The FPAC LAB hosted a two-day collaborative visit from researchers at the DIII-D National Fusion Facility, one of the premier magnetic fusion research centers in the United States. Dr. T. Scoville, head of the Neutral Beam Group at DIII-D, operated by General Atomics in San Diego, California was joined by Dr. B. Crawley, a neutral beam physicist, and E. Kallenberg, a distant-education Ph.D. student at NC State whose research bridges both institutions. This collaboration builds upon recent Department of Energy grant to design more efficient, innovative, and reliable neutral beam ion sources for use at the DIII-D facility. The project is led by Dr. F. Laggner and Dr. A. Lietz, along with Dr. S. Shannon, who bring together expertise in fusion plasma modeling, and high-power RF systems.
Throughout the visit, the team engaged in detailed discussions, design reviews, and brainstorming sessions with faculty, graduate students, and post-docs. Lab tours and hands on operation of a test ion source plasma, LUPIN, glowing in the vacuum chamber above, fostered valuable feedback and collaborative planning. The visit centered on technical alignment and knowledge exchange to support the upgrade of the neutral beam ion source system. Collaborative efforts like this underscore NC State’s commitment to being at the cutting edge of fusion science and education. The visit supports to build a lasting partnership between NC State and the DIII-D facility, and it paves the way for future student engagement, shared experiments, and co-developed innovation in plasma heating technologies.