Rewarding research experiences shape an undergraduate’s path in fusion energy

Before he arrived on campus at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, undergraduate Jay Dregney already knew he wanted to pursue a career in fusion energy. Finding a home in the Engineering Physics (EP) program, he refined his interests through meaningful research experiences. 

EP is a unique program that prepares students for successful research careers by immersing them in active research groups on campus. Students are paired with a research mentor and faculty advisor that guide them through the entire research process from proposal to thesis.

Eager to gain even more research experience, Dregney also spent a semester interning at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Now a senior set to graduate in May, he looks back on the opportunities that enriched his undergraduate career and shaped his future goals. 

Why did you decide to study engineering physics?

I originally wanted to be in chemical engineering. I knew I wanted to go into fusion, and I thought I could do that through chemical engineering, but when I found out about engineering physics, I switched pretty quick. I knew I wanted to do fusion, and I knew I wanted to do undergraduate research, so I thought the EP major fit like a glove. 

How did you become interested in fusion?

I’ve been interested in fusion since high school. I just think it’s a cool scientific problem to work on, and I knew I wanted to put my skills towards a bigger problem that can benefit all of society. I thought it would satisfy me more to have a big goal to work towards.

What kind of research are you doing through the EP program? 

I work with Professor Rogerio Jorge from the Department of Physics and researchers at the Helically Symmetric eXperiment (HSX). I’m simulating HSX with certain neoclassical transport codes. In the regimes that we operate HSX under, there are singularities that emerge because of the difference in electron and ion temperatures—HSX has much hotter electrons than ions. The group is planning to update the heating element, so we expect to get higher ion temperatures. What I’m looking at is, with these higher ion temperatures, do the domains that we can use these codes on improve? So, can we use it on more of the plasma than we have up until now?

What has that research experience been like for you? 

It’s been really cool. I really like taking a project and sort of making it my own. And I’ve enjoyed seeing how I’ve gotten better at coming up with my own questions. In the beginning, the project was given to me, but now I’m able to ask questions like, ‘If I change these parameters, how would that affect the system?’ And even, ‘Is this a good question to ask? Would it be important for the field to know?’ 

You took a semester off last year to do an internship. Where did you intern and how did you come across the opportunity?

Yes, I went to Oak Ridge National Laboratory through the SULI program, and I worked with Dr. Matthew Beidler. I originally cold emailed researchers there, asking them if they would accept me for the semester because they had a group that I was interested in—the liquid metal blanket group. The funding for SULI comes from the Department of Energy, so it’s sort of free money for that research group; they don’t have to pay me anything.

What kind of research did you do at Oak Ridge?

So, in a tokamak, there are conditions where the current that they drive can induce instabilities. That leads to a rapid collapse of the plasma energy, called a disruption, and that energy gets blown outward into the walls. Then, the magnetic energy dissipates, and it causes extreme forces in the metal structures. Disruptions can drive an electric field that accelerates an electron close to the speed of light. That increases energy deposition on the first wall of the plasma device, and those highly energetic electrons can bypass the first wall, depositing their energy deeper into the structure where there are more sensitive components. So my work was investigating how those electrons affect the blanket element of the tokamak.

How did you determine how the blanket was affected?

I used a code called M3D-C1 to compare a base case where the runaway electron model wasn’t included to a case where it was, looking at changes in the forces it generates in the structure and temperature.

Why did you pursue blanket technology research, specifically?

I’ve been really interested in blanket technology research and the tritium fuel cycle. I think it’s a really complex engineering challenge and also one that’s really important for fusion as a viable power source.

What would you say is the value of doing an internship during your undergrad?

For me, it better focused my interest in fusion. The field is so broad, and coming into college, I knew I wanted to do fusion, but I didn’t know what area I wanted to work in. Going to a lab like Oak Ridge, where they cover the whole spectrum with their research, I could see what the active areas of research are. I got to talk to researchers in some of those different research areas to see if I would be interested in it long term as a research or engineering career. Being in an environment like that helped me focus what I want to do in the future in fusion. 

How has the Engineering Physics program impacted your academic journey?

Coming out of high school, I knew I wanted to do research. So, getting to focus on that through the EP program has been really cool. Other engineering majors have one year or one semester of a project that they work towards. But in EP, you spend three years of your undergrad working towards this project. And you can really make it your own. It’s a great hands-on experience and gives you super in-depth learning for three years. I mean, I was doing plasma physics research before I even took a plasma physics class, so when I got into plasma physics, I could say, ‘Hey, I know that,’ which is pretty cool.

Plus, in the EP research sequence classes, you have all the EP majors in the same class, so you get to know them all. It’s a pretty close community, and you’re all working on the same problems, so you can go to them for help. I think that’s definitely a benefit of the program. 

Would you like to continue doing research in the future?

Yes, right now, I’m planning to pursue a PhD. I may work for a couple of years first, but ultimately I’ll go for a PhD. The EP program lends itself really well to grad school because you’ve already been doing research for three years. And for me, research is like learning and discovering all the time. I remember thinking, as a freshman, that if I could just sit in lecture all day as a job, that’d be awesome. With research, you can continue to do that—where you become the lecturer. You create the knowledge and develop new processes and, as small as it may seem, you’re leading the industry forward.

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