make progress by coming up with new ways to look at old problems. That has happened at PPPL, where physicists have used a simple insight to capture the complex effects of many high-frequency waves in a fusion plasma.
Applications for internship programs are now being accepted by the National Science Foundation funded EPSCoR Project Connecting the Plasma Universe to Plasma Technology in Alabama (CPU2AL), which is headquartered at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH).
British Petroleum researchers invited ORNL data scientists to give the company’s high-performance computing team a tutorial of the laboratory’s ADIOS I/O middleware. ADIOS has helped researchers achieve scientific breakthroughs by providing a simple, flexible way to describe data in their code that may need to be written, read, or processed outside of the running simulation. ORNL researchers Scott Klasky and Norbert Podhorszki demonstrated how it could help the BP team accelerate their science by helping tackle their large, unique seismic datasets.
Arms control robots, a new national facility, and accelerating the drive to bring the fusion energy that powers the stars to Earth: Ten (and a triple bonus!) Must-Read Stories of 2019 from PPPL
PPPL scientists have found that sprinkling a type of powder into fusion plasma could aid in harnessing the ultra-hot gas within a tokamak facility to produce heat to create electricity without producing greenhouse gases or long-term radioactive waste.
Scientists developed a new model to describe how large, periodic bursts of plasma known as edge localized modes (ELMs) erode parts of tokamak walls. Tokamaks are devices used to study the process of fusion.
Researchers from TAE Technologies used the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility to support their fusion research. The company is working to develop the world’s first fusion device that can generate electricity and is commercially viable.
From nanoparticles to algae ecology, the Office of Science supported a variety of research in 2019.
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) physicist Denise Hinkel was elected vice chair of the American Physical Society (APS) Division of Plasma Physics (DPP) during the annual meeting Oct. 21.
Feature profiles PPPL Distinguished Engineering Fellow recipient Alex Nagy
The SNO+ experiment has made new measurements of the lifetime of the proton. It also measured how the flow of solar neutrinos changes over time as well as the energy spectrum of those neutrinos.
Simulations show that halo currents can serve as a proxy for the total force produced by vertical disruptions.
An additively manufactured polymer layer applied to specialized plastic proved effective to protect aircraft from lightning strikes in lab test; injecting shattered argon pellets into a super-hot plasma, when needed, could protect a fusion reactor’s interior wall from runaway electrons; ORNL will celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Liane Russell on December 20.
Fusion power researchers at TAE Technologies employ Argonne supercomputers to develop magnetic fusion plasma confinement devices as a means to generate unlimited electricity.
PPPL physicist Fatima Ebrahimi has used high-resolution computer simulations to confirm the practicality of the CHI start-up technique. The simulations show that CHI could produce electric current continuously in larger, more powerful tokamaks than exist today to produce stable fusion plasmas.
Brookhaven’s Superconducting Magnet Division will partner with industry to develop and characterize superconducting power cables.
The U.S. Department of Energy has finalized a five-year cooperative agreement with General Atomics to operate the DIII-D National Fusion Facility, the country's largest magnetic fusion research facility.
Rutgers engineers have embedded high performance electrical circuits inside 3D-printed plastics, which could lead to smaller and versatile drones and better-performing small satellites, biomedical implants and smart structures. They used pulses of high-energy light to fuse tiny silver wires, resulting in circuits that conduct 10 times more electricity than the state of the art, according to a study in the journal Additive Manufacturing. By increasing conductivity 10-fold, the engineers can reduce energy use, extend the life of devices and increase their performance.
Feature wraps-up wide-ranging PPPL talks on fusion and plasma science at the 61st American Physical Society-Department of Plasma Physics conference.
PPPL physicist Janardhan (Manny) Manickam was an international collaborator who was head of the Theory Division and an expert in magnetohydrodynamics and helped develop the PEST computer code used to predict disruptions in fusion experiments.
Profile of PPPL's Chris Smiet and Rupak Mukherjee and the post-doctoral honors they have won.
Scientists at PPPL have discovered that turbulence may play an increased role in affecting the self-driven, or bootstrap, current in plasma that is necessary for tokamak fusion reactions.
Surprise discovery shows that turbulence at the edge of the plasma may facilitate production of fusion energy.
PPPL's new chief engineer has collaborated on major fusion experiments in the U.S. and around the world in his 38-year career at the Laboratory.
A look at four INFUSE projects to speed the development of fusion energy that PPPL is working on.
Future fusion reactors will require materials that can withstand extreme operating conditions, including being bombarded by high-energy neutrons at high temperatures. Scientists recently irradiated titanium diboride (TiB2) in the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) to better understand the effects of fusion neutrons on performance.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced funding for 12 projects with private industry to enable collaboration with DOE national laboratories on overcoming challenges in fusion energy development. The awards are the first provided through the Innovation Network for Fusion Energy program (INFUSE).
Princeton University officially launches a new supercomputer, Traverse, that will accelerate development of the science at PPPL to bring the fusion that powers the sun and stars to Earth.
Researchers have constructed a framework for starting and raising a fusion plasma to temperatures rivaling the sun in hundreds of milliseconds.
ORNL story tips: Reaching the boiling point for HVACs; showcasing innovation for technology transfer; using neutrons to lend insight into human tissue; and heating the core in a fusion prototype experiment.
Profile of physicist Stefan Gerhardt who has been elected a 2019 fellow of the American Physical Society.
Argonne scientists receive $1.19 million from DOE for quantum research.
Vsevolod A. Soukhanovskii is a group leader at the Fusion Energy Sciences Program at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. He and his research group are stationed on a long-term assignment focusing on edge plasma transport and plasma-surface interactions in spherical tokamaks at the Department of Energy’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory.
Barbara Garcia, a Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internship program participant, used the resourcefulness and independence she acquired as a first-generation college student during her summer of research at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory.
Feature describes improved model for forecasting the crucial balance of pressure at the edge of a fusion plasma.
Promise Adebayo-Ige was one of 45 interns at PPPL this past summer
The Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory's 45 summer interns spent their summer doing hands-on research side-by-side with scientists and engineers at PPPL.
Features describes summer interns who built an acoustical levitator at PPPL.
PPPL kicks off a new apprentice program in which participants will receive competitive salaries and benefits as they learn on-the-job skills and take classes to become technicians.
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