Modelling Challenges in Nuclear Fusion

Speaker: Remi Delaporte-Mathurin, CEA France

BPI Seminar Series

Fusion is the process that powers our Sun and the stars. The principle is rather simple: fuse two nuclei together and release energy in the process. This energy can then be used to power a steam turbine and generate electricity like in any power plant. The benefits are enormous: a carbon-free reaction, no long-lived radioactive waste, and a virtually limitless fuel…

Where is the catch? Where are all the nuclear fusion power plants?

The truth is that mastering fusion is extremely difficult. The physical and technological challenges are numerous: the fuel must be heated up to millions of degrees, the reactor components must withstand extreme particle fluxes and heat loads, potentially radioactive material must be handled with care, the very hot fuel must be contained inside the reactor vessel…

In this seminar, we will humbly try to tackle some of these challenges by building a fusion reactor component by component. We will have an overview of the existing and future fusion devices around the world.

This talk is part of the Seminars for the Centre for Environmental and Industrial Flows series.