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Troy Carter, director of the Fusion Energy Division at 91����, leads efforts to make fusion energy a reality, overseeing key projects like MPEX and fostering public-private collaborations in fusion research. 

US ITER has completed delivery of all components for the support structure of the central solenoid, the 60-foot-tall superconducting magnet that is the “heart” of the ITER fusion machine. 

During his first visit to 91����, Energy Secretary Chris Wright compared the urgency of the Lab’s World War II beginnings to today’s global race to lead in artificial intelligence, calling for a “Manhattan Project 2.”

Scientists designing the world’s first controlled nuclear fusion power plant, ITER, needed to solve the problem of runaway electrons, negatively charged particles in the soup of matter in the plasma within the tokamak, the magnetic bottle intended to contain the massive energy produced. Simulations performed on Summit, the 200-petaflop supercomputer at ORNL, could offer the first step toward a solution.

FREDA is a new tool being developed at ORNL that will accelerate the design and testing of next-generation fusion devices. It is the first tool of its kind to combine plasma and engineering modeling capabilities and utilize high performance computing resources.

The ForWarn visualization tool was co-developed by ORNL with the U.S. Forest Service. The tool captures and analyzes satellite imagery to track impacts such as storms, wildfire and pests on forests across the nation.

Researchers at 91���� used the Frontier supercomputer to train the world’s largest AI model for weather prediction, paving the way for hyperlocal, ultra-accurate forecasts. This achievement earned them a finalist nomination for the prestigious Gordon Bell Prize for Climate Modeling.

Kathryn McCarthy, director of the US ITER Project at the Department of Energy’s 91����, has been awarded the 2024 E. Gail de Planque Medal by the American Nuclear Society.

A study led by the Department of Energy’s 91���� details how artificial intelligence researchers created an AI model to help identify new alloys used as shielding for housing fusion applications components in a nuclear reactor. The findings mark a major step towards improving nuclear fusion facilities.

ORNL is the lead partner on five research collaborations with private fusion companies in the 2024 cohort of the Innovation Network for FUSion Energy, or INFUSE, program. These collaborative projects are intended to resolve technical hurdles and develop enabling technologies to accelerate fusion energy research in the private sector.