MiRACL Summer School 2026

Overview

The sudden, uncontrolled loss of confinement in a fusion reactor ("disruption") poses major risks to magnetic confinement fusion power plants, and is a high-priority topic of fusion energy research.  The MiRACL FIRE Collaborative is a joint activity of 11 research institutions for building and applying numerical models to understand and address these risks.

MiRACL is partnering with the MIT Computational Physics School for Fusion Research to provide additional instruction on the topic of modeling disruptions.   The MiRACL component will cover:

• An overview of the challenges that disruptions pose to magnetic fusion energy

• An introduction ongoing R&D to address the prediction, avoidance, and mitigation of disruptions

• Computational tools and methods used in disruption modeling

This program is tailored for grad students and postdocs.

Please note that the disruption component will be limited to 20 participants and requires separate registration from the main CPS-FR component.   Participation in the MiRACL component does not require participation in the main CFS-FR component, although this is encouraged.

Important Dates

Registration opens:          March 15, 2026

Registration closes:          May 8, 2026 (CLOSED)

Acceptance letters:          June 1,  2026

Confirm participation:    June 15, 2026

Disruption component:  July 30 - August 1

Main CPS-FR school:        August 3 - 8

Logistics

The MiRACL component will be held on July 30 - August 1, prior to CPS-FR (August 3 - 8).  The MiRACL Summer School component will be held on MIT campus in building 37 classroom 212, while CPS-FR component will be held on MIT campus in building 4 classroom 231. 

MIT housing will be available at a discounted rate relative to local hotels.

Agenda

Lecturers

Eric Hollmann - University of California San Diego

Sophia Henneberg - Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Nate Ferraro - Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory

Matt Beidler - Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Cesar Clauser - Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Chris Hansen - Columbia University

Ryan Sweeney - Commonwealth Fusion Systems

Tom Looby - Commonwealth Fusion Systems

Matthias Hoppe - KTH Royal Institute of Technology

Benedikt Zimmermann - Columbia University

Alex Tinguely - Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Rishabh Datta - Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Alex Saperstein - Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Matt Tobin - Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Yashika Ghai - Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Organizers 

Cesar Clauser (MIT), Nate Ferraro (PPPL), Alex Tinguely (MIT)

Admin support 

Alicia Valeriano, Jessica Cocco