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Fusion energy: Progress, partnerships, and the path to deployment
Over the past decade, fusion energy has moved decisively from scientific aspiration toward a credible pathway to a new energy technology. Thanks to long-term federal support, we have significantly advanced our fundamental understanding of plasma physics—the behavior of the superheated gases at the heart of fusion devices. This knowledge will enable the creation and control of fusion fuel under conditions required for future power plants. Our progress is exemplified by breakthroughs at the National Ignition Facility and the Joint European Torus.
Guillaume L. Giudicelli, Abdalla Abou-Jaoude, April J. Novak, Ahmed Abdelhameed, Paolo Balestra, Lise Charlot, Jun Fang, Bo Feng, Thomas Folk, Ramiro Freile, Thomas Freyman, Derek Gaston, Logan Harbour, Thanh Hua, Wen Jiang, Nicolas Martin, Yinbin Miao, Jason Miller, Isaac Naupa, Dan O’Grady, David Reger, Emily Shemon, Nicolas Stauff, Mauricio Tano, Stefano Terlizzi, Samuel Walker, Cody Permann
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 197 | Number 8 | August 2023 | Pages 2217-2233
Technical papers from: PHYSOR 2022 | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2022.2142440
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
With the next generation of nuclear reactors under development, modeling and simulation tools are being developed by the U.S. Department of Energy to support their design, licensing, and future operation. Mirroring the physical test beds currently under construction (i.e., Demonstration and Operation of Microreactor Experiments, known as DOME, and Laboratory for Operating and Testing in the United States, known as LOTUS), the Virtual Test Bed was launched by the National Reactor Innovation Center in collaboration with the Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NEAMS) program to support the advanced reactor community. This collaborative effort, which involves multiple teams at both Idaho National Laboratory and Argonne National Laboratory, aims to use state-of-the-art simulation tools to model a wide range of reactor designs. These models are automatically tested to ensure their continued functionality as the tools are further developed. Examples are extensively documented, each acting as a tutorial for applying the relevant NEAMS tools to that reactor design. Currently, five advanced reactor types (with a total of 12 specific design subvariants) are simulated by a variety of models. These models range from steady-state, core multiphysics simulations to integrated plant analysis during loss-of-flow transients. To our knowledge, this is the first publicly available library of multiphysics advanced reactor models distributed with extensive documentation and maintained through continuous integration.