General Atomics Releases FUSE: A Powerful Tool to Fast-Track the Development of Fusion Power Plants | General Atomics
Summary
1. General Atomics has released FUSE (Fusion Synthesis Engine), an open-source software tool designed to accelerate the development of fusion power plants. Released in October 2024, FUSE integrates plasma physics, engineering, and cost analysis into one system.
2. FUSE aims to enable more effective collaboration on fusion energy projects by allowing researchers to easily install and run the program on their own systems. It uses machine learning to speed up simulations and improve plant designs.
3. The software is written in Julia and is available under the Apache 2.0 license, allowing free usage, modification, and commercialization.
4. Fusion energy is seen as a potential source of clean, virtually limitless energy. It works by fusing light atomic nuclei together, releasing large amounts of energy in the process.
5. The DIII-D National Fusion Facility, operated by General Atomics, is the largest magnetic fusion facility in the U.S. It has made significant contributions to fusion research and serves as a hub for the U.S. and international scientific communities.
6. The ITER project, an international collaboration to build the world's largest fusion experiment, is over two-thirds complete as of 2024. The U.S. is a key partner in ITER, contributing several critical components.
7. General Atomics is fabricating the Central Solenoid for ITER, which will be the world's largest pulsed superconducting magnet.
8. Fusion research has led to various spinoff technologies in fields such as aircraft carriers, computing, jet engines, and spacecraft propulsion.
9. There are ongoing efforts to attract diverse talent to fusion research and provide educational opportunities for students interested in the field.
10. As of 2024, fusion energy is seen as a promising technology for clean energy production in the latter half of the 21st century, with increased investment needed to keep the U.S. at the forefront of development.
New Open-Source Software Aims to Drive Fusion Innovation for a Clean Energy Future
SAN DIEGO, Oct. 08, 2024 - Scientists and researchers have long hailed fusion, the process that powers the sun, as a clean and virtually limitless energy source they can harness on earth. This month, General Atomics (GA) took a big step towards achieving this goal by releasing the Fusion Synthesis Engine (FUSE)—a state-of-the-art, open-source software designed to help build fusion power plants.
Created by GA, the software is now accessible to anyone under the Apache 2.0 license, guaranteeing its free usage, modification, and commercialization. Written in “Julia”, a popular programming language, FUSE combines key elements needed to develop fusion power—such as plasma physics, engineering, and cost analysis—into one easy-to-use system. GA developers explained that other researchers can easily install and run the program on their own systems, enabling more effective collaboration on fusion energy projects. This approach helps reduce costs and makes it easier to achieve the goal of fusion energy.
“Releasing FUSE is a bold and exciting step that offers a powerful tool to the entire fusion community,” said Wayne Solomon, vice president of Magnetic Fusion Energy for the General Atomics Energy Group. "This platform encourages teamwork and new ideas while fulfilling GA’s commitment to openness and progress. By making FUSE available to everyone, we’re not just advancing our own developments—we’re giving others the ability to build on it, with the goal of accelerating discoveries throughout the entire field."
By integrating various complex models, researchers can generate simulations that are both faster and more accurate, including how a fusion plant operates in both steady and dynamic conditions.
“FUSE could have a big impact on the future of fusion energy,” said Orso Meneghini, a theory and computational science manager for the General Atomics Energy Group. “One of its strengths is that it uses machine learning to speed up simulations, making it useful for improving plant designs and reducing uncertainties. Overall, Fuse’s flexibility and generality make it an important tool for advancing research in this critical area of energy research.”
Fusion is the same process that powers the sun. Unlike current nuclear power, which splits atoms, fusion fuses them together, creating intense heat that can generate electricity. Researchers believe this high-tech method could lead to almost unlimited sustainable energy to meet humanity’s future needs.
For decades, General Atomics has been a leader in fusion technology research. At its San Diego headquarters, GA scientists and engineers work with teams across the country and the world to explore the science needed to make fusion power plants a reality. GA also operates the DIII-D National Fusion Facility, a Department of Energy user facility that houses the only operating fusion reactor (tokamak) in the U.S., where scientists collaborate to find the best solutions for bringing fusion power to market.
For more information and full documentation about FUSE, visit https://fuse.help. And to learn more about GA’s work in researching fusion technology, go to ga.com/magnetic-fusion/promise-of-fusion.
About General Atomics
Since the dawn of the
atomic age, General Atomics innovations have advanced the state of the
art across the full spectrum of science and technology – from nuclear
energy and defense to medicine and high-performance computing. Behind a
talented global team of scientists, engineers, and professionals, GA’s
unique experience and capabilities continue to deliver safe,
sustainable, economical, and innovative solutions to meet growing global
demands.
Contact:
Andrew James
Communications Lead, General Atomics
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andrew.james@ga.com
Main · FUSE
FUSE.jl
FUSE (FUsion Synthesis Engine) is an open-source framework for the integrated design of Fusion Power Plants (FPP). Originally developed by General Atomics, FUSE is now publicly available under the Apache 2.0 license.
📢 Upcoming 2024 Code Camp 📢
Join the FUSE community and help shape the future of Fusion Power Plant design:
- Date: Dec 9th - 13th
- Location: In person @ General Atomics
- Seats: Limited to 40 participants - 🔥 REGISTER TODAY!
Resources
Here are some key resources for getting started with FUSE:
- 📚 Online documentation
- 📊 Summary presentation
- 📜 Preprint publication
- 📦 Package ecosystem
- 🆘 Discord community
Objectives
FUSE aims to achieve the following objectives:
- ⚡ Provide a highly efficient, modular framework that tightly couples models across different domains.
- 🧩 Integrate plasma physics, engineering, control, balance of plant, and costing systems.
- 🤖 Leverage machine learning to overcome the typical fidelity/speed tradeoff in simulations.
- ⏱️ Support both stationary and time-dependent simulations.
- 💻 Harness parallelism and high-performance computing (HPC) for large-scale studies.
- 🎯 Perform multi-objective constrained optimization to explore design tradeoffs.
- 🔍 Enable comprehensive sensitivity analysis and uncertainty quantification.
Basic Concepts
FUSE is entirely written in Julia and is structured around the following core concepts:
- 📂 Data storage: All data is stored in the
ddstructure, which follows the ITER IMAS ontology. - 🧠 Actors: The core components of FUSE simulations are physics and engineering actors.
- 🕹️ Control: Actor functionality is governed by
actparameters. - 🚀 Initialization: The data structure can be initialized from 0D
iniparameters. - 🔧 Use cases: FUSE includes templates for various machines (e.g., FPP, ITER, ARC).
- 🔄 Workflows: Self-contained studies and optimizations are conducted via workflows, typically involving multiple FUSE simulations.
- 🌍 Interoperability: FUSE interfaces with existing modeling tools like OMFIT/OMAS and the IMAS ecosystem.
A diagram illustrating these concepts is provided below: 
Usage Example
Here’s a simple example of setting up and running a FUSE simulation in Julia:
using FUSE
# Obtain `ini` and `act` parameters for a specific use case
ini, act = FUSE.case_parameters(:FPP)
# Initialize the `dd` structure with 0D parameters
dd = FUSE.init(ini, act)
# Run a stationary plasma actor simulation
FUSE.ActorStationaryPlasma(dd, act)
# Get an overview of the simulation results
FUSE.digest(dd)Installation
FUSE and its related packages are available through the FuseRegistry. To install:
Add the FuseRegistry and General registries, then install FUSE:
using Pkg
Pkg.Registry.add(RegistrySpec(url="https://github.com/ProjectTorreyPines/FuseRegistry.jl.git"))
Pkg.Registry.add("General")
Pkg.add("FUSE")Citation
Please cite this work as follows:
@article{meneghini2024fuse,
author = {Meneghini, O. and Slendebroek, T. and Lyons, B.C. and McLaughlin, K. and McClenaghan, J. and Stagner, L. and Harvey, J. and Neiser, T.F. and Ghiozzi, A. and Dose, G. and Guterl, J. and Zalzali, A. and Cote, T. and Shi, N. and Weisberg, D. and Smith, S.P. and Grierson, B.A. and Candy, J.},
doi = {10.48550/arXiv.2409.05894},
journal = {arXiv},
title = {{FUSE (Fusion Synthesis Engine): A Next Generation Framework for Integrated Design of Fusion Pilot Plants}},
year = {2024}
}Last update on 2024-10-12T03:39:11.397
FUSE (Fusion Synthesis Engine): A Next Generation Framework for Integrated Design of Fusion Pilot Plants
The Fusion Synthesis Engine (FUSE) is a state-of-the-art software suite designed to revolutionize fusion power plant design. FUSE integrates first-principle models, machine learning, and reduced models into a unified framework, enabling comprehensive simulations that go beyond traditional 0D systems studies. FUSE's modular structure supports a hierarchy of model fidelities, from steady-state to time-dependent simulations, allowing for both pre-conceptual design and operational scenario development. This framework accelerates the design process by enabling self-consistent solutions across physics, engineering, and control systems, minimizing the need for iterative expert evaluations. Leveraging modern software practices and parallel computing, FUSE also provides multi-objective optimization, balancing cost, efficiency, and operational constraints. Developed in Julia, FUSE is fully open-source under the Apache 2.0 license, promoting transparency and collaboration within the fusion research community.
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