Significant opportunities exist for participating in exciting research at all levels on the DIII-D tokamak in San Diego. The DIII-D program is a national and international collaboration among ~100 academic and corporate research institutions. Collaborators lead and manage elements of the program, generate ideas and innovations, lead experiments, build and operate diagnostics and equipment, analyze data, provide theory and modeling, and report and publish results. Graduate and undergraduate students also find opportunities for contributing to world-class fusion science.

Note that the following description of the program is from 2020; it will be updated soon

The overall goal of the DIII-D program is to establish the scientific basis for the optimization of the tokamak approach to fusion energy. This includes specific emphasis on three areas of research:

1. Prepare for Burning Plasmas: Deliver predictive understanding of the impact and optimization of burning plasma conditions on plasma performance in ITER and future devices.
2. Evaluate the Requirements for Steady-State Tokamak Operation: Provide the physics understanding that establishes the requirements for achieving efficient, high performance, steady-state operation in future fusion devices.
3. Establish the Physics Basis for Robust, Effective Plasma Boundary/Material Solutions: Develop and validate solutions for simultaneous heat and particle flux control including transients in future, high-power fusion devices.

DIII-D scientists are committed to addressing ITER research needs. Efforts in this area include pioneering work in control of core and edge instabilities, core stability and transport including the effect of low-torque operation (using co-counter current NBI and ECH heating/current drive), validating safe rapid plasma shutdown methods, testing and developing operating scenarios for ITER, developing physics models for partially detached divertor solutions, and evaluating plasma-material interactions.

The research program includes major elements of fusion science: transport, stability, energetic particles, heating and current drive, pedestal and boundary physics, and plasma-material interactions. A hallmark of the DIII-D program is its emphasis on model validation enabled by a world-leading diagnostic set. DIII-D actively participates in the International Tokamak Physics Activity (ITPA) and internationally coordinated multi-machine experiments.

DIII-D has a flexible set of heating and current-drive systems, including 20MW of neutral beam heating (co- and counter-current injection, with 5MW of variable off-axis injection and current drive), and 6 MW-class gyrotrons with steerable launchers for EC heating, current drive, and stability control. Multiple pellet injectors provide capability for ELM pacing, disruption mitigation, and fueling studies, while active density control is provided by three in-vessel cryopumps. The flexible shape control system allows lower-single-null, upper-single-null, and double-null shapes with a wide range of triangularity and elongation.

• The DIII-D Internal Users Site is here (access restricted to program participants).
• The current (2019-2024) DIII-D 5-year plan can be found here.

Contact information for key individuals in each topical area may be found in the opportunities announcement poster.