DIII-D in the News

March 10, 2025August 23, 2023 by Lindsay Ward-Kavanagh

DIII-D in the News

The latest advances and achievements at DIII-D

2017_TOCAMAC_Fusion_Chamber_C0096_KS — Press: Scientists Just Uncovered a Major Challenge for Fusion Power – And It’s Not What You’d Expect

NERSCHelicon — Press: Simulation Confirms Method for More Efficient Fusion

KPBS — Media: General Atomics sees an end to the long road toward nuclear fusion

Kolemen_Highlight — FES Science Highlights: AI Tackles Disruptive Tearing Instability in Fusion Plasma (Seo et al.)

IE-200k — Press: US nuclear fusion lab hits 200,000 plasma ‘shots,’ a milestone powering hopes

200k_SDUT — Press: San Diego's General Atomics Passes a Milestone. Can Nuclear Fusion Energy Become a Reality?

GA-200k — Press Release: DIII-D National Fusion Facility Achieves Historic Operational Milestone on the Road to Developing Fusion Energy

Kim_Highlight — FES Science Highlights: Controller with Integrated Machine Learning Tweaks Fusion Plasmas in Real Time (Kim et al.)

Kim-APS-2024 — Press Release: A Novel Path to High Performance Fusion Plasma: Real-Time Adaptive Control

aps-elm-combo-2024 — Press Release: Triple Play: Managing ELMs for Efficient Fusion Energy

snipes-effenberg_APS-DPP_2024 — Press Release: Stopping off-the-wall behavior in fusion reactors

Zhao_Highlight — FES Science Highlights: For Heating Plasma in Fusion Devices, Researchers Unravel How Electrons Respond to Neutral Beam Injection (Zhao and Austin)

Bardoczi_Highlight — FES Science Highlights: In a Fusion Device Plasma, a Steep Ion Temperature Gradient Slows the Growth of Magnetic Islands (Bardoczi et al.)

Ding-Highlight — FES Science Highlights: Ground-Breaking Efforts Overcome an Operational Limit of Tokamaks, Advancing Efforts to Achieve Fusion Energy (Ding et al.)

Nature Family Article: Discovering tungsten-based composites as plasma facing materials for future high-duty cycle nuclear fusion reactors (Marchhart et al.)

Press Release: GA Scientists Achieve Key Requirement for Economic Fusion Energy

Seven men stand in front of computer screens with data — Press: DIII-D gets supercomputing access through the DOE’s high-speed data network

Media: Scientists working on clean energy by recreating the sun in a San Diego lab

A map of CA with orange and white lines connecting hubs denoted by circles — Press Release: DIII-D National Fusion Facility, NERSC, and ESnet Collaboration Speeds Nuclear Fusion Research

Two scientists stand inside a vacuum chamber with a large cylindrical post in the center — Press: Upgrades in place, San Diego’s nuclear fusion facility is back up and running

An engineer in a blue jumpsuit uses tools in a narrow opening inside a vacuum vessel — Press: DIII-D, San Diego’s Nuclear Fusion Lab, is Back Online After Nearly a Year

An engineer in a yellow jumpsuit works on tiles — Press: DIII-D upgrades to shape the future of magnetic fusion energy research

Nature Portfolio Article: Highest fusion performance without harmful edge energy bursts in tokamak (Kim et al.)

InteriorComps-CROP-RESIZE — Press Release: DIII-D National Fusion Facility Completes Upgrade

A person in a green jumpsuit uses a tool inside a vacuum vessel — Press: Overcoming Limits -- Two Seconds of Hope for Fusion Power

An empty vacuum vessel — Press: Nuclear fusion experiment overcomes two key operating hurdles

DingNature — Nature Article: A high-density and high-confinement tokamak plasma regime for fusion energy (Ding et al.)

A female reporter and male scientist on a split screen — Media: Scientists: A.I. Could Help Create Limitless Clean Energy

An arrow points right from a reactor cross-section with a blue plasma cross-section containing an orange ring to a cross-section with the same plasma with a narrow black ring — Press Release: Engineers use AI to wrangle fusion power for the grid

KolemenNature — Nature Article: Avoiding fusion plasma tearing instability with deep reinforcement learning (Seo et al.)

Media: Fusion Reactor Promises Limitless Energy

Tokamak cross-section with the D-shaped plasma facing the center post — FES Science Highlights: Inverting Fusion Plasmas Improves Performance (Nelson et al.)

Graph showing relevance versus flexibility with an arrow pointing to the upper right labeled "DIII-D" — Publication: DIII-D's role as a national user facility in enabling the commercialization of fusion energy (Buttery et al.)

FES Science Highlights: Opening the Magnetic Bottle of a Tokamak Causes Particles to Rush Inward (Logan et al.)

FES Science Highlights: Researchers Visualize Energetic Ion Flow in Fusion Devices (Du et al.)

FES Science Highlights: Islands That Move Together, Disrupt Together (Bardoczi et al.)

Press Release: The Contrarian: Counterintuitive methods improve fusion plasma performance

Diagram showing the D-shape plasma of positive triangularity plasma on the left and reverse D-shape of negative triangularity plasma on the right — Press Release: Flipping Plasma Geometry at DIII-D Demonstrates Stable Pathway to Practical Fusion Energy

Black arrows pointing from left to right to indicate the magnetic field, with a red circle and a blue circle indicating atoms with nuclear spin aligned with the field — Press Release: University-national laboratory collaboration receives DOE Fusion Energy Sciences award to advance spin-polarized fusion at DIII-D, aiming to increase power output by greater than 50%

A man in orange coveralls, gloves, botties and a bonnet works inside the DIII-D vessel — Press Release: DIII-D National Fusion Facility Completes Record-Breaking 1,600-Hour Research Campaign

Color maps of the DIII-D cross-section showing the spatial relationship between perturbations and pressure — FES Science Highlights: Resistance in Walls Can Cause Disruptive Energy Loss (Strauss et al.)

Photographs showing new graphite rods and the same eroded graphite rods after high-temperature plasma exposure — FES Science Highlights: Tokamak Experiments Provide Unique Data for Validating Spacecraft Heat Shield Ablation Models (Orlov et al.)

Schematic of positive and negative triangularity cross-sections — Press Release: DIII-D National Fusion Facility Completes Highest-Powered Negative Triangularity Experiments in History of U.S. Fusion Research Program

Schematic and data for use of a Powder Injection Tube — FES Science Highlights: Blowing Dust to Cool Fusion Plasmas (Effenberg et al.)

A schematic showing off-axis beam injection — Press Release: Taking A New Angle to Boost Plasma Performance in Advanced Tokamaks

The director of DIII-D, Richard Buttery, sits in front of monitors in the control room — Press Release: In Their Own Words: Fusion Researchers Highlight Opportunities at the DIII-D National Fusion Facility

Three data panels supporting successful shattered pellet injection and a panel showing a scientist standing next to the Pellet Injector System — Press Release: Scientists Demonstrate Technique to Protect Fusion Devices from Sudden Energy Loss

An engineer uses a wrench — Press Release: DIII-D National Fusion Facility Adds Capability to Rapidly Test Key Fusion Science

A scientist uses a screwdriver to align components of a diagnostic — FES Science Highlights: Researchers Stick Out Their Necks to Understand How Fusion Plasmas Fuel Up (Rosenthal et al.)

Spectra showing the frequency of edge plasma instabilities according to wave number — FES Science Highlights: Taming the Plasma Edge: Reducing Instabilities in Tokamaks (Burrell et al.)

Experimental and theoretical data for electron orbit paths and electron temperatures — FES Science Highlights: Avoiding Chains of Magnetic Islands May Lead to Fusion Paradise (Bardoczi et al.)

Plotted data points showing the dependence of performance on divertor temperature — FES Science Highlights: For Plasma with a Hot Core and Cool Edges, Super-H Mode Shows Promise (Wilks et al.)

Schematic and photographs of the small angle slot divertor V-closure with a tungsten coating — Press Release: DIII-D Facility Adds Tool to Resolve Heat Handling in Future Fusion Power Plants

A view through a port looking into the vessel shows an operations team member working on DIII-D — Press: Nuclear fusion energy device at General Atomics coming back online

Interested in a behind-the-scenes look at DIII-D? Join us for a virtual OR in-person tour during Fusion Energy Week (May 5-9)! Sign up for a tour here.

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