Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) of the U.S. Department of Energy has been selected to lead two new research collaborations and participate in two additional collaborations under the Fusion Innovation Research Engine (FIRE) program. These projects focus on addressing critical gaps in fusion materials, blanket and coolant technologies, liquid metal components, and reactor modeling and simulation.
The FIRE program is managed by the U.S. Department of Energy's Fusion Energy Sciences program. Through multi-institutional team collaboration, it combines fundamental fusion research with industry needs to provide innovative solutions for real-world fusion challenges. This time, $128 million in funding will be awarded to seven teams dedicated to creating an innovation ecosystem for fusion energy science and technology.
Troy Carter, Director of ORNL's Fusion Energy Division, stated that the new FIRE collaborations give ORNL the opportunity to apply cutting-edge fusion research results, advance practical and mature technologies, pave the way for fusion pilot plants and future development, and demonstrate the depth of the laboratory's fusion energy program and the strong partnerships it has established with various parties.
ORNL's FIRE collaborations cover several important areas:
In the area of fusion materials, plasma-facing components in fusion devices must withstand extreme conditions, and existing materials cannot meet the requirements. The Integrated Fusion Technology Solutions Workflows for Plasma-Facing Components (SWIFT-PFC) and FIRE collaboration project will combine ORNL's materials expertise and advanced modeling capabilities to close the fusion materials gap and design next-generation plasma-facing component (PFC) materials. Over the next four years, the project will create integrated design and evaluation workflows to develop, test, model, and iterate PFC material systems. The relevant materials will be characterized under fusion conditions to validate and improve fusion simulation codes and guide the development of next-generation materials. Zeke Unterberg, Chief Researcher in the Materials Science and Technology Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and leader of fusion materials R&D, said that the project is committed to creating rigorously vetted fusion material systems within an accelerated timeframe, with the goal of developing new fusion PFC paradigms. SWIFT-PFC is a complementary project to the "Integrated Materials Program for Accelerated Chamber Technologies" (IMPACT), led by Steve Zinkle at the University of Tennessee, which will process fusion structural materials and study advanced vanadium alloys and castable nanostructured alloys. SWIFT-PFC is led by ORNL, with co-researchers from multiple universities and national laboratories.
In the area of blanket testing facilities, the first wall and blanket are key components of fusion devices, and there is currently no facility capable of testing coolant and breeder prototypes in an integrated environment. The Blanket Test Facility (BTF) collaboration project plans to build and operate the Helium-Salt Technology Experiment (HASTE) facility, which will replicate the internal environment of a fusion blanket, study flow physics characteristics, improve simulation codes, test tritium breeding and extraction technologies, and provide a test platform for subsystems and components of magnetic and inertial fusion systems. The project will also collaborate with partners in the UK and Japan, utilizing their facilities to supplement research and evaluate material compatibility and corrosion effects. Paul Henriques, Chief Researcher and leader of the Blanket and Fuel Cycle Group at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, said that this collaboration will accelerate the testing of blanket concepts, reduce costs, and speed up innovation in fusion blankets and materials. The BCTF project is led by ORNL, with joint researchers from multiple institutions.
In the area of liquid metal technologies, ORNL is collaborating on a FIRE project led by Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory to advance the maturity of liquid metal plasma-facing materials and first-wall concepts. Liquid metals, especially liquid lithium, are promising candidate materials for future fusion reactors, but there are key scientific and engineering challenges. This collaboration will address these challenges through testing and analysis of components, characterization of material properties, development of new alloys, and validation of models. ORNL will design a fully integrated liquid metal breeding/cooling system (FILMS) and analyze the effects of strong magnetic fields on metal flow, among other things. The Liquid Metal FIRE collaboration is led by PPPL, with ORNL's chief researcher being Sergey Smolentsev.
In the area of mitigating the risk of sudden loss of confinement, ORNL is participating in the "Mitigating the Risk of Abrupt Confinement Loss" (MiRACL) project led by Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. If a reactor-scale magnetically confined fusion facility suddenly loses confinement, it can cause severe damage to components. The MiRACL project will quantify the risks, evaluate avoidance and mitigation technologies, and deploy modeling tools to optimize fusion facility designs. ORNL will use advanced simulation tools and machine learning methods to evaluate disruption mitigation and avoidance technologies. ORNL is collaborating on the MiRACL research with the lead institution PPPL and researchers from multiple universities and companies. ORNL's MiRACL chief researcher is Yashika Ghai.
According to reports, the full list of FIRE collaborating organizations and partner institutions can be found on the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science website. The University of Texas at Battelle manages Oak Ridge National Laboratory on behalf of the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science, which is the largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is committed to addressing the most pressing challenges of our time.
