A new report sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recommends increased investment in America’s fusion diagnostic capabilities to speed up the delivery of commercial fusion power plants.
As part of the DOE’s Basic Research Needs Workshop on Measurement Innovation, experts from academia, private industry, and national laboratories such as PPPL identified the critical diagnostics and measurement technologies needed to advance US leadership in fusion energy and plasma technologies.
The workshop supported the goals outlined in the DOE’s Fusion Science & Technology Roadmap, which “targets actions and milestones out to the mid-2030s, providing the scientific and technological foundation to support a competitive US fusion energy industry.”
Luis Delgado-Aparicio, head of advanced projects at PPPL, who chaired the workshop, explained: “Measurement innovations have led and will continue to lead to scientific and engineering breakthroughs in plasma science and technology activities supported by the DOE’s Fusion Energy Sciences programme, especially fusion energy sciences.
“This new report provides substantive findings across seven key areas of fusion and plasma technologies.”
Strengthening US leadership in fusion and plasma technologies
Sean Regan, a distinguished scientist and the director of the Experimental Division at the University of Rochester’s Laboratory for Laser Energetics and co-chair of the workshop, stated: “The findings in this report are a testament to the critical role of diagnostics in driving fusion energy science forward.
“By investing in innovative measurement technologies, we can accelerate progress toward commercial fusion energy and strengthen America’s leadership in plasma science.”
The report summarises findings from 70 researchers who analysed seven plasma physics topics funded by the DOE’s FES programme, including:
- Low-temperature plasma
- High-energy-density plasma
- Plasma-material interaction
- Burning plasma created through magnetic-confinement fusion (MCF)
- Burning plasma created through inertial-confinement fusion (ICF)
- Fusion pilot power plants based on MCF
- Fusion power plants based on ICF
Plasma scientists need support from the government
The researchers identified ways in which the federal government could enhance US scientists’ ability to use diagnostics to measure plasma.
The priority research opportunities include creating diagnostics that can withstand the levels of radiation expected in future fusion power plants, inventing new measurement techniques that can measure the ultra-quick processes involved in ICF, using artificial intelligence (AI) to speed up the design processes for these innovations and supporting a robust pathway for scientists to enter into diagnostics research.
These same capabilities underpin a broader plasma-technology ecosystem critical to US economic leadership.