Eni plans to build the first industrial fusion nuclear power plant in the early 1930s. The head of the fusion group, Francesca Ferrazza, said this at a hearing at the Senate Environment Committee. Eni participates in the Commonwealth Fusion System (CFS) project in the United States, a spinoff of the Boston MIT, with the magnetic confinement technique. The Italian group plans to help build the first Cfs-Sparc pilot plant in the mid-2020s. The first industrial plant connected to the grid, the Cfs-Arc, is planned for the early 1930s, and new power plants in the second half of the decade.
In Italy, the energy group has a 25% joint venture in the Dtt (Divertor Tokamak Test) project, together with Enea (which has 70%) and with research bodies and universities (which have the remaining 5%). DTT studies the management of the enormous amount of heat from the hydrogen plasma inside the reactor (100 million degrees). Finally, Eni has collaboration projects with the Cnr and various universities (Polititecnico di Milano, Bicocca, Tuscia and others) on specific components.
Ferrazza explained that there are 140 experimental fusion machines in the world, 3/4 public and 1/4 private. There is a Fusion Industry Association, with 80 members, 43 of which are private industries. Investments mobilized in the sector are currently over 6 billion dollars. “The Italian fusion supply chain is among the leaders at a global level – explained Ferrazza – and our research centers and universities are among the most advanced. But for fusion, specific legislation is needed, as the United States and the United Kingdom have established and how Germany and Japan are doing”.
Nuclear fusion is done with a coffee cup (filled with hydrogen)
Nuclear but not only: the technological frontier leads to small-scale fission nuclear power. At least that's what Lorenzo Mottura, Edison vice president, is convinced of during a hearing in the Senate Environment Committee. “By starting to develop nuclear power today, with the first technology available, we are contributing 10% to electricity decarbonisation. The optimized scenario leads to 80% renewables, 10% nuclear, the remaining 10% we have no alternative to gas, but with the capture of Co2, gas will still act as a bridge to 2050 while waiting for nuclear to completely replace this percentage” explains Lorenzo Mottura.