BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 CALSCALE:GREGORIAN PRODID:UW-Madison-Physics-Events BEGIN:VEVENT SEQUENCE:3 UID:UW-Physics-Event-9832 DTSTART:20260928T170000Z DTEND:20260928T180000Z DTSTAMP:20260925T030149Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260921T194752Z LOCATION:2241 Chamberlin Hall SUMMARY:Magnetic Fusion Energy research at LLNL\, Plasma Physics (Phys ics/ECE/NE 922) Seminar\, Ben Dudson\, Lawrence Livermore National Lab oratory DESCRIPTION:Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has a leadin g role in the US and world Magnetic Fusion Energy (MFE) program\, addr essing 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 resear ch at the DIII-D National Fusion Facility in San Diego\, at the LTX-be ta and NSTX-U facilities in Princeton NJ\, and on international facili ties. Our theory group works closely with experimental groups to plan and interpret experiments\, with national and international collaborat ors to address gaps in understanding of plasma phenomena\, and increas ingly with private fusion companies to inform the design and operation of future fusion devices. The focus of our research is the boundary b etween hot plasma and material surfaces\, that strongly influences bot h fusion performance and the survival of materials in an extreme envir onment. We work with mathematicians and computer scientists to develop unique fluid and kinetic plasma models that we apply to understand an d predict the turbulent spreading of heat and mixing of hydrogen\, hel ium and heavy impurity species. Active research areas with important i mplications for the program include turbulence self-regulation\; non-M axwellian distributions and their effect on heat transport and atomic reactions\; and control of radiation condensation instabilities. A gr owing theme is the use of AI/ML to accelerate and automate our modelin g tools\, for both design optimization and real-time control e.g. An L LNL team (X.Xu\, B.Zhu\, M.Zhao et al) developed a surrogate model tha t has been deployed in a real-time control system on the KSTAR tokamak in S. Korea.
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\nBiography:
\nBen Dudson is Associate Pr ogram Leader of the Magnetic Fusion Energy (MFE) Theory and Modeling g roup in the LLNL Fusion Energy Sciences Program. He received an MSci i n 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 Tokama k (MAST). Ben’s research interests are in the boundary region and po wer exhaust handling in magnetically confined fusion plasmas\, a criti cal aspect of the design and operation of future devices. To do this h e develops and applies simulation tools to study the interaction of tu rbulent plasmas with neutral gas\, material surfaces and radiating imp urity species. URL:https://www.physics.wisc.edu/events/?id=9832 END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR