DOE issues $49 million to shift national lab research toward fusion energy vision

The Department of Energy announced yesterday a total of $49 million in funding for 19 projects in the Foundational Fusion Materials, Nuclear Science, and Technology programs that span functional and structural materials R&D for heating technology, magnet technology, blankets, fuel cycle, and first wall research.

All of the funding is headed to national laboratories in an effort to "reorient" lab-based foundational and basic science research programs to better align with the Office of Fusion Energy Sciences (FES) new "bold decadal vision for commercial fusion energy." Total funding is $49 million for projects lasting up to three years, with $7 million for fiscal year 2024 and outyear funding contingent on congressional appropriations.

"The Fusion Nuclear Science Foundational research program, in enabling research and development and furthering research in fusion nuclear science and fusion materials, is vital to addressing critical scientific gaps foundational to enabling fusion energy," said Jean Paul Allain, the DOE associate director of science for FES.

Projects: Funding for 19 projects selected by competitive peer review went to 10 labs. More information about the awards can be found on the FES homepage.

Argonne National Laboratory

• "Integration of Collisional and Thermal Effects for Predictive Modeling of Plasma-Induced Material Degradation and Dynamics of D/T Retention, Permeation, and Recycling."

Idaho National Laboratory

• "Foundational Research on Tritium Transport Phenomena in Liquid Breeder Blankets."
• "Foundational Research to Support Fusion Systems Safety Assessment."
• "Integrating Advanced Characterization into Modeling and Simulations to Predict Irradiation and Tritium Effects in Fusion Materials."
• "Transformational Research to Enable Reducing Tritium Inventory."

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

• "Critical HTS Magnet Technology to Enable and De-Risk High-Field Compact Fusion Concepts."

Los Alamos National Laboratory

• "Extrapolating the Lifetime of Fusion Materials."
• "A Comprehensive Approach to Fusion Fuel Cycle Readiness: Research, Technology, and Workforce Development."

Oak Ridge National Laboratory

• "Fuel Cycle and Related Enabling Technology Research to Expand Fundamental Knowledge Needed to Proceed to a Fusion Pilot Plant."
• "Development of High-Performance Materials for Enabling Fusion Energy."
• "Advancement of Plasma Material Interactions and Advanced Manufacturing for First Wall and RF Launcher Plasma Facing Components."
• "Foundational Research on Tritium Breeding Blankets and Fusion Nuclear Science."

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

• "Novel Low-Activation DPT-W Composites and Ductile Refractory Multi-Principal-Element Alloys."

Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory

• "High Current Density HTS Cables and High Field Fast Ramp Solenoids in Compact Fusion."

Sandia National Laboratories

• "Understanding the Effect of Radiation on Hydrogen Permeation Barrier Coatings for Blanket Structural Materials."
• "Evaluating the Mechanisms underlying Surface Degradation and Hydrogen Isotope Transport for Next-Generation Fusion Materials Development."

Savannah River National Laboratory

• "Non-Aqueous 2-D Material Based Hydrogen Isotope Separation."
• "Development and De-Risking of Li Electrolysis and CoRExt Process by Flow-Loop Integration."

SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

• "Benchmarking Inter-Atomic Potentials to Enable Accurate Modeling of Fusion Materials."