Software

Due to its ease of use, expressiveness, and thriving open-source ecosystem, Python has become one of the most popular programming languages in modern research. It is commonly used as a scripting language, meaning researchers write their code as a series of expressions in a single file, which is then executed by the Python runtime. However, there are many limitations to this scripting model, and it can be more sustainable in the long run to structure Python code into libraries instead of scripts. The benefits of doing so include:

The Finite Element Discharge Modelling code (FEDM) is a collection of functions to assist in the simulation of electric discharges using finite element methods, created by Aleksandar Jovanovic at the Leibniz Institute for Plasma Science and Technology. Utilising the FEniCS finite element library and its Python API Dolfin, FEDM is able to simulate a large number of particle species and the reactions that may occur between them during an electrical discharge. These systems can involve a large number of source terms, some of which may be stiff in nature, and coding these by hand can be very laborious and error-prone. FEDM aims to simplify the development of these models.

Gyrokinetics is a branch of theoretical plasma physics that aims to provide a detailed description of plasma behaviour at length scales down to the gyroradius. It is commonly used by tokamak scientists to describe the turbulent transport effects that tend to dominate at the temperatures and pressures necessary to achieve practical fusion energy.

openmc-plasma-source is a Python package that simplifies the creation of neutron sources for OpenMC Monte-Carlo simulations in tokamaks. It allows users to create point sources, ring sources, and randomised collections of ring sources called TokamakSource.

Paramak is a Python package for generating 3D CAD models of fusion reactors. It is designed to rapidly produce tokamak geometries for parametric studies, and provides numerous standard CAD formats such as STP, STL and Brep.