Scientists look to the stars when it comes to developing clean, virtually limitless energy. Though humanity understands how stars power themselves—nuclei of hydrogen and its isotopes fuse together in extreme conditions, releasing bursts of energy in the process—they have been unable to replicate this massive fusion process on Earth in a way practical for power production.
As part of a Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing (SciDAC) project, a partnership between the US Department of Energy's (DOE's) Advanced Scientific Computing Research Leadership Computing Challenge and Fusion Energy Sciences programs, researchers are using the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility's (OLCF's) Titan supercomputer to try to get closer to producing sustainable fusion for electricity.
The project, led by Brian Wirth, a researcher with the University of Tennessee and DOE's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, brings researchers from various organizations together to work on different aspects of the ITER experimental fusion reactor under construction in southeastern France. An international collaboration, ITER will be by far the largest fusion reactor ever built. Participating countries hope the reactor will serve as proof of concept for future fusion power plants.
"Essentially fusion is the ultimate energy source," Wirth said. "The stars fuse hydrogen isotopes together, and that produces all of the periodic table, and we're trying to replicate that with the fusion program here on Earth."
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