Advanced experimental devices for fusion energy research are very large in the $5B class, the next major step being construction of ITER, a tokamak device capable of producing several hundred megawatts of fusion power. The plasmas in such devices are extremely far from thermal equilibrium and support a number of physical processes that can transport energy and particles out of the device. These must be controlled and coordinated to successfully achieve the conditions required for fusion. Simulation is a key element in the research program needed to understand experimental results from devices and compare these results to theory, to plan and design experiments on the devices, and to invent and evaluate new, higher performing confinement concepts. There are a number of fundamental computational challenges in such simulation: extreme range of time scales, extreme range of space scales, extreme plasma anisotropy, strong non-linear coupling, sensitivity to geometric details, and high dimensionality. The talk will describe the various approaches to fusion plasma simulation and progress toward bringing together the various models so as to treat the plasma more self-consistently. In particular, the fusion community is planning a comprehensive Fusion Simulation Project (FSP) whose ultimate goal (~ 15 years) is to predict reliably the behavior of plasma discharges in toroidal magnetic fusion devices on all relevant time and space scales.
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