In-Person

  CNLS Conference Room (TA-3, Bldg 1690)

 

Thursday, Feb. 02, 2022

3:45 – 4:45 pm (MT)

  Light refreshments  3:15 - 3:45 pm

 

 


Speaker: Dr. Luis Chacón

                            LANL, T-5                   

                     

“Challenges and opportunities for high-fidelity non-equilibrium simulation of Inertial Confinement Fusion experiments”

 

Abstract: 

Recent news about fusion ignition at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) have galvanized public opinion and reminded us of the potential of fusion energy to alleviate many of the pressing societal problems from fossil-fuel energy generation. To be sure, these recent results are awe-inspiring and a testament to the dedication of the scientific community over many decades towards this goal. However, to date, O(10) fusion gains remain modest compared to the several hundredfold needed for engineering deployment, and difficult to reproduce. Given the cost of each NIF shot (at $1M/shot) and the complexity of these experimental platforms, reproducibility and fusion gain maximization in the laboratory will substantially benefit from novel, high-fidelity simulation capabilities that minimize epistemic uncertainties and allow a more efficient exploration of the relevant experimental space. In this talk, I will summarize current efforts at LANL to enable such simulation capabilities for ICF, which significantly improve on the state-of-the-art by taking into account non-equilibrium physics and may in the future be key to enable an experimental path towards reliable fusion power.

 

Bio: 

Dr. Luis Chacón is a recipient of the 2021 Ernest O. Lawrence DOE Award, a 2020 Fellow of the American Physical Society, and a Senior Scientist in the Theoretical Division at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) since 2012. Dr. Chacón received MS and PhD degrees in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1998 and 2000, respectively, and an MS degree from the Polytechnic U. of Madrid in 1995. He joined the Theoretical Division at LANL as a Director’s Postdoctoral Fellow in 2000, becoming a Staff Member in 2002. His research focuses on multiscale algorithm development for fluid and kinetic modeling of plasmas, with applications to basic plasmas, inertial confinement fusion, and magnetic fusion. Dr. Chacón has been an Associate and Executive Editor in the Journal of Computational Physics from 2013-2022 and 2015-2021, respectively, and several times Guest Editor in the SIAM Journal of Scientific Computing since 2016.