Countdown to the 500 million euro nuclear fusion site. On April 10, Enea will communicate in which Region the Divertor Tokamak Test (DDT) laboratory will be built, the experimental structure for nuclear fusion processes strongly desired by the Italian government and the scientific world. The initial endowment of 500 million euros will go to one of the nine Regions that have adhered to the public tender and whose applications are in the hands of a special commission. Yesterday the organism headed by Alessando Ortis – former President of the Energy Authority – announced that the selection of candidates is in the final rush. In just over a month, therefore, it will be known who among Abruzzo, Campania, Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany, Lazio, Liguria, Piedmont, Puglia and Veneto will benefit from the funding to set up the center of excellence. According to Enea, once fully operational, DDT's activities will generate a turnover of approximately 2 billion euros between orders, collateral businesses and micro-activities. The construction works of the headquarters will last 7 years.
We are talking about one of the most ambitious international research projects for nuclear fission. Italy has worked hard at European level to obtain it, bringing with it dozens of other collateral projects and the consolidated references of its researchers. Related to decarbonization and the need to rethink nuclear on a large scale, the tender between the Regions has at least two levels of interest. The first concerns the money arriving from the State, but also from private companies – 60 million already allocated by EUROfusion – and then another 40 million from the Ministry of Research and University and another 40 from the Ministry of Economic Development. The second level concerns the partners: CNR, INFN, Consorzio RFX, CREATE and other prestigious universities that provide economic and human resources. Obviously the host Region will be called upon to do its part. But it is a chapter not yet written.
The DDT structure is designed to employ over 1500 people directly and in related industries in order to create a machine that must give answers and solutions to the principles of nuclear fusion. Practically ? A gigantic cylinder 10 meters high with a radius of 5 in which many cubic meters of plasma will be placed at a temperature of 100 million degrees with a high electrical power. Finally, the thermal load on the materials useful for the fusion will be verified. Therefore superconductors capable of withstanding temperatures of many degrees below zero. In nuclear power, materials are fundamental, precisely because they are linked to the fusion of hydrogen nuclei which release high-yield energy and to the activity of atomic reactors. Years ago Italy spoke out against the use of nuclear power, but scientific research is something else, excellence and studies.
In fact, over 20 patents have been born from the activities on fusion - as Enea explains - in the last 50 years with significant repercussions for the development and competitiveness of national industries. The Italian laboratories are an active part in the European ITER project focused in recent months on the construction of a large experimental center in France. The French are in healthy competition with Russia, China, Japan, India for the use of reactors and the efficiency of the national energy system. We will help them do even better.
