FPN17-12
FESAC Fusion Study Begins
March 24, 2017
A study was requested in a January 30, 2017 letter from Acting Director
of the DOE Office of Science J. Stephen Binkley to its Fusion Energy
Sciences Advisory Committee (FESAC) chair Don Rej (drej@lanl.gov) of the
Los Alamos National Laboratory. The letter states in part, "I am asking
FESAC to identify the most promising transformative enabling
capabilities for the U.S. to pursue that could promote efficient advance
towards fusion energy, building on burning plasma science and
technology. Your considerations should be broad, addressing advances
that may occur in areas of engineering, technology and science."
A subcommittee to carry out the study has been formed, with Rajesh
Maingi (PPPL) as chair and Arnie Lumsdaine (ORNL) as vice-chair.
TEC subcommittee members are:
- JP Allain (U. Illinois)
- Luis Chacon (LANL)
- Doug Crawford (ORNL)
- Paul Fessler (DTE Energy)
- Steve Gourlay (LBNL)
- Chuck Greenfield (GA)*
- Bill Heidbrink (UC-I)
- Jerry Hughes (MIT)
- David Humphreys (GA)
- Val Izzo (UCSD)*
- Arnold Lumsdaine (ORNL)**
- Rajesh Maingi (PPPL)*
- Harry McLean (LLNL)
- Jon Menard (PPPL)
- Brad Merrill (INL)
- Oliver Schmitz (U. Wisconsin),
- Chris Spadaccini (LLNL)
- Zhehui (Jeff) Wang (LANL)
- Brian Wirth (UTK)*
- Anne White (MIT)
The subcommittee is being organized into three sub-groups:
- Plasma diagnostics and control (Physics and computation)
- Exascale computing
- Novel measurements
- Machine learning and artificial intelligence
- High-temperature superconductors
- Plasma materials interaction (Material science and engineering)
- Exascale computing
- Liquid metals (as first wall)
- Novel measurements
- Additive manufacturing – PFCs, IC
- Materials by design – PFCs, IC
- Reactor and balance of plant (Mechanical, electrical, and nuclear engineering)
- Safety, licensing, and tritium handling
- Energy conversion and storage
- Liquid metals (as coolant, breeder)
- Divertor and blanket concepts
The first telecom with the sub-group leads occurred on March 22, and our
first full subcommittee telecom is scheduled for March 29. Future
activities include scheduling a workshop sometime in May, June, or July
(depending on subcommittee schedules) with other members of the
community to provide input on the Transformative Enabling Capabilities
to the subcommittee. It is expected that this workshop take
approximately four days, assuming significant community involvement, and
will likely be either in the Washington, DC area, or Princeton, NJ.
Workshop dates and venue will be announced soon.
A report is expected by October 1, 2017.