The process that powers the Sun and other stars is based on the fusion of two hydrogen nuclei, a physical reaction that releases an enormous amount of energy. Researchers are trying to artificially replicate it, and one of the fundamental devices to make it happen is the Tokamak: a donut-shaped machine that, using very powerful magnets, is able to contain the plasma in which the fusion takes place, which reaches temperatures above 100 million degrees. Understanding how to best manage this process is one of the objectives of the project Divertor Tokamak Test (Dtt)led to Enea Center of Frascati (Rome) and promoted by a consortium created in September 2019. Such a consortium sees today Eni partner of the initiative with 25%, Enea with 70% and the rest involves universities and research centers. A strategic infrastructure, based on Italian skills and technology, which has obtained around 500 million euros in public and private funding and is also supported by EUROfusion, the European consortium for scientific research on fusion.
It is a car Tokamak experimental which will have to provide answers to the problems of managing the heat produced by the plasma and materials capable of withstanding high temperatures. In particular, the research also focuses on the design of the ‘divertor’, a fundamental component of the reactor where the excess heat generated in the fusion reactions is managed and extracted.
The technology behind the Dtt it will be the same as it will be used for Iter, l’International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactoran international project for the development of a nuclear fusion reactor.
The Dtt also proposes itself as a test and support infrastructure for the technological solutions implemented in the international programs on fusion. “Our industrial know-how, the management and development skills of large projects, combined with the excellence of Enea’s scientific research, will be the key to success for the realization of this very important initiative and infrastructure, based primarily on skills and technologies Italians “, he commented Claudio Descalzi, CEO of Eni.