Hot & cool: tackling the Fusion grand challenge with AI and HPC

Speaker 

Lorenzo Zanisi from UK Atomic Energy Authority 

Seminar

Hot & cool: tackling the Fusion grand challenge with AI and HPC

Fusion holds the promise to deliver carbon free, almost limitless amounts of energy to power our world. A promising avenue to achieve Fusion is the Tokamak, a doughnut-shaped machine where plasma, a quasi-neutral ionised gas, is confined by means of magnetic fields. The UK has the ambition to deliver the Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production (STEP) by 2040 - this will be a fully working Fusion power plant. A number hurdles still need to be overcome on the way to making Fusion a reality. However, we now have access to some powerful tools unavailable to the scientists and engineers of the past: modern AI and exascale HPC solutions may just finally unlock commercial Fusion power. In this talk I will introduce some of the challenges that are unique to Fusion, and will showcase how these are approached with a holistic view at the UK Atomic Energy Authority. I will then take a dive into our efforts within the Advanced Computing Department to tame Fusion using HPC and AI.

In person

Meet us at 16.30 outside Lecture Theatre A for tea and cakes prior to the talk.

Online 

Zoom Link:

Join Zoom Meeting

https://ed-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/87304807516

Meeting ID: 873 0480 7516

Passcode: a47HrQTQ

Join by Skype for Business

https://ed-ac-uk.zoom.us/skype/87304807516

All students and staff welcome.