Optimal operation technologies for fusion reactors

Optimal operation technologies for fusion reactors

Achieving optimal operation for fusion reactors by utilizing the IOWN as well as AI and ML technologies

Current research

"Optimal operation technologies for fusion reactors" enables optimal operation of fusion reactors by utilizing the "Innovative Optical and Wireless Network" (IOWN) as well as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) for high-speed control of fusion plasma with temperatures above 100-million degrees.

To create a sustainable society, NTT Space Environment and Energy Laboratories aims to establish technologies for fusion reactors, which are a next-generation energy source with low environmental impact.

Control of fusion plasma is one of the main challenges facing realization of high-power and long-pulse operation of fusion reactors. In previous research on plasma control, nuclear fusion researchers have studied a plasma-control method that analyzes the plasma state on the basis of physical laws from measured data and controls the plasma on the basis of the analysis results. We are further researching the stabilization of fusion plasma by utilizing AI/ML to rapidly calculate the future plasma state and control it in real time on the basis of the calculation results. Combining equipment-failure-prediction technology and high-speed data-transfer technology, we aim to optimize operations by simulating not only the fusion plasma but also the entire fusion reactor in cyberspace by digital-twin computing.

Currently, we have concluded cooperative agreements with the Quantum Science and Technology Agency (QST) and the ITER Organization with the aim of introducing advanced technologies at JT-60SA, the biggest experimental tokamak to date in Naka-shi, Ibaraki, Japan (scheduled to start operation in 2023) and at ITER, an experimental fusion reactor under construction in Saint-Paul-les-Durance, France (scheduled to start deuterium-tritium (DT) fusion operation in 2035). We hope that these cooperative efforts will contribute to the realization of fusion reactors in the second half of this century.

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