Bulletin of the American Physical Society
64th Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Plasma Physics
Volume 67, Number 15
Monday–Friday, October 17–21, 2022; Spokane, Washington
Session JM09: Mini-Conference: Public-Private Partnerships for Fusion Energy IILive Streamed
|
Hide Abstracts |
Chair: Ahmed Diallo, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory Room: 206 AB |
Tuesday, October 18, 2022 2:00PM - 2:15PM |
JM09.00001: Public Private Partnerships for Inertial Fusion Energy Cris W Barnes, Ahmed Diallo, Mike Dunne, John Edwards, Andrew Holland, Mario J Manuel, Matthew Moynihan, Christophe Simon-Boisson, Mike Campbell, Tammy Ma, Vincent Tang Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) will play a critical role in Inertial Fusion Energy (IFE) Research, Development and Demonstration (RD&D) and the potential commercialization of IFE. Although prior IFE related science and technology have been nearly all government sponsored, signficant private investments in IFE have started over the last several years and could grow, following the trend of escalating private investments in magnetic and magnetic-inertial fusion energy that are now collectively in the multibillion-dollar scale. Recently, signficant activities within the community have explored the role of PPPs in this environment and how they might be best structured to enable IFE, including a PPP panel within the DOE IFE Basic Research Needs effort. This talk will review some of the initial findings of these activities, including the potential roles and structures of PPPs for accelerating IFE RD&D, and perspectives on PPPs from the public and private sector. |
Tuesday, October 18, 2022 2:15PM - 2:30PM |
JM09.00002: ORNL Actions to Maximize Fusion Pilot Plant Success Cami S Collins, Mickey R Wade, Philip B Snyder, Charles E Kessel, John Canik, Vittorio Badalassi ORNL aims to maximize the probability of a credible fusion pilot plant (FPP) design that leads to construction and projects to commercial viability. Timely delivery of an FPP is likely beyond the capability of any single enterprise. To maximize success and return on investment, an open and collaborative design and assessment effort between public and private stakeholders to develop prioritized technology roadmap(s) towards a viable concept(s) for commercialized fusion power is envisioned. The public program is well positioned to accelerate progress by addressing common challenges and dispersing knowledge, technology, and experience. ORNL aims to play a central role in a private and public FPP design activity, development and demonstration of technology components through the Public-Private Milestone program, and foundational R&D needed for low-TRL, longer term milestones. ORNL is working to bring together both fusion plasma and fusion engineering modeling tools to provide integrated assessment of tokamak fusion pilot plant concepts, as well as siting options to develop, test, and qualify components or facilities. Thoughts on how to apply lab capabilities and coordinate the enthusiastic public program in delivering a fusion energy producing system will be presented. |
Tuesday, October 18, 2022 2:30PM - 2:45PM |
JM09.00003: National Laboratory–Private and Academic Partnerships in Fusion: A Lawrence Livermore Perspective Drew P Higginson, Clement S Goyon, Anthony J Link, Harry S McLean, James M Mitrani, Kurt Tummel, Amanda E Youmans, Bethany L Goldblum, Josh A Brown, Thibault A Laplace, Jacob T Banasek, Farhat N Beg, Simon C Bott-Suzuki, Fabio Conti, Benjamin J Levitt, Brian A Nelson, Pi-En Tsai, Aria Johansen, Uri Shumlak, Paul Ney, Hafiz U Rahman, Emil Ruskov Since ARPA-E’s initial ALPHA program (“Accelerating Low-cost Plasma Heating and Assembly”) in 2015, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has partnered with US Academic and Private Industry interests on novel fusion energy concepts. LLNL has provided fully kinetic particle-in-cell and radiation hydrodynamic simulations; pulsed power driver development; reactor design, and suites of calibrated diagnostics to measure device performance and plasma properties – specifically, laser-based Thomson scattering, and neutronics with an emphasis of determining the thermonuclear nature of fusion neutron production. Through this work, LLNL has improved the understanding of the important physics in these devices, delivered independent assessments of concept performance and viability, and helped initiate a successful private start-up. Funding for LLNL efforts has come from a variety of sources including DOE ARPA-E, DOE SC/FES INFUSE, and direct support from US-based private industry. An overview of some of the LLNL contributions will be presented along with our perspective on supporting these private operations, and thoughts for the future. |
Tuesday, October 18, 2022 2:45PM - 3:00PM |
JM09.00004: Fusion Fuel Cycle Development through Public-Private Partnerships Holly B Flynn, George K Larsen, Brenda L Garcia-Diaz, Dave W Babineau, Christopher Dandeneau, Tyler Guin, James E Klein Commercialization of fusion energy using a deuterium-tritium (D-T) fuel cycle will require fusion pilot plants (FPPs) to have tritium inventories on the order of 100’s of grams. No commercial entity has experience sourcing, purifying, and utilizing tritium on that scale, but it is part of routine operations for Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) technology deployed in the Savannah River Site (SRS) Tritium Facilities. SRNL is actively engaging fusion companies and the fusion communities through public-private partnership (PPP) programs such as the Innovation Network for Fusion Energy INFUSE program. The objective is to help address fuel cycle challenges as fusion advances towards commercialization, as well as work with DOE to potentially support facilities for fuel cycle demonstrations at a Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 7 prior to Fusion Power Plant (FPP) operation. SRNL’s primary engagement method with fusion companies for PPPs has been through the DOE Office of Science (SC) INFUSE program but is prepared for additional company engagements through additional PPP structures as they are developed. In addition, SRNL has tied its fusion program into efforts across the lab to engage universities (including minority serving institutions), not-for profits to try and help address industry-wide issues such as workforce development; diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI); and a variety of other issues. In addition, SRNL is also engaging with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to help develop a regulatory framework for fusion and tritium that can help enable fusion energy commercialization. SRNL has a number of innovative science and technology PPPs that revolve around fusion fuel cycle advancement both within the INFUSE and ARPA-e programs. One set of projects at SRNL focuses on technologies that advance blanket technologies including tritium extraction and materials durability in blanket environments. The blanket projects include research and development on direct lithium tritide (LiT) electrolysis for improving tritium extraction from lithium alloy blankets (e.g. Pb-Li and Li) and active redox control of molten salts for control of corrosion in a FLiBe blanket with Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS). A second set of projects is working with companies such as General Atomics and General Fusion to develop fuel cycle related models that can help to design systems that enhance movement of tritium through the fusion fuel cycle to reduce tritium in-process inventory, better account for tritium inventory, reduce tritium in-process inventory, and perform comparative techno-economic assessments. SRNL’s long history and expertise in development of tritium handling and processing offers a unique opportunity to work closely with private partners to advance and influence the design and implementation of a fusion fuel cycle through DOE SC and ARPA-e programs. |
Tuesday, October 18, 2022 3:00PM - 3:10PM |
JM09.00005: The Roadmap to Fusion Energy for the Centrifugal Mirror Carlos A Romero-Talamás, Brian L Beaudoin, Adil B Hassam, Timothy W Koeth, Ian G Abel, Nathan Eschbach, Zachary D Short, Nick R Schwartz, Myles Kelly The centrifugal mirror is a linear magnetic confinement concept with a promising path towards commercial fusion energy because of its stability, engineering simplicity, and expected affordability with respect to other fusion concepts. A radial electric field is applied in a mirror configuration, generating azimuthal rotation that in turn creates velocity shear that stabilizes the plasma and provides viscous heating. The Centrifugal Mirror Fusion Experiment, CMFX, at the University of Maryland, includes superconducting coils and aims to demonstrate steady supersonic plasma rotation with Te = Ti = 0.5 keV and densities with at least n = 1018 - 1019 m-3 (see related posters, this conference). A previous experiment, the Maryland Centrifugal Experiment [R. F. Ellis et. al. Phys. Plasmas 12, 055704 (2005)], demonstrated the basic principle of the centrifugal mirror with Te = Ti ~ 0.1 keV. The CMFX builds on these results but extends the parameter space to much higher electric fields, steady magnetic fields, and longer plasma duration. CMFX results will be used to inform the design of CMFX-U, the next generation experiment with reactor-relevant magnetic fields and electric fields necessary to achieve Q > 1. The roadmap and timeline to a fusion reactor for the centrifugal mirror concept, including cost modeling, will be presented. |
Tuesday, October 18, 2022 3:10PM - 3:20PM |
JM09.00006: Proton Fast Ignition as a path to commercial fusion energy Markus Roth, Stefano Atzeni, Matthias Broenner, Todd Ditmire, Todd Ditmire, Thomas Forner, Paul Gibbon, Paul Gibbon, Andrea Hannasch, Doug Hammond, Markus Hesse, Javier Honrubia, Leonard C Jarrott, Pravesh K Patel, Maggie Rivers, Gabriel Schaumann, Nils Schott, Wolfgang R Theobald, Sero Zaehter, Florian Wasser, Marc Zimmer Among possible approaches to fusion energy, we regard the Proton Fast Ignition (PFI) as the most credible. PFI as an alternate route to ignition was triggered by the discovery of ultra-bright beams of protons produced by ultra-intense lasers. |
Tuesday, October 18, 2022 3:20PM - 3:30PM |
JM09.00007: Using STUD pulses to Control LPI Adaptively in Space and Time, Using Machine Learning and High Rep Rated Lasers: The Green Option for IFE Bedros B Afeyan, Jeffrey A Hittinger, Jorge J Rocca, Conner Galloway, Todd Ditmire This presentation addresses the STUD pulse program [Afeyan09,10,13a,13b,14] for Laser-Plasma Instability (LPI) control. Spike Trains of Uneven Duration and Delay (STUD pulses) are a means of combining both deterministic and random techniques at our disposal to scramble the speckle patterns that impinge upon a High Energy Density Plasma (HEDP) where energy is deposited in laser-based IFE schemes. The idea is to combat memory build up inside the plasma which is inevitable when prolonged quasi-static irradiation patterns imprint their imperfections and vast fluctuations onto the plasma for durations very long compared to the typical growth rate of laser-plasma instabilities such as SRS, SBS), and TPD. The active memory buildup prevention is so that inside a single speckle or laser hot spot, growth is halted. And also, so that inter-speckle communication and multi-speckle self-organization is also halted. The active switching of the laser, on and off (say with a contrast of a 100 or more) in time on the ps time scale, deterministically, with intervals that are optimized to remove plasma memory, and scrambled randomly in space (resampled from the Poisson intensity statistics distributed speckle patterns) is the STUD pulse prescription. |
Tuesday, October 18, 2022 3:30PM - 3:40PM |
JM09.00008: The Development of Castable Nanostructured Alloys for Fusion Reactor First-Wall/Blanket Applications. Weicheng Zhong, Lizhen Tan, Ying Yang, Tim Graening, Tang Wei, Kevin G Field, Yutai Katoh Reduced Activation Ferritic-Martensitic (RAFM) steels are proposed as cooling plates and structural materials for first wall/blanket materials in fusion reactors. Conventional RAFM steels have reduced creep rupture strength compared to second-generation FM steels and they have limited upper operation temperature of 550C. Development of advanced RAFM steels targets to increase the creep rupture strength to extend the operation temperature limit. For that reason, we are developing Castable Nanostructured Alloys (CNAs) as the American RAFM steels. The phase fraction of nano-scaled precipitates in CNAs is maximized through optimized composition tailoring and thermomechanical treatments with the goal to improve the high temperature creep strength and radiation resistance. Here, the roadmap of CNAs development will be highlighted, and the microstructure and various properties of interest to fusion applications will be discussed and compared with conventional RAFM steels. Currently a multi-ton scale batch is being procured under the umbrella of an ARPA-E / GAMOW project. Evaluation of the multi-ton scale CNAs will focus on various mechanical properties, weldability, and radiation resistance. The objectives of the scale-up is to demonstrate the production viability, performance advantages and to increase its technical readiness level. |
Tuesday, October 18, 2022 3:40PM - 3:50PM |
JM09.00009: Cost targets for incorporation of fusion in a future decarbonized US electric grid Jacob A Schwartz, Wilson Ricks, Egemen Kolemen, Jesse D Jenkins Commercial fusion plants will need sufficient economic performance to secure a major role in future electricity grids. Using an electricity system capacity expansion model with hourly resolution, we determine the value of various fusion reactors, especially pulsed tokamaks, as members of a least-cost, net-zero-CO2 electric grid in the eastern United States. The value per unit of additional capacity depends on the plant's operational parameters, the cost of competitor technologies, and the existing quantity of fusion power. In a given scenario, a plant's value is most strongly predicted by its variable cost of operation and maintenance (VOM cost) per net MWh-electric, which may be driven by costs of component replacement, e.g. the blanket and divertor . To reach 50 GW of net fusion electrical capacity (1/12th of average system load), plant capital costs per kW of net electric capacity must be less than $3000 to less than $7200, depending on the VOM cost of the plant and the cost of competitor technologies. Adding a multi-hour thermal storage system to a plant could increase the fusion core's value by 5% to 15%. Initial fusion plants would compete with fission, and at higher capacity penetrations would compete with gas with carbon capture and storage, solar, wind, and batteries. |
Tuesday, October 18, 2022 3:50PM - 4:00PM |
JM09.00010: Stellarator Magnets using High Temperature Superconductors and Advanced Manufacturing David T Anderson, Lianyi Chen, Robert S Granetz, Paul Harris, Amanda E Hubbard, Nicolo Riva, Randall Volberg The stellarator is second only to the tokamak in triple product achieved and has many positive attributes as a fusion reactor. High magnetic field operation is advantageous due to observed gyro-bohm confinement scaling. High-temperature superconducting tapes (HTS) can produce significantly higher magnetic fields than conventional superconductors. The 3D shape of the coils necessitates bending in many directions with torsion. Performance of the tapes is sensitive to local field values and tape strains. ARPA-E has funded Type One Energy Group, in collaboration with the MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center, UW-Madison, and CFS, to develop and fabricate a demonstration HTS stellarator coil building upon a modified VIPER cable technology. Tests have shown a single cable length can be formed in multiple orthogonal directions with radii as small as 10 cm without any degradation in the superconducting properties compared to virgin tapes. A 2-turn coil will be formed using this cable and supported in 3D stainless steel plates printed with additive manufacturing. Tests of this coil will demonstrate the ability to fabricate a 3D coil using HTS and provide data to incorporate into simulations and models. |
Tuesday, October 18, 2022 4:00PM - 4:10PM |
JM09.00011: Construction Status of the Wisconsin HTS Axisymmetric Mirror Jay K Anderson A public-private partnership between UW-Madison, MIT, Commonwealth Fusion Systems, and Realta Fusion are partnering to construct a new magnetic mirror (WHAM) at UW-Madison. The primary missions are achieving MHD- and kinetically- stable plasmas in a low-collisionality regime, where the particle confinement increases rapidly with average ion energy. Axisymmetric MHD stability is achieved via biasing end rings with respect to a central limiter (the vortex confinement scheme) and will allow modest plasmas in initial experiments, and electron temperature approaching 1 keV following the boost of the central magnetic field in the 2nd experimental phase. Scenarios have been developed for fast ion deposition via neutral beam injection whose energy can be increased via rf heating, and electron cyclotron resonant startup in the strong field device. Here we report on construction status of the machine, magnets, and major auxiliary heating systems. |
Tuesday, October 18, 2022 4:10PM - 4:20PM |
JM09.00012: Enabling a Fusion-Prototypic Neutron Source through Plasma Window Technology Josh Blatz, Ross Radel, Tye Gribb, Preston Barrows, Todd Kile, Daniel Cech One of the greatest needs in the development of fusion technology is the ability to test neutron-induced damage to materials relevant to fusion sources. Currently, no sources can generate both the neutron flux and relevant energy spectrum necessary. |
Tuesday, October 18, 2022 4:20PM - 4:30PM |
JM09.00013: Numerical modeling of innovative fusion concepts within the BETHE program Petros Tzeferacos, Riccardo Betti, Jonathan R Davies, Fernando Garcia Rubio, Edward C Hansen, Robert Masti, David Michta, Chuang Ren, Adam Reyes, William Scullin, Adam B Sefkow, John G Shaw, Han Wen, Ka Ming Woo Computer simulations are indispensable tools in the development of all areas of science and engineering. For any innovative fusion scheme, simulations are essential to help interpret data and to extrapolate from the first experiments to a prototype design. Here we present a project that assembles a theory/modeling Capability Team at the University of Rochester to provide, under the auspices of the DOE ARPA-E BETHE program, simulation support for Concept Teams and independent theoretical analysis of the physics underlying leading Concepts. We discuss the suite of simulation codes – fluid, hybrid, and kinetic – we use in this effort, and how they are applied to engage with Concept Teams that focus on Plasma-Jet-Driven Magneto-Inertial Fusion, Field-Reversal Configurations, and the staged Z-pinch. The codes central to this project are FLASH, TriForce, and OSIRIS, chosen because they are flexible, high-performance computing codes, capable of one-, two-, and three-dimensional simulations, which can be used by Concept Teams to sustainably continue their modeling efforts. We highlight select outcomes from this novel, collaborative effort and discuss how this research model can be successfully applied in the context of private-public partnerships. We acknowledge support by the U.S. DOE ARPA-E under Award No. DE-AR0001272, the U.S. DOE SC/FES under Award No. DE-SC0017951, and the U.S DOE NNSA under Awards No. DE-NA0003856 and DE-NA0003842, and Subcontracts No. 536203 and No 630138 with Los Alamos National Laboratory. |
Tuesday, October 18, 2022 4:30PM - 4:40PM |
JM09.00014: Probing plasma conditions on the sheared flow stabilized Z-pinch using Optical Thomson Scattering at Zap Energy Clement S Goyon, Jacob T Banasek, Simon C Bott-Suzuki, George F Swadling, Morgan Quinley, Benjamin J Levitt, Brian A Nelson, Uri Shumlak, Glen A Wurden, Harry S McLean ARPA‐E supports the investigation and development of potentially transformative fusion‐energy |
Tuesday, October 18, 2022 4:40PM - 4:50PM |
JM09.00015: Conceptual Design of Ion Temperature Diagnostics for the PI4 device at General Fusion Keisuke Fujii, Akbar Rohollahi, Xiande Feng, Theodore M Biewer We report a conceptual design of ion temperature diagnostics for the upcoming PI4 machine at General Fusion. This diagnostics system consists of a high resolution spectrometer (Horiba iHR550) and EMCCD camera (Teledyne Princeton Instruments, ProEM HS: 512BX3). Due to the fast readout speed of the EMCCD camera, this system will be able to measure the Doppler shift and broadening of impurity ions with 1 ms temporal resolution. A numerical inversion based on Bayesian inference will be used to obtain the local ion temperature and velocity from the Doppler spectra measured for more than 10 lines of sight. Its feasibility is being tested based on synthetic data taking the actual viewing geometry into account. |
Tuesday, October 18, 2022 4:50PM - 5:00PM |
JM09.00016: Ultrashort Pulse Reflectometry (USPR) Diagnostic for HIT-SIU Calvin W Domier, R J Pereira, Jon Dannenberg, Aaron C Hossack, Kyle D Morgan, Christopher J Hansen, Derek A Sutherland, Neville C Luhmann Ultrashort Pulse Reflectometry (USPR) is a plasma diagnostic technique involving the propagation of ultrashort duration (~few nsec) chirps which contain frequency components spanning large portions of the plasma density profile. Upon reflection, each frequency component reflects from a distinct density layer. The reflected wave packet is down-converted and passed through a multi-channel filter bank, with time-of-flight (TOF) measurements made on each of the filtered wave packets. Window and other spurious reflections are gated out using high-speed microwave switches. A highly portable version of this diagnostic is being fabricated for electron density profile measurements on compact, short duration devices such as spheromaks and FRCs. At the heart of the 44 channel system spanning 26.5 to 75 GHz is a field programmable gate array (FPGA) that acquires and processes data collected on each pulsed discharge. Details about the USPR diagnostic, including plasma data collected on the HIT-SIU device, will be presented. |
Follow Us |
Engage
Become an APS Member |
My APS
Renew Membership |
Information for |
About APSThe American Physical Society (APS) is a non-profit membership organization working to advance the knowledge of physics. |
© 2024 American Physical Society
| All rights reserved | Terms of Use
| Contact Us
Headquarters
1 Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740-3844
(301) 209-3200
Editorial Office
100 Motor Pkwy, Suite 110, Hauppauge, NY 11788
(631) 591-4000
Office of Public Affairs
529 14th St NW, Suite 1050, Washington, D.C. 20045-2001
(202) 662-8700