Capability in Theory, Modeling, and Validation for a Range of Innovative Fusion Concepts Using High-Fidelity Moment-Kinetic Models
Critical Need:
Project Innovation + Advantages:
As fusion machines move toward a burning-plasma regime, liquid first walls and blankets may be needed to handle first‑wall heat-flux, reduce erosion, and eventually to convert energy and generate tritium fuel. Repetitively pulsed fusion designs may require extreme electrode survivability, where the electrode may be solid, liquid, or a combination of both. It is critical to address how plasma dynamics in the fusion plasma will couple with both liquid-metal and electrode-material dynamics for fusion energy to become realizable. This Capability Team will use fluid and reduced kinetics, including building on its existing open-source simulation technology, Gkeyll, and a multi-phase, incompressible magnetohydrodynamic model, to study liquid- and solid-wall dynamics in the presence of fusion plasma and to experimentally validate aspects of the modeling tools. The team will perform high-fidelity kinetic plasma simulations that can account for complex plasma-wall interactions to support the development of multiple lower-cost fusion concepts.
Potential Impact:
Accelerating and lowering the costs of fusion development and eventual deployment will enable fusion energy to contribute to:
Security:
Environment:
Fusion energy will improve our chances of meeting growing global clean-energy demand and realizing cost-effective, net-zero carbon emissions, while minimizing pollution and avoiding long-lived radioactive waste.