Bright key facts / Emerging
Rehearsing a fusion pulse before it happens
Google DeepMind and Commonwealth Fusion Systems announced a partnership in which CFS uses the open-source TORAX plasma simulator in daily workflows to test and refine SPARC operating plans before the tokamak is turned on.
- AI’s role
- TORAX is a differentiable plasma simulator that can integrate AI-powered models; the partners are investigating reinforcement learning and evolutionary search for pulse optimization and real-time control strategies.
- Documented result
- CFS says TORAX has become a linchpin in its daily workflows and that it saves time setting up and running SPARC simulation environments.
- Important limitation
- SPARC had not yet been turned on; simulated plans do not demonstrate net fusion energy or electricity production.