SANTIAGO FERNANDEZ MURCIANO’s Post

Researchers at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) are tackling one of fusion energy’s big challenges: managing tungsten sputtering in tokamak reactors. Excessive tungsten cools the plasma, but experiments show that introducing boron powder could shield reactor walls and prevent tungsten contamination. The boron acts like a protective "saltshaker," coating the walls and preserving plasma energy. This innovative approach, tested in several global tokamaks, could be key for sustaining fusion in large-scale reactors like ITER. With advanced modeling tools, PPPL's work brings us closer to unlocking fusion’s potential.  https://lnkd.in/geFaeRRt #Physics #Fusion #Energy #IP #Patents #DeepTech

We are building fusion energy devices with metal walls that can survive the intense exhaust power produced by the plasma. It is necessary to design these devices with knowledge of how that metal might move throughout the device after it erodes from the wall surface. It is difficult to develop this understanding because metal migration is determined by complex plasma physics in the edge of fusion devices. Shawn Zamperini and colleagues performed experiments at the DIII-D National Fusion Facility by blasting rings of tungsten with fusion power exhaust and then measuring the transport of tungsten particles throughout the device. To address the complexity of plasma modeling, the team implemented a new approach to describe turbulent plasma fluctuations in the edge. Four different modeling codes were brought together to simulate tungsten behavior based on the updated representation of plasma turbulence in the edge. The simulation shows improvement in the accuracy of tungsten transport modeling. Importantly, this represents a computationally simplified method for treating the edge plasma and that could make it much more efficient to produce accurate predictions for how reactors will behave. Research such as this brings together experimentalists, diagnostic experts, and theory and modeling teams to complete a comprehensive investigation. Co-authors come from General Atomics, Fusion and Fission at ORNL, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, UC San Diego, University of Toronto, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and UC Santa Barbara. S. Zamperini, et al., Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion 66, 055003 (2024), https://lnkd.in/gjMNtd9W #fusionenergy #energy #metal

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have set a new record with their fusion device, WEST, achieving sustained hot fusion plasma at about 50 million degrees Celsius for six minutes, utilizing 1.15 gigajoules of power. This achievement marks a significant advance, showcasing 15% more energy and twice the density previously achieved, all within a tungsten-clad environment. WEST, operated by the Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives, is pioneering in its field, highlighting the potential of tungsten in commercial-scale fusion reactors. This milestone not only furthers our understanding of fusion technology but also underscores the importance of international collaboration in tackling global energy challenges. https://lnkd.in/gGEZT3-i #Physics #Energy #Fusion #IP #VC #DeepTEch

My third Paper just got published in Physics of Plasma! https://lnkd.in/eTKiEpAa This research covers a full spectroscopic study on the properties of the Kr L-shell spectrum and concludes it can be used as a diagnostic for hot dense plasma conditions.

A group of 24 plasma physicists is advocating for the construction of a stellarator fusion facility in the US to advance fusion research. This proposed Flexible Stellarator Physics Facility aims to test various stellarator confinement methods, potentially leading to scalable fusion plant designs. Unlike tokamaks, which use toroidal magnetic fields, stellarators apply helical magnetic fields, providing distinct advantages in plasma stability. The facility would help close scientific gaps and validate models to improve stellarator confinement, focusing on promising magnetic configurations like "quasi-symmetry." This initiative comes at a crucial time as the international ITER fusion reactor faces delays, highlighting the need for diversified fusion research strategies. https://lnkd.in/getpz9Q8 #Physics #IP #Energy #Fusion #Patents

The #JOREK code is in great shape for studying #runaway electrons in #tokamak #fusion #plasma|s. Runaway electrons (REs) are a big challenge for large tokamaks like #ITER as they could damage first walls. This is one of the reasons why ITER shifts to tungsten as wall material. Predictive simulations will be essential for guaranteeing a safe start-up of ITER when construction is complete. In the article just published #openaccess in the journal Physics of Plasmas, Vinodh Kumar Bandaru describes how the RE fluid model in JOREK was extended to precisely consider partially ionized impurities and deuterium neutrals. Benchmarks and comparisons show accuracy of the model in capturing RE #beam formation. The figure demonstrates excellent agreement between the JOREK and GO codes. JOREK's super-power lies in the ability to run such scenarios efficiently in an axi-symmetric setting (2D) where appropriate, and switch to full 3D where plasma instabilities arise and mutually interact with the REs. The full article is available here: https://lnkd.in/ehcYEfkG The article is a result of a research project between ITER and Max-Planck-Institut für Plasmaphysik - IPP. If you want to dive deeper into #JOREK's recent work on REs: - 2D predictions by Vinodh for ITER based on these developments are available as preprint (https://lnkd.in/eH_DdHDQ), submitted to Journal of Plasma Physics - 3D studies of RE beam termination due to a burst of plasma instabilities during the vertical motion of the beam by Vinodh were published in the journal Nuclear Fusion (https://lnkd.in/e7ME7XAU) - RE wall load studies by Hannes Bergström were published in the journal Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion (https://lnkd.in/eA5zpuqY) - Similar studies of RE termination and wall loads were also done for a EU-DEMO concept by Francesco Vannini to assess whether sacrificial limiters can protect the first wall from RE loads (preprint at https://lnkd.in/ejxS-FRf). Turns out they can, but not fully... - Earlier work on #benign RE termination in the #JET tokamak by Vinodh just received the outstanding paper prize of the journal Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion (https://lnkd.in/dJQii4d) - While this RE fluid model will remain the model of choice for long time scales during which the magnetic surfaces of the plasma are intact, self-consistently coupled #kinetic RE models are presently in the making that can describe RE orbits, transport, and losses even more accurately, as shown in the invited talk of Hannes at the #EPS plasma physics conference in July. A journal article about this work is in preparation. Several other projects contribute by implementing a guiding center version of the model (Shi-Jie Liu), kinetic RE source terms (Fiona Wouters, Louis Puel), etc. A lot will move here in the coming months, stay tuned! #plasmaphysics

Researchers at Princeton University and the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory have leveraged machine learning to significantly improve the performance of fusion reactors by controlling plasma edge bursts. This innovative method allows for high-performing plasma without instabilities, reducing the computational time required for real-time system adjustments. Their approach, which is demonstrated at both KSTAR and DIII-D tokamaks, enhances fusion reactor efficiency while maintaining safety. This advancement not only showcases AI's potential in overcoming fusion energy challenges but also sets the stage for future applications in various fusion devices, including the upcoming ITER reactor.

The future of fusion reactors hangs in the balance, a delicate seesaw act balancing plasma performance against edge instabilities. Controlling plasma edge bursts, which rob reactors of performance and cause damage over time, has been a significant hurdle. But engineers at Princeton and the U.S Department of Energy's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory have made quite a captivating breakthrough. They have developed a machine learning method to optimize the suppression of harmful edge instabilities without sacrificing plasma performance. The beauty of their approach lies in its adaptability: successfully demonstrating the highest fusion performance devoid of edge bursts in two separate fusion facilities. The technological application and potential of machine learning to quickly and efficiently control plasma instabilities mark a significant stride forward in the field of fusion reactors. Now, then, this raises a question: Can this fusion of machine learning and physics unlock new levels of performance in future and existing fusion reactors? #FusionReactors #MachineLearning https://lnkd.in/gK_Wc573

Our best understanding of how power leaves a fusion energy reactor (which includes actually measuring it in research devices) indicates that it reaches the walls of the device in a narrow region. Furthermore, the width of this power exhaust footprint remains very narrow when reactor parameters are considered, which challenges materials to withstand those conditions. In this research highlight from Zeyu Li and colleagues, experiments at the DIII-D National Fusion Facility measured the heat flux widths produced by the high-performance plasma scenario called the Quiescent H-mode (QH-mode) and used simulations of plasma turbulence and transport to show why these widths are larger than the prevailing scaling expectation. As shown in the concept diagram below, plasma turbulence in the pedestal causes the heat flux width to increase. Simulations show that this pedestal turbulence can cause pressure perturbations up to 20% of the base pressure. These fluctuations cause power exhaust to spread out, and the observed heat flux width is much broader than the typical expectation. Designing a power plant with a QH-mode plasma scenario may reduce the performance requirements of the plasma-facing wall. This work includes coauthors from General Atomics, UC San Diego, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, University of Wisconsin-Madison, UCLA, and University of California, Davis. Zeyu Li, et al., Communications Physics 7, 96 (2024), https://lnkd.in/gaUqMjSZ #fusionenergy #turbulence #computationalscience

J-PARC Hadron Physics and Future Possibilities on Color Transparency | Article by Shunzo Kumano https://lnkd.in/eRuksBCu KEK; MDPI #QCD #quark #gluon #hadron #pion #proton #accelerator #colortransparency #highenergy #physics #OpenAccess This article belongs to the Special Issue The Future of Color Transparency, Hadronization and Short-Range Nucleon-Nucleon Correlation Studies https://lnkd.in/gJu-pdtC #Abstract The Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC) is a hadron-accelerator facility that aims to provide secondary beams of kaons, pions, neutrinos, muons, and others together with the primary proton beam for investigating a wide range of science projects. High-energy hadron physics can be studied by using high-momentum beams of unseparated hadrons, which are essentially pions, and also primary protons. In this report, possible experiments are explained on color transparency and generalized parton distributions (GPDs). These projects are complementary to lepton-scattering experiments at Jefferson Laboratory (JLab), COMPASS/AMBER, and future electron-ion colliders. Thank to hadron-beam energies up to 30 GeV, J-PARC is a unique facility to investigate the transition region from the hadron degrees of freedom to the quark-gluon degrees of freedom. It is suitable for finding mechanisms of the olor transparency. Such color-transparency studies are also valuable for clarifying the factorization of hadron production processes in extracting the GPDs from actual measurements. These studies will lead to the understanding of basic high-energy hadron interactions in nuclear medium and to clarifications on the origins of hadron spins, masses, and internal pressure mechanisms.