MIFTI Fusion has expanded its collaboration with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). Building on our existing Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) focused on neutron diagnostics, LLNL will now also support particle-in-cell (PIC) modeling of alpha particles under a new Strategic Partnership Project (SPP) agreement.
The neutron diagnostics work supports our planned experimental campaign at the upcoming 7 MA Quad Eagle pulsed power driver, where our neutron diagnostics team will work with LLNL to measure neutron yields and spectra. Accurate measurements accounting for neutron emission, absorption, and scattering are essential to evaluating fusion performance as well as benchmarking the simulations used to guide future developments.
Under the new SPP, LLNL will use particle-in-cell simulations to track alpha particles through an imploding and stagnating staged Z-pinch and quantify how their energy is deposited in the fuel and liner. Because alpha heating is a mechanism by which a fusion plasma could sustain itself, this modeling is a key input for future power plant design.
Home to the National Ignition Facility (NIF), the first experiment to achieve scientific breakeven in fusion, LLNL brings some of the world’s leading fusion scientists and deep experience across fusion experiments, theory, diagnostics, and simulations. Fusion energy partnerships at LLNL are managed by the Livermore Institute for Fusion Technology (LIFT). This expanded partnership with LLNL augments our existing research collaborations with the Center for Energy Research at UC San Diego and the FLASH Center for Computational Science at the University of Rochester.
MIFTI Fusion scientists executed a number of campaigns at the 3.5 MA Double Eagle pulsed-power driver to test the staged Z-pinch approach to fusion at high energies and currents.
These experiments represented an important step beyond university-scale pulsed-power machines, delivering significantly higher energy and current. Across multiple campaigns using argon and krypton liners on a deuterium target, we found a remarkably stable pinch and neutron yields greater than 10¹¹. The results were in broad agreement with predictions from simulations using the radiative hydrodynamic codes MACH2 and FLASH.
This research was published in Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion.
MIFTI Fusion was highlighted in an article by UC Irvine’s Beall Applied Innovation on startups that originated in the UC Irvine ecosystem.
A number of Orange County startups have originated at UC Irvine, and Beall Applied Innovation has helped many of these companies get off the ground. In this article, they discuss the origin and potential impact of MIFTI Fusion, as well as its connection to the UC Irvine community.
MIFTI Fusion CEO Mihir Worah, along with advisors Michael Campbell and Farhat Beg, published an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times highlighting the need for a coherent national fusion strategy and suggesting concrete ways to achieve this.
A lot of the academic, public-sector, and private-sector progress in fusion has taken place in the United States. However, other countries are beginning to catch up, not least because of well-thought-out national strategies. In this op-ed, we suggest concrete measures that would allow the U.S. to stay ahead in this crucial area of future energy security.
