The Department of Energy has launched a new project that will pair artificial intelligence with high-performance computing to accelerate the development of a commercially viable fusion energy system.
How Will STELLAR AI Support Fusion Energy Research?
Called the Simulation, Technology, and Experiment Leveraging Learning-Accelerated Research enabled by AI, or STELLAR AI, the platform will connect high-fidelity computer simulation with experimental technologies, allowing researchers to analyze data in real time, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory said Thursday.
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PPPL, a DOE national laboratory, will lead the initiative.
“Fusion is a complex system of systems,” stated Jonathan Menard, deputy director for research at PPPL. “We need AI and high performance computing to really optimize the design for economic construction and operation.”
PPPL’s National Spherical Torus Experiment-Upgrade, or NSTX-U, is one of the experimental technologies included in STELLAR AI. NSTX-U is a large spherical tokamak designed to identify the ideal fuel conditions, measurement techniques, artificial control tools and system shape for producing commercial fusion power.
STELLAR-AI will create a digital twin of NSTX-U to advance the development of a fusion pilot plant.
What Is the Genesis Mission?
STELLAR-AI aligns with the Genesis Mission, a national effort launched by President Donald Trump under a November executive order to promote AI use to accelerate scientific discovery.
Shantenu Jha, head of PPPL’s Computational Sciences Department, added that Genesis provides an “integrated, ambitious system that will bring together the various unique DOE assets: experimental and user facilities, the supercomputers, data archives and, importantly, the AI models.”
While Genesis provides that broad infrastructure, STELLAR-AI contributes fusion-specific computer codes, data and scientific models back into the national system,” she added.
