Challenges and Gaps in the Development of Pulsed Power for Fusion Applications: A Preroadmapping Perspective From Industry, Academia, and National Laboratory Experts

Fusion energy meets the twenty-first century World Grand Challenge of sustainable, ubiquitous, and safer energy sources. However, harnessing the promise of fusion energy has proven elusive. The competing approaches to fusion power plant design include inertial confinement fusion, National Ignition Facility (ICF-NIF, <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Z</i> machine, etc.,) magnetic confinement fusion (MCF-Tokamak, stellarators, etc.), and other approaches that show promise in small- (flow stabilized <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Z</i> pinches) or large-scale applications. These approaches are being accelerated with private and public funding and seek to demonstrate the feasibility of different approaches to fusion-based power plants. Yet, how can the necessary pulsed power technologies for these disruptive technology bases be accelerated with no clear “Dominant Design?” Roadmapping holds the promise to identify and develop common critical pulsed power components for laboratory, prototype, and commercial fusion, and can accelerate the commercialization of fusion reactor designs. A preroadmapping Workshop on Pulsed Power for Fusion was held at the IEEE International Pulsed Power Conference in San Antonio, TX, USA, in June 2023. The workshop had 177 attendees. Here, the common elements for many of the ICF technologies vying for dominant design were identified. The advancement of these technologies through roadmapping will enhance commercial expectations that require their rapid and innovative development in the next five years, as well as the next five to ten years. The key technologies identified that underpin and limit the advancement of fusion power include pulsed power technologies such as energy storage, high-voltage switching, additive manufacturing, and modular pulsed power circuit topologies. They are the focus of our effort in the following roadmap scenario, which will delineate potential paths to technology development.