Sizing up the beast
With help from DOE supercomputers, a USC-led team expands models of the fault system beneath its feet, aiming to predict its outbursts.
Soil sifters
Algorithms and supercomputers help tease out how soil microbes affect global climate.
Beyond the tunnel
Stanford-led team turns to Argonne’s Mira to fine-tune a computational route around aircraft wind-tunnel testing.
Tracking tungsten
Supercomputer simulations provide a snapshot of how plasma reacts with – and can damage – components in large fusion reactors.
Science Highlights
AI and deep learning for fusion
Princeton researchers apply deep learning to a new code, Fusion Recurrent Neural Network (FRNN), to forecast events that disrupt fusion reactions.
Bagel-shaped fusion reactors called tokamaks produce energy of the kind that powers the sun. But massive disruptions can halt fusion reactions and damage the reactors. Princeton University researchers’ Fusion Recurrent Neural Network (FRNN) code harnesses an artificial-intelligence tool called deep-learning to predict disruptive events. Researchers can also use the code to make predictions that could open avenues for active reactor control and optimization. The method, reported in Nature, holds promise for enabling steady-state operation of tokamaks.
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