The Department of Energy has selected nine projects to receive $16 million in funding to conduct small-scale research experiments on the DIII-D National Fusion Facility, an Office of Science scientific user facility operated by General Atomics.
DOE said Wednesday the selected technology projects will develop new systems on the DIII-D tokamak and advance collaborative research to establish the scientific foundation for developing a fusion energy source.
“While establishing the scientific basis for fusion energy, we must also improve the maturity of existing fusion technologies and explore entirely new innovations that have the potential to revolutionize the fusion landscape,” said Jean Paul Allain, associate director of the Office of Science for Fusion Energy Sciences.
The projects will strive to assess and improve the technical maturity of plasma actuators, provide tools and algorithms to sustain high fusion performance, resolve key plasma transport issues, improve access to burning plasma regimes and optimize the fusion reaction process.
The awardees were selected by competitive peer review under the Innovative Fusion Technology and Collaborative Fusion Energy Research in the DIII-D National Program funding opportunity announcement released in January.