A new AI software tool for monitoring and controlling the plasma inside nuclear fuel systems has been developed by an international collaboration of scientists from Princeton University, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), Chung-Ang University, Columbia University, and Seoul National University. The software, which the researchers call Diag2Diag, is described in the paper, “Multimodal super-resolution: discovering hidden physics and its application to fusion plasmas,” published in Nature Communications. The name Diag2Diag refers to the diagnostic techniques for analyzing plasma, according to the researchers. Sensors in a fusion system take measurements of plasma density, temperature, and other characteristics every fraction of a second. Thompson scattering is an example of a diagnostic technique that is used in tokamaks. However, such diagnostic measurements may not happen often enough to detect sudden changes in the rapidly evolving plasma that could make the plasma unstable and cause power production to be unreliable. However, with the AI developed by the Princeton-led team, the “missing” data can be filled in.

Full report : Princeton-led team develops AI for fusion plasma monitoring.