DTT – Divertor Tokamak Test facilityFusion energy has a number of advantages: virtually unlimited, does not produce greenhouse gases and is intrinsically safe. The European fusion Roadmap aims at the construction of a demonstration plant (DEMO, the first nuclear fusion power plant able to provide power to electricity grid) around 2050.
One of the main challenges on the path of the realization of fusion is the fabrication of components that can withstand the large thermal load that is generated by the fusion reactions and exhausted in the divertor. To give a scale of the challenge, the heat load on the DEMO divertor may be comparable to the power radiated at the surface of the Sun!
For this reason, the European Fusion Roadmap advocated for a specific facility, the Divertor Tokamak Test facility (DTT), aimed at testing advanced technological solutions for the DEMO divertor. The DTT project has been prepared by more than one hundred scientists from several Italian and European research institutions. After a preparatory phase, the project was launched in 2019 and it is being realized at the ENEA Frascati center by DTT Scarl, a limited liability consortium in charge of the design, construction, and management of the DTT experimental facility. The Consortium was established in 2019 by ENEA and the CREATE Consortium. In 2020 ENI joined the consortium followed in 2021 by the RFX Consortium, the Italian National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN), the Polytechnic University of Turin, the University of Tuscia (Viterbo), the University of Milano Bicocca and the University of Rome “Tor Vergata”. The National Research Council (CNR) is expected to join soon. The construction is progressing with about one third of the construction budget already committed for industrial contracts.
The DTT construction entails strategic investments in several key areas of research and innovation, with significant implications on the energy problem, offering a stimulus on higher education and training in many fields of science and engineering. The occupational impact is expected to be significant, both during construction and operation, in terms of professionals and support staff directly involved, as well as large indirect occupational benefits and spin-off opportunities.
DTT S.c. a r.l.Consorzio per l'attuazione del Progetto
Divertor Tokamak Test
Via Enrico Fermi, 45
00044 Frascatti, Italy
Phone: +39 06 94005602
Email: marialaura.sansovini@enea.it
marialaura.sansovini@dtt-project.it
https://www.dtt-project.it/