Scientists get another step closer towards developing usable fusion energy thanks to Cori, the newest and most powerful supercomputer at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Stephen Jardin, a principal research physicist and head of the Computational Plasma Physics Group at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) has led previous studies involving plasma breakdowns.





Through the 2018 ASCR Leadership Computing Challenge (ALCC), Jardin and colleagues have won 40 million core hours of supercomputer time to be spent simulating various plasma disruptions that are powerful enough to stop fusion reactions and damage the facilities. This will enable them to learn how to stop them should the need ever arise.

“Our objective is to model development of the entire disruption from stability to completion of the event,” explains Jardin. “Our software can now simulate the full sequence of an ITER disruption, which could not be done before.”

Fusion power is what drives both the sun and the stars and is what fuses light into the hot charged state of matter we refer to as plasma. And it’s this insane burst of energy that scientists are so desperate to replicate in order to produce a source of unlimited, free energy.





The 40 million core hours awarded to Jardin and colleagues will enable the group to carry out simulations and complex calculations over a period of a few weeks that would have otherwise taken thousands of years to complete on a standard computer. They will also look at strategies for the migration of ITER disruptions as part of the project.

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