Senior Scientist – ARC Plasma Instrumentation

Commonwealth Fusion Systems•Devens, MA

4d•$110,000 - $185,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Commonwealth Fusion Systems is currently in the early stages of designing the ARC fusion power plant. The tokamak will share some attributes with SPARC but will also present many new challenges, especially in the thermal and radiological environment inside of the tokamak. The Senior Scientist, ARC Plasma Instrumentation will lead early efforts at scoping out necessary measurements in the plasma for plant control and the technologies that will be used to make these measurements. The Senior Scientist will build off what has been done for SPARC, with a particular focus on determining the minimum necessary set of measurements and instruments for a power plant. In many cases, novel techniques may be required in order to operate in the thermal and radiological environment, so the scientist will work closely with R&D teams to determine necessary R&D for this instrumentation. CFS is looking for someone with experience designing, building, and operating fusion diagnostics and with an interest in exploring a breadth of measurements and technologies for future power plants.

Requirements

PhD in experimental plasma physics or a closely related field
5+ years experience (post degree) in plasma physics or fusion research
Experience designing, building, and operating plasma instrumentation (diagnostics) in plasma experiments
Experience working on a multi-disciplinary engineering project
Experience performing independent research
Knowledge of plasma instrumentation (diagnostics) on tokamaks or similar fusion experiments
Knowledge of engineering sufficient to interact with multi-disciplinary engineering teams
A desire to design commercial fusion products
Ability to adapt to a rapidly changing environment
Ability to work with collaborations from a variety of academic institutions
Perform activities such as typing or sitting for extended periods of time
Willingness to travel or work required nights/weekends/on-call regularly
Work in a facility that contains industrial hazards including heat, cold, noise, fumes, strong magnets, lead (Pb), high voltage, high current, pressure systems, and cryogenics

Nice To Haves

Experience with Python

Responsibilities

Determine and continually refine the set of measurements necessary to operate the ARC tokamak, coordinating with the plasma control and plasma physics teams
Evaluate potential techniques and technologies to make the measurements required in ARC, with a particular focus on techniques that will work robustly in the thermal and radiological environment in ARC
Determine which techniques and technologies will require significant R&D and work with CFS R&D teams to scope out what projects are necessary to develop these technologies
Develop early concepts, layouts, and requirements for proposed plasma instrumentation on ARC, including space requirements both inside and outside of the tokamak
Work with the remote maintenance team to ideate and evaluate remote replacement strategies for plasma instrumentation
Longer term, coordinate efforts of various engineering disciplines to design and analyze instrumentation concepts
Coordinate efforts of external collaborators on ARC plasma instrumentation