Understanding the energy losses mechanism in fusion devices: A summary of recent experiments

Ahmed Diallo

Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory

Friday, March 22, 2019

3:00pm

NW17-218

PSFC Seminars

Abstract: The simultaneous achievement of high performance core plasma and highly dissipative boundary plasma is key for future fusion reactors. The critical region of interaction is the edge transport barrier (also known as the H-mode pedestal), which mediates the tension between core and edge, and plays a defining role in the performance of both. Fusion performance in these reactors hinges critically on the efficacy of the edge transport barrier at suppressing energy losses. This talk will highlight current state of research aimed at characterizing and understanding the instabilities localized in the edge of fusion devices as well as challenges for the development of edge models for future devices.

Bio: Dr. Ahmed Diallo is a research physicist at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory where he leads the topical science group Pedestal Structure and Control for National Spherical Torus eXperiment (NSTX). Previously, he performed his postdoctoral research at the Swiss Federal Technical Institute and was a research fellow at the Australian University. Dr. Diallo was awarded the 5-year Department of Energy Early Career grant to control the edge pedestal for maximum fusion performance. His research interests range from low temperature plasmas, ion thruster for space propulsion to fusion energy science. More specifically, Diallo’s research focuses in the edge of multiple tokamaks (e.g., NSTX-U, DIII-D, C-Mod and MAST) with the goal of controlling the onset of edge localized modes that can be deleterious for future fusion reactors.