A paper by MIT professor Dennis Whyte and others explores academia's role in the development of fusion energy. They cite additional fusion faculty, private industry collaborations, and creative licensing strategies as essential for creating a commercial fusion industry.
MIT PhD candidate Evan Leppink will explore a new way to drive current in a tokamak plasma using radiofrequency (RF) waves, at the DIII-D National Facility in San Diego, thanks to an award from the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR) Program.
MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC) will substantially expand its fusion energy research and education activities under a new five-year agreement with Institute spinout Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS). This new agreement doubles CFS’ financial commitment to PSFC, enabling greater recruitment and support of students, staff, and faculty.
MIT scientists completed one of the most demanding calculations in fusion science: predicting the temperature and density profiles of a magnetically confined plasma via first-principles simulation of plasma turbulence. The researchers used an optimization methodology developed for machine learning to dramatically reduce the CPU time required while maintaining the accuracy of the solution.
Having explored her options at MIT via MISTI assignments and UROPs, Zoe Fisher is focusing on Nuclear Science and Engineering, doing research at the Plasma Science and Fusion Center.