Capabilities

SNL may be interested in partnerships in the following areas:

• Application of Z ICF experimental data, expertise, and capabilities towards
  • IFE target point designs
  • Development of data analysis techniques
  • Interpretation of experimental results
• Development of magnetically driven and/or magneto-inertial fusion targets
• Advanced pulsed power technologies (for single-shot or high-repetition rate)
• Diagnostics for high yield environments
• Operations concepts for handling high yield environments
• Materials for fusion energy research (e.g., “first wall”)
• Commercial applications of supercritical CO2 Brayton Power Cycle technologies
• Hybrid fusion-fission technologies for nuclear waste transmutation

LANL capabilities for partnerships in fusion energy:

• Inertial Fusion Energy target design
  • Indirect drive, Direct drive, Liquid layers, and fast ignition
• Inertial fusion nuclear diagnostics
  • Design, fabrication, implementation
• Laser plasma instabilities assessments and mitigation including cross beam effects
• Hydrodynamic stability of inertial fusion target implosions
• Particle beam generation with short pulse lasers for fasti ignition
• Fusion Energy materials for pilot plant
• Tritium system design and component evaluation
• Target engineering
  • Design, assembly, and metrology

SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory is interested in partnering to develop IFE-relevant capabilities in the following areas:

• Fusion Power Plant Design
  • Quantification of requirements, system-level tradeoffs, road-mapping, and integrated design approaches for fusion power plants and precursor prototype facilities, taking advantage of substantial in-house expertise in similar scale (multi-B$) facilities and specific knowledge of prior fusion designs.
• Laser Plasma Experiments
  • Access to the unique scientific capabilities of the LCLS X-ray Free Electron Laser (XFEL) facility and the ultrafast electron diffraction instrument (MeV-UED), including precision diagnosis of the response of IFE target materials in regimes of interest (solid phase, warm dense matter, plasma).
  • Partnering in the design, execution, and interpretation of fusion-relevant experiments at national and international laser/plasma facilities.
• Technology
  • Development and testing of high average power and high peak power laser systems operating at IFE-relevant repetition rates, taking advantage of the systems being designed for the MEC-Upgrade project in collaboration with LLNL and LLE: (i) 10 Hz, multi-ns, multi-kW beamlines, (ii) 10 Hz, PW short pulse, (iii) multi-kJ beamlines.
  • Laser-plasma diagnostics and target systems for operation at multi-Hz repetition rates (as needed for both IFE development and the MEC-Upgrade).
  • Engineering and integration of these laser, diagnostics, and target systems into an experimental facility.
• Fusion Materials
  • Development of novel approaches to directly measure the instantaneous atomistic response of IFE/MFE first wall materials and structural materials to bombardment by intense particle beams, to complement traditional methods of materials assay.
• Theory / Modeling
  • Development and application of advanced numerical models (e.g. relativistic PIC codes) to design and interpret laser-plasma experiments, and assess a wide range of fusion target designs.
  • Machine learning and artificial intelligence to connect simulations, experimental data analysis, and data handling, and later to enable precision control of IFE power plants.

LLE Capabilities as potential IFE Collaboration Opportunities:

The Laboratory for Laser Energetics is an academic organization running two large laser systems for the Department of Energy/National Nuclear Security Administration.  These lasers conduct 2100 experiments per year, support 100+ users with 150 different diagnostics fieldable on the lasers.  In pursuing direct drive fusion, LLE conducts 50 cryogenic implosions per year on the 30-TW, 30-kJ, 60-beam Omega facility.  The OMEGA EP facility also has a 1-PW short pulse laser.  Contact and user information can be found at:   https://www.lle.rochester.edu/

LLE is a vertically integrated organization with 450 staff, including research scientists and engineers, plus 100 students.  Our focus is to achieve our missions in Inertial Confinement Fusion, advanced solid state lasers , High Energy Density Physics, and education, we routinely exercise the necessary capabilities to include:

• Advanced x-ray, optical  and neutron diagnostic development, implementation and analysis with a focus on quantitiative 3D measurements
• All aspects of Cryogenic target handling and fielding, characterization for implosion experiments
• Tritium Systems and Purification
• Advanced laser technologies (architectures, components, advanced materials, performance characterization, pulses from femtoseconds to multiple nanoseconds)
• Laser coatings (up to 74-inch coater)  plus damage threshold testing/metrology
• Target fabrication R&D including advanced diagnostics and foams
• Target manufacture, metrology and fielding (typically 2400 per year)
• Laser Plasma Interaction simulation and experiments including novel diagnostics
• 1-, 2- and 3-D implosion simulation including  laser ray tracing and Statistical and machine learning methods for optimization of fusion implosions  
• Modeling, simulations, and experiments of fundamental physical properties important for ICF/HEDP research (equation of state, radiation physics, energy transport)
• Magnetized target physics with independent magnetic  field generation (>40 Tesla)
• System Design of complex laser ICF/HEDP facilities
• Rigorous integrated operations with a focus on safety, efficiency and flexibility
• User Support Office and 200-member user group

ORNL capabilities for fusion power plant partnerships:

Nuclear Science & Technology

• World leading neutron science irradiation facilities
  • Spallation Neutron Source (SNS)
  • High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR)
• Fission energy expertise in next generation fission reactors and facilities
  • Transformational Challenge Reactor Program
  • Molten salt reactor technology
  • Collaborations with private sector companies
• Radiation transport and neutronics expertise<
  • Shutdown dose rate calculations
  • Facility mapping
• Systems engineering

Materials Science and Technology

• Material Corrosion testing
  • Molten Salts (FLiBe, FLiNaK, NaCl-MgCl2)
  • Liquid Metals (Pb-Li, Pb, Li, Sn)
• Plasma facing and structural material testing
  • MPEX device to study material interactions with fusion relevant plasmas
  • Irradiated material testing
• Activated materials characterization
  • Low Activation Material Development and Analysis Laboratory (LAMDA)
  • Irradiated Materials Examination and Test Facility (IMET)

Fusion Science and Technology

• Fuel cycle and blanket technology
  • Steady State DT solid pellet fueling technology (Tokomak and Stellerator fueling)
  • DT fuel recirculation
  • Cryogenic systems
  • Breeder blanket materials
  • Helium cooling Strategies for Blankets
• Reactor particle exhaust and separation
• Power handling technology
• Hot cell and remote handling technology
• Magnet and cable technology
• Diagnostics and sensors

Modelling and Simulations

• Whole-Device modelling capability for FPP
• Fusion Energy Reactor Models Intergrator (FERMI)
• Plasma Physics
• Radiation transport and Neutronics
• Thermo-Mechanical, CFD, Liquid metal, multi-physics analysis
• Tritium Migration and Permeation

• laser/plasma interactions including modeling in long pulse systems and experiments in short pulse systems
• Design of integrated fusion pilot plants
• plasma/material interactions and interfaces
• Blankets and liquid walls
• ion-beam-driven fusion energy
• plasma source development for IFE applications including ion beam neutralization
• particle beam simulation and modeling with commercial and in-house-developed codes, including PIC codes
• particle-beam/plasma interaction and instabilities
• plasma diagnostics including microwave, RF, optical, laser, and probes
• X-ray diagnostics
• AI/ML techniques for simulations, data analysis, and controls
• Laser-driven proton acceleration and diagnostics including fast ignition applications 
• Warm dense matter physics, including proton stopping
• Laser-plasma kinetic PIC and MHD simulation 
• Magnetized HEDP theory and experiment