Towards continuous fusion power through reliable microwave current drive
Towards continuous fusion power through reliable microwave current drive
Name of applicant
Asbjørn Clod Pedersen
Title
Mr.
Institution
École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)
Amount
DKK 2,708,942
Year
2026
Type of grant
Internationalisation Fellowships
What?
Nuclear fusion, the process that powers the Sun, has enormous potential as a safe and sustainable energy source. This project studies how to use microwave beams, similar to those in a microwave oven, to sustain a current inside a fusion reactor, which is necessary for continuous operation. In particular, it investigates how to avoid instabilities that can steal energy and undermine this process.
Why?
For future fusion power plants to be efficient and economical, they must run continuously rather than in short pulses. Powerful microwave beams are a promising way to achieve this, but recent work suggests that instabilities may occur during this process. Understanding and mitigating these instabilities is therefore a critical and largely overlooked step towards continuous fusion power.
How?
The project will develop a theoretical model to predict when microwave instabilities occur and how much they reduce the effectiveness of microwave beams to drive the current. The model will be tested in experiments at an advanced fusion device at EPFL and at a new Danish Fusion Infrastructure, currently under construction, with the aim of identifying practical ways to mitigate these instabilities.