MPEX Workshop

We are planning a 1 or 2-day workshop to seek community input for MPEX, a new high power linear plasma device which is currently being built at ORNL.

The Material Plasma Exposure eXperiment (MPEX) is a linear plasma device designed to address crucial R&D gaps in the area of Plasma Material Interactions (PMI) for future fusion reactors. The MPEX plasma source and heating systems will allow plasma exposures of plasma facing materials and components to prototypic fusion reactor divertor plasma conditions. The MPEX design accommodates the introduction of materials previously neutron-irradiated materials for fusion reactor relevant plasma exposures. This capability will be unique worldwide.

The US fusion program has advocated for such a device in numerous community reports in the past number of years and now ORNL is building this new device. MPEX is a MIE project, executed in the DOE, Office of Science, Fusion Energy Sciences.

The purpose of this workshop is to get community input into the definition of the MPEX research program for the first 5 years. We would like to formulate and prioritize Research Questions that are appropriate to be addressed on a linear plasma device and make use of the unique capabilities of MPEX. In addition, we would like to get information on how to best support successful timely resolution of these Research Questions including:

• Early exploitation in parallel to high level commissioning which could lead to a possible re-prioritization of the commissioning program, if necessary.
• Identification of improvements for the next generation target holder assembly.
• Identification/prioritization of diagnostics needs beyond device commissioning.
• Identification of potential material targets to be tested, reference materials throughout the phases of high-level commissioning.
• Identification of first batch of irradiated materials to be tested.

Furthermore, we want to identify collaborations with confinement facilities that would leverage MPEX operation or generate unique synergies in identifying, testing, or validating candidate materials for future fusion systems.