The leadership of the ANU fusion program has always had a strong reputation internationally for scientific excellence.

It is possible to create a star on earth with a nuclear fusion device, with the H1-Heliac at the ANU Research School of Physics and Engineering doing just this. The research school is also turning out rising-star graduates that are becoming influential scientists around the world, particularly within the United States’ largest fusion program.

Energy pundits see nuclear fusion as the Holy Grail. Unlike nuclear fission, nuclear fusion occurs in nature—it powers the sun and all of the stars in the universe. And it has the potential to provide sustainable, zero-emission and relatively cheap power to grids around the world.

China, the European Union, India, Korea, Russia and the United States all agree that nuclear fusion has great potential to be a major power source for future generations. The global heavyweights are jointly funding the construction of the ITER nuclear fusion demonstration facility in France that will start producing 500 megawatts of power by the late 2020s.

You would be optimistic to expect fusion to be a viable baseload power source by 2050, but ‘89 ANU PhD graduate Dr Raffi Nazikian believes it is possible, as long as there is national and international will to develop the energy source. He is leading the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory’s research at the DIII-D National Facility at General Atomics in San Diego, which houses the United State’s largest nuclear fusion device.

“We have to be ready with viable proposals when the opportunity arises,” Dr Nazikian says.

Several other PhD graduates from the Australian Plasma Fusion Research Facility (APFRF) at the ANU Research School of Physics and Engineering have followed in Dr Nazikian’s footsteps to work on DIII-D: Dr Dmitri Rudakov (’95), Dr Wayne Solomon (’02), Dr Fenton Glass (’05), Dr Shaun Haskey (’14) and Dr Cameron Samuell (’15). In terms of national representation at DIII-D, Australia is punching well above its weight.

DIII-D is a tokamak, which is a donut-shaped magnetic vessel that can recreate the energy processes that power a star. Scientists pump hydrogen isotopes into the tokamak and then inject it with extreme power—including radio waves, microwaves and particle beams—so that the hydrogen starts to fuse under the enormous pressure to produce helium. In the process, neutrons are released that carry huge amounts of energy. A neutron is a neutral particle, so it can escape from the magnetic field and its energy can be converted into electricity.

As you can imagine, the tokamak is a hard beast to tame. The temperatures inside the tokamak are hotter than the centre of the sun, so the exhaust that escapes from it can cause serious damage to the walls around it. This is just one of many very challenging fusion problems, but Dr Nazikian says the ANU alumni mentioned above are some of the most capable scientists that he’s encountered and so they are well-equipped to tackle these challenges.

“The ANU has generated a lot of graduates that have populated the international fusion program and have been very important players in the development of fusion power worldwide. So there’s something special about the ANU. When I completed my PhD, I was surprised by just how leading-edge the research was that I was doing, compared to what was going on elsewhere, and how I could immediately fit in and contribute something novel to experiments at billion-dollar facilities around the world.”

Dr Solomon and Dr Haskey work in Dr Nazikian’s research team, so naturally he is very proud of their achievements.

“Wayne is heading one of the most important physics groups on DIII-D focused on advanced reactor scenarios, with the goal of developing the physics basis for next-step reactors beyond ITER. It really is a major responsibility, and he is doing an outstanding job.

“Shaun did an absolutely spectacular PhD and it was a very easy sell to hire him. He’s also been invited to speak about his research at the American Physical Society later this year, which is a very big deal.” 

Dr Nazikian is also excited about the prospects of Dr Samuell, who has been recruited by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. While Dr Nazikian did not have a position to offer Dr Samuell, because he had just hired Dr Haskey, he was quick to recommend Dr Samuell to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

“I’ve already heard after the couple of weeks Cameron’s been there that he’s making some valuable contributions.”

Indeed, Dr Nazikian knows that anyone graduating from the APFRF fusion program is going to “hit the ground running”, thanks to the world-leading scientists that train them. Just this past month, Dr Juan Caneses has graduated and accepted a job offer at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which is also in the United States, and there are more star students coming through.

“The leadership of the ANU fusion program has always had a strong reputation internationally for scientific excellence and very good personal relationships with scientific leaders from around the world. So it makes it very easy for me to promote future ANU graduates.”

Photo caption: Australian scientists Dr Fenton Glass, Dr Cameron Samuell, Dr Dmitri Rudakov, Dr Shaun Haskey, Dr Alan Turnbull and Dr Wayne Solomon are very important players within the United State’s largest nuclear fusion program.