The Board of Directors of ENEA has approved the Final Report with the final ranking of the nine locations candidate to host the Divertor Tokamak Test facility (DTT), the International Center of Excellence for nuclear fusion research. On the basis of the required technical, economic and environmental requirements, the highest score was assigned by the special Evaluation Commission to the Frascati (Rome) site, followed by Cittadella della Ricerca (Brindisi) and Manoppello (Pescara). From fourth to ninth place were the following sites: Brasimone (Reggio Emilia), Casale Monferrato, Chapter San Matteo (Salerno), Porto Marghera (Venice), Ferrania (Savona) and La Spezia. The report with the complete ranking of the proposals presented by Abruzzo, Campania, Emilia Romagna together with Tuscany, Lazio, Liguria (with two sites), Piedmont, Puglia and Veneto is available on the ENEA portal.
“From the inspections carried out in the 60 days of the investigation and from the examination of the documentation received, factual indications emerged to evaluate the suitability of the sites; each requirement has been associated with a specific score to draw up the ranking - he said the President of the Commission, Eng. Alessandro Ortis, former President of the Energy Authority -. It was a laborious and highly committed process, facilitated by a highly appreciated in-depth dialogue with the regional and local administrations which ensured a quality contribution to the Commission's work".
ENEA has therefore completed the investigation within the established 60 days, while in parallel the Government, which had announced the publication cnapi, i.e. the National Charter of areas potentially suitable for hosting the national nuclear waste repository and the related technological park, has not yet done so. On 21 March the outgoing Minister of Economic Development, Carlo Calenda, he had given himself two weeks to close the game that had been at stake for two years. The repository will collect 75 cubic meters of low and medium intensity radioactive waste, now distributed across 22 temporary sites, ranging from decommissioned former nuclear power plants to research laboratories. Above all, it will collect the waste that the atom supply chain will produce in the future.
"The wide participation and the quality of the proposals received have demonstrated the ability to take action, professionalism and strong attention to the world of research: for this I would like to thank all the regional institutions involved - he declared the President of ENEA Federico Testa -. Today it is Italy that wins. Because it invests in knowledge and sustainable energy with a project that guarantees positive scientific and employment prospects for everyone and, in particular, for young people”.
“Now – he added – the operational start-up phase has begun which will require the utmost commitment to ensure compliance with the deadlines and obligations envisaged, starting with the signing of an agreement with the Region. Furthermore - concluded Testa - the rigorous and transparent procedure adopted by the Commission and the effective collaboration of the individual Regions, have highlighted the existence of other sites worthy of being considered for future initiatives in the scientific field. We have today given the first formal evidence of these opportunities to the presidents of the regions involved in the communication of the ranking".
The start of the DTT works is expected by 30 November 2018, with the expectation of completing them in seven years; more than 1500 people will be involved, 500 of whom directly and another 1000 in related industries, with an estimated return of 2 billion euro, against an investment of approximately 500 million euro. Funding is both public and private and sees the participation, among others, of Eurofusion, the European consortium that manages research activities on fusion (60 million euros) on behalf of the European Commission, the MIUR (with 40 million), the MISE (40 million committed from 2019), the People's Republic of China with 30 million, the Lazio Region (25 million), ENEA and partners with 50 million plus an EIB loan of 250 million euros.
The DTT project and nuclear fusion
Fusion, a process opposite to nuclear fission, aims to reproduce the physical mechanism that powers the stars to obtain renewable, safe, economically competitive energy, capable of replacing fossil fuels and contributing to the achievement of decarbonisation objectives.
The DTT was created to provide scientific and technological answers to some particularly complex problems of the fusion process (such as the management of very high temperatures) and acts as a "link" between the large international ITER projects2 and DEMO, the reactor that after 2050 will have to produce electricity from nuclear fusion.
Conceived by ENEA in collaboration with CNR, INFN, Consorzio RFX, CREATE and some of the most prestigious Italian universities, the DTT will be a hyper-technological cylinder 10 meters high with a radius of 5, inside which 33 cubic meters of plasma will be confined with a current intensity of 6 million Ampere (equal to the current of six million lamps) and a thermal load on materials up to 50 million watts per square meter (more than twice the power of a rocket at take-off).
The plasma will work at over 100 million degrees while the over 40 km of superconducting niobium, tin and titanium cables only a few tens of centimeters away will be at 269 °C below zero. Target of the whole power source, the divertor, key element of the tokamak and the most solicited by very high powers, composed of tungsten or liquid metals, removable thanks to highly innovative systems of remote handling.
Italy leader in fusion research
The creation of DTT confirms the strong leadership of our country in fusion research. Italy contributes to the major international research programs DEMO, Broader Approach and ITER and is a partner of the European agencies EUROfusion and Fusion for Energy (F4E). At an industrial level, over 500 companies are involved in various capacities, including Ansaldo Nucleare, ASG superconductors (Malacalza Group), SIMIC, Mangiarotti, Walter Tosto, Delata TI, OCEM Energy Technology, Angelantoni Test Technologies, Zanon, CECOM and the ICAS consortium between ENEA, Criotec and Tratos, which have won tenders for almost one billion euros (about 60% of the value of European orders for the production of high-tech components).
Enea is the coordinator of the national fusion research program and of the ICAS consortium (Italian Consortium for Applied Superconductivity) which has an active role in the production of components within the broader Approach and ITER.
The Fusion and Nuclear Safety Technologies Department of ENEA with the Frascati and Brasimone Research Centers is a nationally and internationally recognized point of reference, among the first to build plants for the study of magnetic confinement plasmas, machines for mergers such as the Frascati Tokamak (FT) and the Frascati Tokamak Upgrade (FTU).
Substantial contributions are made in the fields of superconductivity, plasma interfaced components, neutronics, safety, remote handling and plasma physics. And in the last 20 years, more than 50 patents have been born in the fusion activities with significant repercussions for the development and competitiveness of national industries.
