1. magnetic confinement - ENEA - Fusione

ENEA’s activities in the field of controlled nuclear fusion form part
of its overall mandate to conduct research on energy sources that
have a low environmental impact and a high innovative content.
There are two promising approaches to controlled nuclear fusion -
magnetic confinement and inertial confinement. In the first approach,
suitably configured high magnetic fields are used to contain the reacting
plasma and limit energy loss. The second approach uses pulsed energy
sources (lasers or particle beams, generally known as drivers) to
compress the fuel and heat part of it to the critical temperature at which
fusion reactions are triggered. The results achieved over the past two
decades have convinced most researchers that it is now possible to
proceed with experiments that demonstrate so-called thermonuclear
ignition or, at least, a high ratio between the fusion energy generated and
the energy required to produce the reacting configuration. Towards this
end, large-scale projects are currently under design or already under
way.
PREFACE
The Italian programme addresses both concepts but focuses mainly on
magnetic confinement fusion. Italy accounts for 20% of the European
Fusion Programme and is second only to Germany and slightly ahead of
France. The EU through the European Fusion Programme leads the
world in the field of magnetic confinement and, indeed, has
demonstrated that a policy of close interaction and cooperation between
centres of excellence within a framework of a common EU strategy is
extremely gainful to all concerned.
The most important experimental activities of ENEA are carried out
on the Frascati Tokamak Upgrade (FTU) at the Frascati
laboratories. FTU is a high magnetic field tokamak device
dedicated to experiments on microwave plasma-heating. ENEA is also
involved in experimental work on the Joint European Torus (JET) and
collaborates in the design of the International Thermonuclear
Experimental Reactor (ITER). The integrated nature of this global
programme has generated extensive collaborations, in which the results
and goals are shared, as well as competition between the participants to
obtain the most significant tasks. ENEA has forged several national
collaborations which involve experimental work on FTU. The main