Materials Selection and Manufacturing Pathways for the ARC Fusion Power Plant
Abstract: Producing net fusion energy has been an unsolved technical challenge for the last 70 years. However, recent technological innovation has dramatically increased the feasibility of fusion energy being demonstrated in the next decade. Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) is pursuing a high field path to commercial fusion deployment using new high temperature superconducting magnets. CFS plans to deploy the ARC fusion power plant as the first grid-scale fusion power solution in the early 2030s. While CFS will retire significant technical risk through the demonstration and operation of the SPARC device, open questions in some technical areas will require parallel research and development efforts. Selecting and qualifying materials for use in the coupled extremes present in high-capacity fusion devices, as well as identifying scalable manufacturing pathways suitable for complex topologies and multi-material joining, are a major component of these ongoing R&D efforts. In this talk, we will first explore the CFS approach to commercial fusion energy through the use of high-field, compact, superconducting tokamaks. An overview of the technical history of the high-field approach will be provided, the culmination of which is SPARC, currently under construction at CFS’s headquarters in Devens, MA. A conceptual design of ARC will be presented, focusing on the technical challenges of moving beyond physics demonstration to commercial energy, particularly with respect to materials and manufacturing technologies. By designing ARC to have replaceable core internal components, some materials selection may be postponed until relatively late in the design process, and future learning for materials optimization on operating ARC power plants becomes possible. Ongoing R&D efforts into several technical areas including the evaluation of radiation lifetime and advanced manufacturing technologies will be described.
Biography: Dr. Cody A. Dennett is the R&D lead for fusion materials at Commonwealth Fusion Systems. He manages a group of materials scientists and engineers on projects targeted towards the ARC power plant and those focused on the engineering needs of SPARC, CFS’s compact demonstration tokamak. Prior to CFS, Cody was a distinguished postdoctoral fellow and staff scientist in the condensed matter and materials physics group at Idaho National Laboratory. Cody received his BS in engineering physics from Cornell University, his SM in materials science and engineering from MIT, and his PhD in nuclear science and engineering from MIT.
Media Contact: Bethany Illig