A. Pereira , S. Moreno , J. Rodríguez , M. Villalba
{"title":"Kernel ridge regression estimation of high-frequency signals for nuclear fusion diagnostics","authors":"A. Pereira , S. Moreno , J. Rodríguez , M. Villalba","doi":"10.1016/j.fusengdes.2025.115261","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.fusengdes.2025.115261","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Estimating missing signals in plasma measurements is a significant challenge, particularly in fusion plasma devices where high-frequency temporal evolution signals provide valuable insight into the behavior of plasma. Indeed, occasional signal absence can impact to misfunction of other active diagnostics, leading to misinterpretation of the plasma state and inaccurate management of related control systems that affect the overall performance of the device. Therefore, the replacement of synthetic and accurate signals is a crucial aspect for system performance and reliability in fusion diagnostics, particularly when original signals are missing or erroneous. Precise prediction of high-frequency signals refers to time-series synthetic data that are modelled at an extremely fine scale. Due to the large number of samples, high frequency observations generally contain a large amount of data and most forecasting techniques based on dimensionality reduction or feature selection are not applicable as valuable information is lost before training periods. Besides, many real-time signals such as those in ITER, are non-stationary, meaning that their spectral content changes with time. In the current work a novel algorithm is presented based on kernel ridge regression (KRR) confidence machine. It provides a balance between computational efficiency and high accuracy across the entire frequency spectrum.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55133,"journal":{"name":"Fusion Engineering and Design","volume":"219 ","pages":"Article 115261"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2025-06-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144271498","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Brian Leard , Tariq Rafiq , Ian Ward , Franco Galfrascoli , Eugenio Schuster , Alexei Pankin , Marina Gorelenkova
{"title":"Self-consistent equilibrium and transport simulations for NSTX-U plasmas enhanced via machine learning surrogate models","authors":"Brian Leard , Tariq Rafiq , Ian Ward , Franco Galfrascoli , Eugenio Schuster , Alexei Pankin , Marina Gorelenkova","doi":"10.1016/j.fusengdes.2025.115201","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.fusengdes.2025.115201","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The Control-Oriented Transport SIMulator (COTSIM) is an advanced equilibrium and transport code designed for simulating tokamak discharges at computational speeds suitable for control applications. COTSIM’s modular framework enables users to select models that balance accuracy with speed according to specific needs, allowing the code to operate from fast to faster-than-real-time performance levels. This work presents recent enhancements to COTSIM’s predictive accuracy for NSTX-U scenarios, achieved by integrating neural-network-based surrogate models and self-consistent equilibrium calculations. To improve source deposition predictions, a surrogate model for NUBEAM has been incorporated. Additionally, a surrogate model for the Multi-Mode Module (MMM) now supports predictions of anomalous thermal, momentum, and particle diffusivities—key factors for modeling the evolution of temperature and rotation. Each surrogate model was specifically trained for the NSTX-U operational regime to enhance COTSIM’s accuracy while maintaining computational efficiency. Moreover, COTSIM now couples fixed-boundary equilibrium solvers with its transport solvers, enabling self-consistent predictions of plasma profiles and equilibrium evolution over the discharge. Simulation results demonstrate strong agreement between COTSIM and TRANSP predictions for NSTX-U discharges. These substantial advancements expand COTSIM’s utility in model-based control applications for NSTX-U. Potential applications include simultaneous optimization of equilibrium and transport scenarios, integration into digital twins, real-time profile estimation (e.g., temperature and rotation) from limited or noisy measurements, and advanced feedback-based scenario control.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55133,"journal":{"name":"Fusion Engineering and Design","volume":"219 ","pages":"Article 115201"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2025-06-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144262726","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Shigetoshi Nakamura, Manabu Takechi, Satoshi Yamamoto, Akihiko Isayama, Go Matsunaga
{"title":"Design of strain measuring system in ultra-high vacuum environment for JT-60SA","authors":"Shigetoshi Nakamura, Manabu Takechi, Satoshi Yamamoto, Akihiko Isayama, Go Matsunaga","doi":"10.1016/j.fusengdes.2025.115245","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.fusengdes.2025.115245","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Strain gauges are installed inside the JT-60SA vacuum vessel to monitor mechanical load applied on the pedestals for supporting the error field correction coils. The strain gauges and cables for JT-60SA need to have (1) resistance to 200°C baking of the vacuum vessel, (2) no organic adhesive material to reduce outgassing under ultra-high vacuum environment, (3) feasibility of long-duration continuous use, because of no access to the measuring target once assembly of in-vessel components has finished. To meet these requirements, the welded-type strain gauge and its cables without organic adhesive have been developed. The strain gauge is featured by attaching it to the objective component with welding. The cables for the welded-type strain gauge are composed of mineral-insulated (MI) cable with MgO and polyether ether ketone (PEEK) cables. MI cable can withstand the 200 °C baking of the vacuum vessel. PEEK cable is used for connecting to vacuum feed through. Design of the measuring system has finished successfully.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55133,"journal":{"name":"Fusion Engineering and Design","volume":"219 ","pages":"Article 115245"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2025-06-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144271500","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
M. Fadone , R. Cavazzana , S. Ciufo , L. Grando , S. Peruzzo , A. Rizzolo , M. Zuin
{"title":"Design of the upgraded Glow Discharge Cleaning system for RFX-mod2","authors":"M. Fadone , R. Cavazzana , S. Ciufo , L. Grando , S. Peruzzo , A. Rizzolo , M. Zuin","doi":"10.1016/j.fusengdes.2025.115228","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.fusengdes.2025.115228","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>RFX-mod2 represents the upgraded version of the RFX-mod experiment, a toroidal fusion machine proficient in operating in both Reversed Field Pinch and Tokamak configurations. Located at the Consorzio RFX facility in Padova, Italy, this experiment features a major radius of 2 meters and a minor radius of 0.5 meters. The initial part of experimental campaigns for these machines is always a cleaning procedure of the first wall of the camber by means of the Glow Discharge Cleaning (GDC). GDC for RFX-mod2 will be sustained thanks to the revamped former GDC system that consists of 2 movable electrodes. Moreover, 8 new fixed electrodes will be installed as Plasma Facing Components (PFC) to guarantee a more uniform plasma expansion, and therefore cleaning, of the first wall. This paper describes the design of the new fixed electrodes for the RFX-mod2 GDC system and experimental tests for the plasma ignition with fixed and movable electrodes in order to validate the overall RFX-mod2 GDC revamped system.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55133,"journal":{"name":"Fusion Engineering and Design","volume":"219 ","pages":"Article 115228"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2025-06-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144262365","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Chenhui Wan , Zibo Qi , Hongbin Huang , Jie Liu , Youmin Hu , Hongtao Pan , Yong Cheng , Yang Cheng , Zhongxu Hu
{"title":"Compensating control delays in the CFETR Multi-Purpose Overload Robot for divertor maintenance by using transformer-enhanced Temporal Convolutional Network","authors":"Chenhui Wan , Zibo Qi , Hongbin Huang , Jie Liu , Youmin Hu , Hongtao Pan , Yong Cheng , Yang Cheng , Zhongxu Hu","doi":"10.1016/j.fusengdes.2025.115183","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.fusengdes.2025.115183","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Communication delays in the CFETR (China Fusion Engineering Test Reactor) Multi-Purpose Overload Robot (CMOR), designed for divertor maintenance, significantly degrade control precision and operational reliability. This study proposed a Transformer-enhanced Temporal Convolutional Network (TransformerTCN) to address these delays. By integrating the local temporal feature extraction of Temporal Convolutional Networks (TCNs) with the long-range dependency modeling of Transformer’s self-attention mechanism, TransformerTCN accurately predicted future robot states and dynamically adjusted control commands. Validation in ROS-based simulations demonstrated that TransformerTCN outperformed traditional models, achieving a Mean Squared Error (MSE) of 0.002 and an <span><math><msup><mrow><mi>R</mi></mrow><mrow><mn>2</mn></mrow></msup></math></span> score of 0.994, showcasing its superior accuracy and robustness. These results highlight TransformerTCN as a powerful solution for delay compensation in robotic systems operating in challenging nuclear fusion environments.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55133,"journal":{"name":"Fusion Engineering and Design","volume":"219 ","pages":"Article 115183"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2025-06-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144254043","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A multi-degree-of-freedom water hydraulic manipulator in nuclear applications: Design and experiments","authors":"Weidi Huang , Zhiwen Pan , Changhong Guo , Min Cheng , Ruiheng Jia , Zhiwei Chen , Junhui Zhang , Bing Xu","doi":"10.1016/j.fusengdes.2025.115204","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.fusengdes.2025.115204","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In nuclear applications, water hydraulic manipulators present notable advantages in terms of safety and environmental compatibility compared to oil hydraulic alternatives. However, traditional Valve-Controlled Hydraulic Cylinder Systems (VCHCS) suffer from severe leakage, and existing new designs add system complexity. These design flaws adversely affect the control accuracy of the manipulator. To address these issues, a novel multi-degree-of-freedom water hydraulic manipulator for nuclear applications is proposed in this study, including system design, controller design and experiments. In the system design, the servo valve in VCHCS is replaced by two ball-type proportional valves per joint, which avoids severe leakage due to their sealing properties. Additionally, a pressure-reducing valve and a relief valve shared by three joints achieve fewer valves, minimizing potential leakage points while reducing system complexity. Further, to improve the control accuracy of the new system, a nonlinear control strategy based on virtual decomposition control (VDC) is designed. The VDC strategy addresses the hydraulic-kinematic coupling and nonlinearities by decomposing the manipulator into closed-chain subsystems and integrating fluid dynamics into the rigid-body dynamics model. Experimental results demonstrate tracking accuracy improvements of 29.2% in the X direction and 70.2% in the Y direction, where X is defined as the forward direction and Y is defined as the upward direction of the end clamp. Finally, underwater task operation experiments show that the tracking errors are confined within 3 mm (X) and 4 mm (Y), demonstrating the practical application of the proposed system and control strategy.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55133,"journal":{"name":"Fusion Engineering and Design","volume":"219 ","pages":"Article 115204"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2025-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144241852","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Kwangpyo Kim , Hyunmyung Lee , Hyung ho Lee , Koung Moon Kim , Hyunseok Kim , Jeongwon Lee , H. Schamis , E.P. Gilson , Jae-in Song , Nam-yong Joung , Soo-hyeon Park
{"title":"Vacuum commissioning and operation result after the KSTAR PFC upgrade","authors":"Kwangpyo Kim , Hyunmyung Lee , Hyung ho Lee , Koung Moon Kim , Hyunseok Kim , Jeongwon Lee , H. Schamis , E.P. Gilson , Jae-in Song , Nam-yong Joung , Soo-hyeon Park","doi":"10.1016/j.fusengdes.2025.115249","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.fusengdes.2025.115249","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The first vacuum commissioning after the installation of new tungsten mono-block cassette divertor has been successfully conducted in KSTAR. The tungsten divertor has been installed in the lower divertor region to handle the high divertor heat loads up to 10 MW/m<sup>2</sup>. On the one hand, the plasma facing components except for the tungsten divertor in the KSTAR vacuum vessel still consists of graphite tiles. Thus, it was much more challenging to maintain high-quality vacuum condition mainly because of various possible impurity sources inside the vessel compared with previous experiment campaigns. In this paper, the detailed procedure for securing vacuum condition of the KSTAR tokamak after the installation of the new tungsten divertor is presented. The vacuum condition is also examined regarding the plasma start-up and the long-pulse high-performance quality.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55133,"journal":{"name":"Fusion Engineering and Design","volume":"219 ","pages":"Article 115249"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2025-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144241853","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
T. Nishizawa , Y. Nagashima , C. Moon , D. Nishimura , T.-K. Kobayashi , T. Ido , T. Suetsugu , T. Tokuzawa , K. Yamasaki , T. Yamada , S. Inagaki , T. Onchi , S. Kato , M. Murayama , T. Kobayashi , A. Shimizu , K. Kikuta , R. Hayashi , D. Di Matteo , A. Fujisawa
{"title":"Initial plasma achieved within engineering constraints in the PLATO tokamak","authors":"T. Nishizawa , Y. Nagashima , C. Moon , D. Nishimura , T.-K. Kobayashi , T. Ido , T. Suetsugu , T. Tokuzawa , K. Yamasaki , T. Yamada , S. Inagaki , T. Onchi , S. Kato , M. Murayama , T. Kobayashi , A. Shimizu , K. Kikuta , R. Hayashi , D. Di Matteo , A. Fujisawa","doi":"10.1016/j.fusengdes.2025.115222","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.fusengdes.2025.115222","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In order to save flux consumption and lessen engineering requirements, the achievable toroidal loop voltage tends to be lowered in modern tokamaks. In such devices, careful optimization of the plasma startup scenario is often required to achieve a successful tokamak discharge. The PLATO tokamak, which is recently built at Kyushu University, also faces challenges in the plasma startup. PLATO employs an air-cored central solenoid that limits the loop voltage and creates stray magnetic fields. In addition, only simple capacitor banks with modest maximum charging voltages are available for the generation of the poloidal magnetic and toroidal electric fields in the initial operation. To realize the breakdown and plasma current ramp-up under those constraints, the configuration of coils and capacitor bank settings has been optimized to produce sufficient loop voltage while minimizing the stray field inside the vacuum chamber at the onset of the discharge. Through this optimization, a tokamak discharge with a plasma current of 30 kA and a pulse duration of 20 ms has been achieved.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55133,"journal":{"name":"Fusion Engineering and Design","volume":"219 ","pages":"Article 115222"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2025-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144254042","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Bubble dynamics in Magnetohydrodynamics conditions: Numerical simulation and flow characterization for high density ratio mixture","authors":"Sonia Pignatiello, Simone Siriano, Alessandro Tassone","doi":"10.1016/j.fusengdes.2025.115215","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.fusengdes.2025.115215","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Many Breeding Blanket (BB) concepts envision the use of a liquid metal (LM) alloy containing lithium to fulfill the functions of tritium production through the tritium breeding reaction, which produces helium as a by-product. This, under appropriate conditions, can nucleate, aggregate into bubbles that can be transported within the main fluid flow. The study of the bubbles transport within the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) LM flow is mandatory to assess the impact on the BB performance and safety, due to their potential accumulation in some part of the system.</div><div>In this study, the dynamics of bubbles in MHD conditions is examined using a custom OpenFOAM solver called mhdInterFoam (mIF). This code is capable of modeling a two-phase MHD flow of incompressible, immiscible, and isothermal fluids using the Volume of Fluid (VoF) method. The code has been validated against experimental data, producing results in good agreement with the reference for several bubble diameters (Eötvös number, Eo <span><math><mo>≈</mo></math></span> 1.5 - 8.5) and magnetic fields up to 1.5 T (Hartmann number, Ha <span><math><mo>≈</mo></math></span> 0 - 220).</div><div>Specifically, the magnetic field effects on the bubbles regime of motion are analyzed and the characteristics of the LM flow around the bubbles are presented. The study is performed considering the distribution of fundamental physical quantities, which are challenging to investigate through experimental studies alone.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55133,"journal":{"name":"Fusion Engineering and Design","volume":"219 ","pages":"Article 115215"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2025-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144254041","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Feng Zhang, Mei Huang, Gangyu Chen, Wanxin Zheng, Cheng Chen, Guoyao Fan, He Wang
{"title":"Feasibility study of the high-power millimeter-wave collective Thomson scattering diagnostic system on HL-3 tokamak","authors":"Feng Zhang, Mei Huang, Gangyu Chen, Wanxin Zheng, Cheng Chen, Guoyao Fan, He Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.fusengdes.2025.115242","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.fusengdes.2025.115242","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Collective Thomson scattering (CTS) is an important diagnostic technique which can be applied to measure the velocity distribution of fast ions within fusion plasmas with high temporal and spatial resolutions. <em>The feasibility of diagnosing fast ions in the HL-3 tokamak by high-power millimeter-wave CTS was studied</em>. Specifically, the study examined the effects of various factors, including the frequency of the probing wave, scattering geometry and plasma parameters, on the scattering spectrum. Among the various plasma parameters, this study specifically focused its analysis on the effects of electron density, electron temperature, bulk ion temperature, and fast ion density on the scattering spectrum and, consequently, on the inference of the fast ion distribution. Finally, a CTS diagnostic system for the HL-3 tokamak was designed. In this setup, the 140 GHz and 1 MW gyrotron served as the probe beam source, the diagnostic system could achieve temporal and spatial resolutions of approximately 200 µs and 100 mm, respectively.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55133,"journal":{"name":"Fusion Engineering and Design","volume":"219 ","pages":"Article 115242"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2025-06-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144241851","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}