Oak Ridge National Laboratory(ORNL) has been selected to lead and collaborate on four projects within the U. S. Department of Energy’s FIRE program, focused on advancing critical technologies for fusion energy development. With total funding of $128 million, these developments seek to bridge the gap between scientific research and industrial deployment of fusion reactors.
New fusion energy technologies and materials
One of the projects led by ORNL, SWIFT-PFC, is aimed at the design and validation of materials that withstand direct contact with plasma at high temperatures. These components, known as PFC (plasma-facing components), require exceptional mechanical and thermal properties. This project will integrate advanced simulation, iterative modeling and experimental testing to create a comprehensive workflow to accelerate their development and validation.
The SWIFT-PFC project is complemented by IMPACT, a parallel effort focused on structural materials such as advanced steels and vanadium alloys. Both projects aim to lay the groundwork for a future fusion pilot plant.
The HASTE experimental facility, also under ORNL leadership, will allow the performance of blanket technologies and cooling systems to be tested under realistic conditions. In addition, it will replicate the temperatures, flows and magnetic fields faced by these components inside a fusion reactor.
In addition to evaluating new breeding materials such as FLiBe and lead-lithium alloys, HASTE will contribute to improving the simulation codes used by the scientific and technical community for the design of heat conversion and tritium generation systems.
In collaboration with the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, ORNL is involved in the development of the FILMS system. This project seeks to integrate a liquid lithium-based first wall, blanket and divertor into a continuous cooling and fuel generation system. The interaction of these metallic flows with strong magnetic fields and their thermal behavior will be investigated.
FILMS represents a strategic step towards practical solutions in liquid metal components, considered key to the efficiency and longevity of future reactors.
The fourth project, MiRACL, addresses one of the most critical operational risks in fusion reactors: the abrupt loss of plasma confinement. ORNL will provide simulation tools that combine plasma physics and structural modeling to assess the impact of these events on reactor systems.
The results of MiRACL are expected to help define mitigation and prevention strategies, strengthening the design of future large-scale facilities.
FIRE collaborations bring together universities, national laboratories and industries from around the world. ORNL works with institutions such as MIT, General Atomics, University of Illinois, University of Texas, Savannah River National Lab and Kyoto Fusioneering, among many others.
Source and photo: ORNL
