An international research team coordinated by the Institute for Plasma Science and Technology of the National Research Council based in Milan (CNR-ISTP) greatly contributed to solving one of the major “challenges” associated with the use of nuclear energy: measuring the power achieved in new fusion reactors based on the deuterium-tritium reaction.
The technique currently used to measure the power achieved in fusion reactors, based on “counting” the number of free neutrons generated by the fusion of the two hydrogen isotopes — deuterium and tritium — most commonly used as the fuel for the reaction, poses several challenges.
The study conducted by the Italian researchers, in collaboration with the Departments of Physics of the University of Milan-Bicocca and of the Statale University of Milan , ENEA headquarters in Frascati and other European institutes within the “GETART” project, has demonstrated that gamma rays produced in the deuterium-tritium nuclear reaction can provide an accurate and alternative method for measuring the power achieved in new fusion reactors.
According to the project coordinator, Marco Tardocchi, a research director at Cnr-Istp: “Until now, the absence of a direct and alternative method to absolute neutron counting has been an obstacle to the independent validation of results obtained from ongoing experiments and the authorization of future commercial plants. This type of measurement based on absolute gamma-ray counting represents the only possible technique also in view of the use of future reactors based on alternative fuels that do not produce neutrons.”
The optimization of this measurement was preliminarily performed at the ENEA neutron generator “Frascati Neutron Generator” (FNG), one of the few in the world available for fusion research and other application sectors, including aerospace, automotive, physics and particle detectors. Entirely designed and built by ENEA at the Frascati Research Centre, FNG is the most powerful 14 MeV neutron source in Europe.
The study is the subject of two scientific articles published Physical Review Cand Physical Review Letters and is the result of an effective collaboration between the academic world and research institutes.
