Casali’s Group Publishes New Modeling Framework to Assess Fusion Reactor Concepts
Scientists in Livia Casali’s group at the University of Tennessee’s Department of Nuclear Engineering have published a new integrated simulation framework that provides a milestone in fusion plasma modeling. Named SICAS (SOLPS-ITER Coupled to ASTRA-STRAHL), this framework has the potential to accelerate the path to making fusion energy a reality.
This novel tool enables unprecedented accuracy in self-consistent simulations of ion and impurity transport across the core, edge, and divertor regions of fusion plasmas with leading plasma codes worldwide.
Before this, different codes were used to model each different region of the plasma. Casali’s group integrated the codes together, developing a state-of-the-art description of what is happening across the various regions of plasma and how they affect each other.