Ezekial “Zeke” Unterberg (left) and Chuck Kessel (right) check the helium flow loop experiment that is part of the lab’s LDRD fusion initiative for FY 2022.
Drawing talent from fission, fusion, and materials science, a team led by FFESD is exploring research that they hope will help advance the forefront of fusion energy.
“Essentially, we’re hoping that this research will help position the lab as the host of the first U.S. fusion pilot plant,” said Ezekial “Zeke” Unterberg, Group Leader of Power Exhaust and Particle Control in the Fusion Energy Division.
The project, the Validated Design & Evaluation of Fusion Wall Components Initiative, is one of seven initiatives funded in FY 2022 by the Director’s R&D Fund as part of ORNL’s Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD).
"Each year the lab provides funds to explore what some researchers refer to as moon shots," said Kathy McCarthy, Associate Laboratory Director of the Fusion and Fission Energy and Science Directorate. "This research preparing ORNL to host a fusion energy pilot plant is one of those high-risk, high-reward projects."
The challenge the researchers aim to solve is the ability to predict and control phenomena around the interface of the fusion plasma and its containment wall.
“Some characterize this as the most critical thing to solve in order to make fusion energy possible,” Unterberg said.
Six teams from across FFESD, as well as materials scientists from the Physical Sciences Directorate, are tackling different projects as part of the LDRD fusion initiative.
“My team is taking the optimization software tool that we designed for the nuclear energy industry and applying it to specific areas where optimalization problems pop up in the design of fusion technology,” said William “Will” Gurecky, a researcher in the Power Reactor Modeling Group in the Nuclear Energy Fuel Cycle Division. “It’s an example of how we can take our expertise from fission and use it to advance fusion.”
