{"id":243616,"date":"2026-09-04T01:37:27","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T06:37:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/09\/pacman-ai-framework-for-controlling-fusion-systems-safely-makes-key-decisions-in-milliseconds"},"modified":"2026-09-04T01:37:27","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T06:37:27","slug":"pacman-ai-framework-for-controlling-fusion-systems-safely-makes-key-decisions-in-milliseconds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/09\/pacman-ai-framework-for-controlling-fusion-systems-safely-makes-key-decisions-in-milliseconds","title":{"rendered":"PACMAN AI framework for controlling fusion systems safely makes key decisions in milliseconds"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

Inside some fusion energy systems, particles hotter than the core of the sun can become unruly in a few thousandths of a second, far faster than any human operator can react. A new software framework developed by researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy\u2019s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) and Princeton University hands those split-second decisions to artificial intelligence (AI), while keeping the machine safe and humans firmly in charge of the goals.<\/p>\n

Known as PACMAN (a novel abbreviation for Prediction And Control using MAchiNe learning), the AI framework was successfully tested on a real fusion system in five experiments. The framework\u2019s design and first results are detailed in a new paper<\/a> in the journal Nuclear Fusion.<\/p>\n

Fusion could one day serve as a virtually unlimited source of electricity. Scientists are working on several ways to perfect the process here on Earth, including devices called tokamaks, which use powerful magnetic fields to hold a plasma: an electrically charged gas often called the fourth state of matter. Keeping the plasma hot, dense and stable requires constant adjustments to the tokamak, including its heating systems, magnets and gas injectors. The fusion reaction can be thwarted by small disturbances in the plasma, known as instabilities, that grow in milliseconds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Inside some fusion energy systems, particles hotter than the core of the sun can become unruly in a few thousandths of a second, far faster than any human operator can react. A new software framework developed by researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy\u2019s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) and Princeton University hands those [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[873,48,6,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-243616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nuclear-energy","category-particle-physics","category-robotics-ai","category-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243616\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}