National Center for Computational Sciences

A team of researchers from the University of California-Irvine (UCI), in conjunction with staff at Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s National Center for Computational Sciences (NCCS), has just completed what it says is the largest run in fusion simulation history.

The team, led by Yong Xiao and Zhihong Lin of UCI, used 93 percent of the NCCS’s flagship supercomputer Jaguar, a Cray XT4, with the classic fusion code GTC (Gyrokinetic Toroidal Code), the key production code of two fusion SciDAC projects (GPS-TTBP and GSEP).

The simulation primarily studied electron transport in ITER, a prototype fusion reactor now in development that is meant to test fusion’s feasibility for commercial power production (because in ITER the fusion process will primarily heat electrons, electron transport will be more important compared to existing fusion devices). Fusion energy could one day provide the world with a cleaner, more abundant energy source with far fewer harmful emissions than fossil-fuel-burning power plants and fewer waste issues than current nuclear power production.

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