Things You Gotta Know
Princeton and PPPL Researchers Debut PACMAN, an AI Framework That Controls Fusion Plasma in Milliseconds
Researchers at the US Department of Energy’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and Princeton University tested a new AI framework called PACMAN across five experiments on the DIII-D National Fusion Facility tokamak in San Diego. The system links multiple machine learning models that read real-time plasma measurements and issue control commands in about 20 milliseconds. That is far faster than a human operator, who typically responds on the order of seconds. Across the five experiments, PACMAN let a reinforcement learning model take full control of the tokamak’s heating systems. The framework also predicted sudden bursts of energy from the plasma’s edge and detected and controlled waves driven by fast particles. It further adjusted plasma density and rotation to research targets, and it predicted a damaging instability called a tearing mode roughly 200 milliseconds before it would have occurred, giving operators time to adjust the plasma and avoid it. Each model and controller works independently, which the researchers say can be added without disturbing the rest of the system. The modular framework could extend to other tokamaks.
RTX Partners With and Invests in Xcimer Energy to Develop Advanced Directed Energy Technology
RTX Ventures, the venture capital arm of RTX, made a minority investment in laser fusion company Xcimer Energy to support development of scalable multi-kilojoule-class pulsed-laser technologies. RTX and Xcimer also signed a teaming agreement to explore integrating and containerizing Xcimer’s pulsed-laser technology into RTX’s defense systems, aimed at giving the US military new directed energy capabilities to defeat airborne threats. The companies say the core engineering challenge is shared across laser fusion and laser defense: building a laser that fires repeatedly and reliably at a low cost per joule while remaining mass-manufacturable, maintainable, and energy efficient. RTX’s investment builds on Xcimer’s laser fusion roadmap, which the US Department of Energy approved in June under its Milestone-Based Fusion Development Program.
Fusion Industry Association Gives Evidence to UK Parliament on National Policy Statement for Fusion Energy Generation
Fusion Industry Association UK Director Tris Denton gave evidence to Parliament’s Energy Security and Net Zero Select Committee as part of its inquiry into the National Policy Statement for fusion energy generation, known as NPS EN-8, which is intended to streamline the planning process and provide clarity for fusion power plants in the UK. The committee session covered power plant planning, regulation, commercial timelines, and supply chains as the UK moves toward deployment. The hearing leads into UK Fusion Week, where the FIA will join the Global Fusion Policy Summit hosted by the US Department of Energy and the UK Department for Energy Security and Net Zero on September 14 to discuss international collaboration on fusion commercialization.
Thea Energy Publishes Preconceptual Design For A Stellarator Commercial Fusion Energy Power Plant
According to the company, Helios is designed to deliver approximately 400 MW of electrical power to the grid using software-controlled planar magnet coils, a tokamak-like X-point divertor, and a sector-based maintenance scheme, with an 8 m major radius, a maximum coil field of 20 T, a capacity factor of over 85%, and a 40-plus year system lifetime. The Helios preconceptual design milestone was previously certified by the DOE under the Milestone-Based Fusion Development Program, and Thea says it is on track to operate Helios in the 2030s following Eos, its first large-scale integrated stellarator. Moving stellarator complexity from twisted 3D magnets into software makes Helios one of the more interesting commercial stellarator concepts to date.
