Simulation science for fusion plasmas

"The world fusion effort has embarked into a new age with the construction of ITER in Cadarache, France, which will be the first magnetic confinement fusion plasma experiment dominated by the self-heating of fusion reactions. In order to operate and control burning plasmas and next generation demo fusion reactors, an advanced capability for comprehensive integrated computer simulations that are fully verified and validated against experimental data will be necessary. The ultimate goal is to predict reliably the behaviour of plasmas in toroidal magnetic confinement devices on all relevant scales, both in time and space. In addition to developing a sophisticated integrated simulation codes, directed advanced research in fusion physics, applied mathematics, computer science and software is envisaged. In this paper we review the basic strategy and main research efforts at the Department of Simulation Science of the National Institute for Fusion Science (NIFS)- which is the Inter University Institute and the coordinating Center of Excellence for academic fusion research in Japan. We overview a simulation research at NIFS, in particular relation to experiments in the Large Helical Device (LHD), the world\u27s largest superconducting heliotron device, as a National Users\u27 facility (see Motojima et al. [1]). Our main goal is understanding and systemizing the rich hierarchy of physical mechanisms in fusion plasmas, supported by exploring a basic science of complexity of plasma as a highly nonlinear, non-equilibrium, open system. The aim is to establish a simulation science as a new interdisciplinary field by fostering collaborative research in utilizing the large-scale supercomputer simulators. A concept of the hierarchy-renormalized simulation modelling will be invoked en route toward the LHD numerical test reactor.