Speaker: Sara Ferry, MIT

Title: “Developing technology for an emerging fusion industry:   R&D for fusion fuel cycles, tritium breeder blankets, and fusion materials at the PSFC”

Abstract: Decades of global work on fusion technology and plasma physics, coupled with a burgeoning private fusion industry, have led to a renewed optimism in the potential of magnetically confined, deuterium-tritium (DT) fueled fusion power plants (FPP). However, to unlock this potential, we must rapidly accelerate development of many of the technologies needed to support a fusion power industry. The central focus of this talk will be on tritium breeding blanket technology. Due to the scarcity of tritium, it is imperative that DT-fueled FPPs breed their own tritium in lithium-containing blankets that surround the plasma. We will discuss the broad challenges associated with developing breeder blankets and fuel cycle systems capable of attaining tritium self-sufficiency in an FPP, as identified by the recently culminated U.S. Fusion Fuel Cycles and Breeding Blankets roadmapping process. These challenges are heightened by the fact that experimental data regarding tritium production and extraction in breeder materials is very limited, but the development timelines of private companies are quite accelerated. Next, the talk will highlight recent results from the tritium breeding research program at the MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center, which is centered on the BABY and LIBRA experimental campaigns. A discussion of PSFC efforts to improve modeling of the fusion fuel cycle will provide larger context for the work on tritium breeding, with a focus on recent efforts to include the effects of tritium trapping in radiation defects. The last part of the talk will include brief overviews of other fusion technology and fusion materials projects my group is tackling, including machine-learning-enabled discovery of high-entropy alloys for service in fusion components; modeling the proliferation risk of ARC-class fusion power plants; development of disruption-tolerant vacuum vessels; optimization of SiC/SiC composites for service in fusion; and combined-effects testing in molten salt/irradiation environments.

Bio: Dr. Ferry is a research scientist and the group leader for fusion materials and components at the MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center. She received her PhD from MIT Nuclear Science and Engineering in 2018 working alongside Prof. Michael Short and Dr. Cody Dennett to adapt transient grating spectroscopy techniques for non-destructive evaluation of radiation damage in nuclear materials. Her work at the PSFC is centered on tritium breeder technology for fusion power plants (with a focus on molten salt liquid immersion blankets), modeling fusion fuel cycles, and the development of advanced high-performance materials for a fusion neutron environment. She co-chaired the U.S. fusion fuel cycles roadmap and the U.S. fusion blankets roadmap (2023-2024), and is the lead organizing author of the U.S. fusion materials roadmap (2024). She serves on the U.S. Fusion Materials Coordinating Committee and is the Systems Study Chair for the U.S. Fusion Prototypic Neutron Source risk reduction activity that is currently underway.

This talk will be offered in a hybrid format. If you wish to participate remotely, please send an email to cr2090@columbia.edu.