As we approach the era of burning plasmas, the computation and data challenges in the field will become much larger. In order to support the next step of fusion data analysis, we have been started the construction of an Integrated Research Infrastructure (IRI) that seamlessly integrated data from larg-scale experimental facilities like the DIII-D National User Facility with powerful computing resources that will help researchers keep pace with the ever-increasing influx of scientific data. This work is a large collaboration between scientists at General Atomics, Columbia University, Argonne National Laboratory, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, with additional contributions from many others. The goal of this framework is to empower researchers with world-class physics models, modern engineering tools, continuous data access and HPC resources to radically accelerate discovery and innovation in fusion pilot plant design.

The DIII-D Superfacility Team.

At DIII-D, we’ve optimized and connected several novel workflows to high-performance computing (HPC) centers with extensive computational resources. These workflows allow scientists to conduct analyses that would typically take hours or days to complete in just a few minutes, with the goal of eventually being able to make these workflows fast enough to inform the control room operators between DIII-D pulses (~20 minutes). During the summer of 2024, I ran several of these predictive and interpretive models during a week-long experiment examining access to Super-H mode on DIII-D and was able to provide stability-based insight into experimental decisions, which had never been done before.

These facilities also allow for more comprehensive studies of fusion physics and tokamak design by coupling large empirical databases with automated analysis codes in order to produce complex data-driven descriptions of the entire tokamak. By coupling relevant plasma physics that is coupled with systems engineering codes (describing phenomena such as neutron fluxes, material tolerances and tritium breeding, etc.) to complete a full-device model of the tokamak, we can begin to approach the simulation capabilities needed to design and optimize the next generation of fusion machines.

Bringing together scientists from numerous facilities, this work has been featured in the news several times, including articles such as:

• DIII-D gets supercomputing access through the DOE’s high-speed data network
• Bringing supercomputers and experiments together to accelerate discoveries
• DIII-D National Fusion Facility, NERSC, AMCR, and ESnet Collaboration Speeds Nuclear Fusion Research

Selected publications on this subject:

Several additional publications on this subject are currently under review and will be posted here soon. Stay tuned!

Accelerating Discoveries at DIII-D With the Integrated Research Infrastructure
Bechtel Amara, T., Smith, S. P., Xing, Z. A., Neiser, T. F., Simpson, C., Nelson, A. O., Denk, S., Colmenares, J., DeShazer, E., Antepara, O., Deshpande, A., Clark, M., Lestz, J., Tyler, N., Ding, P., Kostuk, M., Dart, E. Nazikian, R., Osborne, T., Williams, S., Uram, T. & Schissel, D. A. Frontiers of Physics, in press (2024).

Accelerated Workflow for Advanced Kinetic Equilibria
Bechtel Amara, T., Nelson, A. O., Lao, L. L., Xing, Z. A., Smith, S. P., Nazikian, R., Flanagan, S., Schissel, D., Stephey, L., Thomas, R., Williams, S., Antepara, O., Dart, E., Koleman, E. & Tang, W., Proceedings of the First Combined International Workshop on Interactive Urgent Supercomputing CIW-IUS, 1-5 (2022).