Plasma Physics (Physics/ECE/NE 922) Seminars |
Events on Monday, September 28th, 2026
- Magnetic Fusion Energy research at LLNL
- Time: 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
- Place: 2241 Chamberlin Hall
- Speaker: Ben Dudson, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
- Abstract: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has a leading role in the US and world Magnetic Fusion Energy (MFE) program, addressing critical issues facing the tokamak, stellarator, and magnetic mirror approaches to fusion energy production. The LLNL Fusion Energy Sciences Program leads diagnostic development and experimental research at the DIII-D National Fusion Facility in San Diego, at the LTX-beta and NSTX-U facilities in Princeton NJ, and on international facilities. Our theory group works closely with experimental groups to plan and interpret experiments, with national and international collaborators to address gaps in understanding of plasma phenomena, and increasingly with private fusion companies to inform the design and operation of future fusion devices. The focus of our research is the boundary between hot plasma and material surfaces, that strongly influences both fusion performance and the survival of materials in an extreme environment. We work with mathematicians and computer scientists to develop unique fluid and kinetic plasma models that we apply to understand and predict the turbulent spreading of heat and mixing of hydrogen, helium and heavy impurity species. Active research areas with important implications for the program include turbulence self-regulation; non-Maxwellian distributions and their effect on heat transport and atomic reactions; and control of radiation condensation instabilities. A growing theme is the use of AI/ML to accelerate and automate our modeling tools, for both design optimization and real-time control e.g. An LLNL team (X.Xu, B.Zhu, M.Zhao et al) developed a surrogate model that has been deployed in a real-time control system on the KSTAR tokamak in S. Korea.
Biography:
Ben Dudson is Associate Program Leader of the Magnetic Fusion Energy (MFE) Theory and Modeling group in the LLNL Fusion Energy Sciences Program. He received an MSci in Physics from Imperial College in 2003, and DPhil in Plasma Physics from the University of Oxford and UKAEA Culham in 2008, for which he performed simulations and experiments on the Mega-Amp Spherical Tokamak (MAST). Ben’s research interests are in the boundary region and power exhaust handling in magnetically confined fusion plasmas, a critical aspect of the design and operation of future devices. To do this he develops and applies simulation tools to study the interaction of turbulent plasmas with neutral gas, material surfaces and radiating impurity species. - Host: Vladimir Zhdankin