Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) fusion energy research addresses scientific and technical challenges important to the development of future fusion systems.
Our scientists bring together decades of tritium expertise with fusion materials research, materials characterization, fuel-cycle technologies, modeling, advanced manufacturing, and autonomous science.
Fusion energy could provide a new source of reliable energy while strengthening U.S. energy leadership and competitiveness. But producing fusion energy at commercial scale requires more than sustaining a fusion reaction. Scientists and engineers must also solve difficult problems involving fuel, materials, components, and manufacturing. Tritium and its interactions with materials are central to several of these challenges.
PNNL is focused on areas where our science, capabilities, and experience can make a meaningful contribution.
Tritium and the fusion fuel cycle
Future fusion systems need reliable ways to produce, manage, recover, and reuse tritium.
Many proposed fusion energy systems use deuterium and tritium as fuel. Tritium will be needed to start these systems, and ultimately, to sustain them through a fuel cycle that breeds, recovers, processes, and reuses it.
PNNL brings decades of experience in tritium science and engineering. Researchers are applying that scientific foundation to fusion research involving tritium production, fuel-cycle technologies, tritium transport and behavior, and the effects of tritium on materials.
This research can help establish the scientific foundation for a future tritium supply chain and sustainable fusion fuel cycle.
Fusion materials under coupled extremes
Fusion materials must perform reliably while exposed to multiple extreme conditions at once.
Heat, radiation, plasma exposure, mechanical stress, gases, and hydrogen isotopes such as tritium can affect materials at the same time. Understanding how those conditions interact is important to developing plasma-facing, blanket, and structural materials for future fusion systems.
For tritium in particular, researchers need to understand how hydrogen isotopes move through and accumulate in materials, how they affect material performance, and how radiation and other operating conditions change that behavior.
PNNL combines materials synthesis and testing with materials characterization, advanced microscopy, and modeling to understand how fusion materials change under these conditions and identify ways to improve their performance.
Researchers are also studying the fundamental mechanisms that determine material resilience under interacting fusion conditions, with the long-term goal of improving how resilient materials are designed.
Materials characterization reveals how fusion materials change
Advanced materials characterization helps researchers understand not only whether a material changes or fails, but why.
PNNL scientists use specialized microscopy, atom probe tomography, spectroscopy, post-irradiation examination, mechanical testing, and other techniques to study fusion materials from the atomic scale through larger structures.
Connecting these observations with experiments and modeling can reveal how radiation, tritium, defects, interfaces, chemistry, and temperature affect material performance. That knowledge can guide the development and evaluation of better fusion materials.
Accelerating fusion energy research
Faster learning can help reduce uncertainty as fusion technologies advance.
PNNL is connecting experiments, modeling, materials characterization, advanced manufacturing, AI, and autonomous science to shorten the cycle between testing a material, understanding what happened, and improving the next design.
This integrated approach can provide stronger scientific understanding earlier in the development process and help researchers focus on promising materials and research directions.
PNNL also works with the Department of Energy (DOE), other national laboratories, universities, and fusion companies to connect fundamental science with fusion-relevant technical challenges. These partnerships provide access to multidisciplinary expertise and specialized research capabilities that complement the capabilities of other research institutions and industry partners.
Fusion energy research at PNNL
PNNL brings together expertise in:
- Tritium science and fuel-cycle technologies, including tritium production, transport, behavior, and materials interactions
- Fusion materials and materials characterization, from synthesis and irradiation research to atomic-scale analysis and post-irradiation examination
- Modeling and simulation to understand materials behavior and improve predictive capabilities under fusion-relevant conditions
- AI and autonomous science to accelerate experimentation, analysis, and learning
- Advanced manufacturing to develop scalable approaches for fusion materials and components
- Partnerships with DOE, national laboratories, universities, industry, and regional organizations.
