Collaborative Fusion Energy Research in the DIII-D National Program

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The Fusion Energy Sciences (FES) Program of the Office of Science (SC), U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), hereby announces its interest in receiving grant applications for collaborative research in fusion energy science as part of the DIII-D national research program. The mission of the DIII-D program is to establish the scientific basis for the optimization of the tokamak approach to fusion energy production. The primary means to accomplish this mission is research utilizing the DIII-D tokamak to develop the ultimate potential of the tokamak concept as a magnetic confinement system. The DIII-D program also involves foundational fusion energy science research to make progress on a broad front toward predictive understanding of fusion plasmas. The major strengths of the program are the highly flexible and well-diagnosed DIII-D tokamak and a large collaborative research team from the national and international fusion community. All applications will utilize the DIII-D National Fusion Facility at General Atomics in San Diego, California. This includes modeling validation and verification proposals utilizing DIII-D data. All applicants (whether requesting support for individual researchers or groups of researchers) planning to submit applications for new or renewal support in Fiscal Year 2018 should submit applications in response to this FOA. Applications that are not primarily focused on research using the DIII-D tokamak are outside the scope of this FOA and should not be submitted under it. Applications solely requesting experimental run time on DIII-D are also outside the scope of this FOA and should not be submitted under it. The DIII-D program helps to build the scientific foundations for fusion energy by contributing to the fundamental understanding of magnetically confined plasmas and assessing the attractiveness of the advanced tokamak (AT) concept for future fusion applications. The program emphasizes research that aims to prepare the U.S. program for burning plasma operation in ITER, develop the physics basis for high performance, steady-state operation, and develop boundary solutions for future fusion devices. The flexibility and capabilities of the DIII-D actuator and diagnostic set enable a wide range of experiment/theory comparisons that advance the forefront of scientific understanding in these key research areas. Applications for collaborative research must target DIII-D program elements aligned with developing: 1) the scientific basis for the Burning Plasma Core, which includes transient control, research enabling Q=10 on ITER and the path to steady state; and 2) the scientific basis for Boundary Solutions, which includes detachment control, divertor optimization and investigation of new reactor-relevant wall materials. The DIII-D program is highly collaborative in nature, where participating scientists provide support to the entire research team in order to deliver all the elements needed for a scientific study on DIII-D (e.g. operating diagnostic systems, providing analyzed data, and supporting facility operations where appropriate). Each DIII-D research study typically will require the engagement and support of a large group of scientists to conduct the experiments and collect and analyze the necessary data. Therefore, applicants are encouraged to highlight contributions that will provide benefit to the wider research program, and discuss support that will be provided to (and/or needed from) the DIII-D research team as a whole.

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