UKAEA / EPSRC Fusion Grant 2022/27

随着能源需求的增加和气候变化影响的恶化，核聚变提供了丰富、灵活、低碳、基本负荷供应的前景。在接下来的五年里，核聚变进入了一个决定性的时期。ITER——一个约20BnEuro的大型项目，将证明核聚变在商业规模上是可能的——开始运行，而JET——40年来世界上最重要的核聚变设施——停止运行。与此同时，政府和私人投资者正在为核聚变发电厂的设计提供资金，这是应对气候变化的迫切需要。英国政府表示，英国有“应对气候变化的道德责任”，已立法要求到2050年实现“净零”温室气体排放，并承诺通过建立STEP计划，到2040年建造一个原型紧凑型发电厂，“加倍努力成为第一个将聚变能源技术商业化的国家”。英国也参与了欧洲原子能研究计划，仍然是ITER和欧洲聚变演示计划的全面参与者，这是世界上最大的发电厂设计工作，目标是在ITER开始高功率运行20年后实现聚变电力。虽然STEP和DEMO是全面的电厂设计程序，但在没有已知解决方案的情况下，存在相当大的技术不确定性，必须并行克服。该提案将解决这些科学和技术挑战，通过创新使设计更容易、更便宜，减少设计中的不确定性，与其他领域的世界领导者合作，利用适应固有不确定性的数字设计方法，并基于基本理论发展开发强大的新模型。这与正常的开发路径不同，在正常的开发路径中，基础科学在设计进行之前就已经解决了，或者小规模的演示是可能的，因此提出了非常深刻的挑战：面对相当大的不确定性，如何做出稳健的选择？当经验证明过于缓慢和昂贵时，我们如何弥合可行的实验与发电厂内部环境之间的差距？在集成设计的每个学科中，如果没有实验证实的解决方案，我们如何继续进行？该项目将通过多学科研究和创新来应对这些问题，这些研究和创新建立在英国独特的核聚变能力的基础上，目标是在最苛刻的技术挑战中取得根本性进展：a)在长时间内将燃料限制在1.5亿度-我们将领导ITER的JET的最终高功率实验；b)余热排放水平远高于重返大气层航天器的水平——我们将在MAST Upgrade上测试一种新的排气解决方案，并开发新的高性能模型，以弥合从MAST- u到动力装置的差距；c)围绕地球上最强烈的中子源的材料的弹性-我们的材料研究设施将能够检查辐照材料的特性，以测试和开发世界领先的材料行为模型；d)在没有完整的示范工厂的情况下设计、制造和鉴定聚变组件的能力——在工业方面，该计划将针对我们新的聚变技术设施中的新的先进制造技术和测试能力；e)以最小的损失和准确的核算，培育、提取、使用和回收必要的氚库存的解决方案-新的H3AT设施将能够以具有代表性的规模开发和示范氚系统；f)必要的可用性以产生可行的电力成本-我们将为我们的RACE设施中的发电厂开发新的维护解决方案；g)完全“计算机化”设计发电厂的能力，而不是经验论证——一个不断发展的先进计算程序将使我们能够利用百亿亿次计算的优势，弥合从今天的物理到明天的发电厂之间的差距

As energy demand increases and the impacts of climate change worsen, fusion offers the prospect of abundant, agile, low-carbon, baseload supply. During the next five years, fusion reaches a defining period. ITER - a ~20BnEuro megaproject that will demonstrate fusion is possible on a commercial scale - begins operation, whilst JET - for forty years the world's premier fusion facility - ceases operation. In parallel, governments and private investors are funding fusion powerplant design driven by the imperative to address climate change. The UK government stated that the UK has a 'moral responsibility to lead on climate change', having legislated to deliver 'net-zero' greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, committing to "doubling down on our ambition to be the first country to commercialise fusion energy technology" by establishing the STEP programme to build a prototype compact powerplant by 2040. The UK has also associated to the Euratom Research programme, remaining a full participant in ITER and the EUROfusion DEMO programme, the world's largest powerplant design effort, targeting fusion electricity 20 years after ITER begins high power operations. Whilst STEP and DEMO are comprehensive powerplant design programmes, there are considerable technical uncertainties without known solutions that must be overcome in parallel. This proposal will address these science and technology challenges, innovating to make designs easier and cheaper, reducing uncertainties in design, working with world-leaders from other sectors to exploit digital design methods that accommodate inherent uncertainty, and developing powerful new models based on fundamental theoretical developments. This differs from normal development paths - where the underlying science is resolved before the design proceeds or where small-scale demonstrators are possible - and thus presents very deep challenges: How can robust choices be made in the face of considerable uncertainty? How do we bridge the gaps between feasible experiments and the environment inside a powerplant, when empirical demonstrations are too slow and costly? How do we proceed without experimentally substantiated solutions in each discipline of an integrated design? This programme will confront these questions with multi-disciplinary research and innovation that builds on the UK's unique breadth of capability in fusion, targeting fundamental advances in the most demanding technical challenges: a) The confinement of a fuel at 150 million degrees over long timescales - we will lead the final high-power experiments in JET for ITER; b) The exhaust of excess heat at levels well above those experienced by a re-entrant spacecraft - we will test a novel exhaust solution on MAST Upgrade and develop new high-performance models to bridge the gap from MAST-U to a powerplant; c) The resilience of materials which will surround the most intense neutron source on Earth - our Materials Research Facility will enable examination of irradiated materials properties to test and develop world-leading models of materials behaviour; d) The ability to design, manufacture and qualify fusion components without a full demonstrator plant - with industry, this programme will target new advanced manufacturing techniques and testing capabilities in our new Fusion Technology Facilities; e) A solution to breed, extract, use and recycle the necessary inventory of tritium with minimal loss and accurate accounting - the new H3AT facility will enable development and demonstration of tritium systems at a representative scale; f) The requisite availability to produce a viable cost of electricity - we will develop novel maintenance solutions for powerplants in our RACE facility; and, g) The ability to design a power plant fully 'in silico' in lieu of empirical demonstration - a growing advanced computing programme will allow us to exploit the benefits of exascale computing to bridge the gap from today's physics to tomorrows powerplants