D3D National Fusion Facility

This week, the U.S. Department of Energy released its Fusion Science and Technology Roadmap, a plan laying out the milestones needed to move from scientific discovery to fusion deployment on the grid and identifying roles for DIII-D in meeting this goal.

We’re excited for DIII-D’s part in this ambitious plan! Many of DIII-D’s established capabilities, such as materials science testing, core-edge integration science, and diagnostic development, will be key to closing the gaps identified in this roadmap.

Excitingly, new capabilities that are in the process of being added to our facility are also highlighted as key features needed to produce breakthroughs for commercialization. From AI integration to negative triangularity operation and heating relevant to future commercial devices, we look forward to continuing to share how enhancements that evolve our facility address the most pressing challenges facing fusion commercialization and de-risk pilot plant designs for scalable commercial deployment.

Learn more about how DIII-D is supporting fusion commercialization at our 2026 Industry Day Event: https://d3dfusion.org/industry-day/

Commercial fusion devices will have to contend with the effects of impurities in the plasma during operation. However, the effects of impurities on key structures within a fusion plasma, such as magnetic islands, have yet to be resolved.

Jackson Monahan, a PhD student in the Department of Physics & Astronomy at UC Irvine, recently led an experiment to evaluate how different types and densities of impurities affect the growth and stability of magnetic islands. Magnetic islands grow during instabilities known as tearing modes, which can degrade the plasma's magnetic confinement and often trigger a disruption that ends the fusion reaction. Jackson injected impurities into plasmas with carefully modulated rotation and pressure and then used DIII-D’s extensive diagnostic suite to evaluate changes in island structure and plasma turbulence, as well as monitor impurity radiation and accumulation sites.

This work informs projections for how plasmas will behave in future commercial devices with metallic walls. It provides the first controlled impurity-island interaction measurements, addressing a key gap related to predicting tearing instabilities in metal-walled devices.

DIII-D recently participated in the 27th International Conference on Plasma-Surface Interactions in Controlled Fusion Devices (PSI), the preeminent international conference on plasma-material interactions research. Achieving reliable device wall and plasma performance while simultaneously sustainably exhausting heat and particles is a critical challenge for fusion commercialization, and PSI brings together experts to exchange ideas and build collaborations to address this and related gaps.

The team delivered several engaging invited talks, ranging in topic from materials science to pellet fueling and plasma stability. Participation in poster sessions also enabled our team to discuss the progress in science and technology being achieved at DIII-D. Throughout the conference, we highlighted the capabilities and team expertise that make DIII-D a leader in closing fusion science and technology gaps for commercialization.

Photos feature invited talks by David Donovan (UTK), Florian Effenberg (PPPL), Sophie Gorno (ORNL), and Renato Perillo (UCSD)

📣 Event Announcement 📣

On 21 August, DIII-D will be hosting our 2026 Industry Event Day. This annual event brings together people from across the fusion ecosystem to speed progress toward fusion energy and build the collaborations needed to solve the grand challenges of fusion.
Building on the success of last year’s event, this year’s event will cover the global fusion landscape, opportunities to leverage public-private partnerships, and discussions of industry challenges and collaborative solutions, as well as provide networking opportunities. DIII-D team members will also cover how they are currently using DIII-D resources and capabilities to close key fusion science & technology gaps and introduce new capabilities that further expand the breadth of questions that can be answered at our facility.
Interested in participating? Registration: https://bit.ly/4dMrZzo

DIII-D is hiring!
If you’re a computing expert that wants to use your skills to be part of the global efforts to realize fusion energy, the DIII-D team could be the perfect fit for you. We are hiring a senior level Scientific Computing Administrator to support the advanced computing work being done at DIII-D. Responsibilities to include high-performance computing workflows, digital twin projects, and advanced modeling for cutting-edge fusion simulations.
If you can picture yourself as this technical expert collaborating with scientists and engineers to produce breakthroughs needed for fusion commercialization, apply today: https://bit.ly/49N71OD

As part of Fusion Energy Week, we opened our doors to the public - hosting 341 people across five tours! Visitors learned the basics of fusion, participated in hands-on demonstrations, and saw the science and technology enabling us to close critical gaps.

We enjoyed connecting with members of the San Diego community in-person and talking fusion with the broader technical community and interested public during our virtual tours. We had great conversations about all the science and technology advances being made at the facility, highlighting how our work is driving progress toward commercial fusion.

Thank you to everyone who joined our tours for a behind-the-scenes look at our facility - we're already looking forward to next year's tours and all the newest capabilities, science, and technology we'll be able to share then ✨

How can we leverage AI to improve plasma performance for fusion?
Kevin Gill, a graduate student in the -Madison Nuclear Engineering and Engineering Physics program, and UW scientist Semin Joung recently led an experiment to test a new answer to this question. The team included researchers from PPPL, Princeton University, and SLAC. They developed a tool that uses fast 2D turbulence data from DIII-D diagnostics to control 3D magnetic field coil currents to improve plasma stability and performance. The deep learning models used for this control informs the plasma control system through hardware acceleration to steer the plasma away from instabilities in the plasma edge.
Controlling these edge localized mode instabilities, which have the potential to release large bursts of energy and heat capable of damaging the interior walls in future commercial devices, is a key remaining challenge on the path to commercial fusion, and work like Kevin’s is closing this gap to enable a future powered by fusion.

As part of Fusion Energy Week, Rick Lee and Clay Gray of our Operations team joined CBS 8 San Diego for a celebration of , , and ! They paired approachable explanations of plasma and fusion devices with engaging physics demonstrations to illustrate the key forces and phenomena harnessed in fusion.

Watch at the link below to see the complete feature: https://bit.ly/4u2e0eu

Fusion Energy Week in San Diego | What you need to know It's Fusion Energy Week in San Diego. Rick Lee and Clayton Gray with the National Fusion Facility join News 8 break down the process.

Happy Fusion Energy Week!
DIII-D is excited to open our doors this week and celebrate all the essential progress toward commercial fusion being made here. From material science evaluations and plasma performance improvements to AI incorporation, measurement innovations, and more, our scientists and engineers are solving key challenges across fusion science and technology areas.
Interested in learning more? Sign up for a virtual tour on Wednesday AM or Thursday PM: https://bit.ly/4buHLfU

Fill | Registration for DIII-D's Fusion Energy Week Tours

Why do some approaches for running a tokamak produce only small instabilities (known as edge-localized modes in the field), while others produce large bursts of energy with the power to damage plasma-facing components inside a fusion device?
This question continues to be at the core of extensive fusion science research, aiming to optimize plasma performance without the risk of machine damage. Nami Li and Xueqiao Xu from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory recently published an article addressing this question. Their team combined experimental data from DIII-D with physics modeling to identify the role of the density of particles at the edge of the plasma in limiting the development of damaging bursts. High density in the plasma edge produced pressure spikes that caused small instabilities to burst, rather than grow into larger, high-energy edge-localized modes.
This understanding will help fusion scientists design advanced plasma scenarios and refine plasma control strategies for future steady-state commercial devices, enabling operation that suppresses potentially damaging energy bursts in the plasma.

Learn more: https://science.osti.gov/fes/Highlights/2026/2a

FES Protecting Against Large Dam... | U.S. DOE Office of Science(SC) Scientists found a potential way to suppress large damaging edge-localized modes, providing an approach to protect future devices.