Nuclear: G7, ENEA hosted first meeting of Working Group on fusion energy

The ENEA Frascati Research Center (Rome) hosted the first meeting of the “G7 Working Group” on nuclear fusion, which originated at the G7 meeting on climate, energy and the environment held at the Venaria Palace (Turin) under the Italian presidency.

ENEA President Gilberto Dialuce, chair of G7 Energy, Director General Giorgio Graditi and Nuclear Department Director Alessandro Dodaro took the Working Group members on a visit to the Frascati Divertor Tokamak test and Neutron Generator laboratories dedicated to magnetic confinement fusion and Laser ABC for inertial confinement.

Francesca Salvemini, head of the Technical Secretariat of Minister Gilberto Pichetto Fratin, opened the first meeting of the “G7 Working Group” on fusion in the afternoon, which also featured interventions by the ENEA president and representatives of the G7 countries, the European Union, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the International Energy Agency (IEA).

 “The Italian physics and engineering 'school' for fusion is among the best in the world, where professionals who occupy key roles in a large number of laboratories and organizations internationally were trained,” Dialuce noted. “Italy's contribution to the European fusion program,” he added, ”is remarkable, with research activities funded with more than 800 million euro (excluding the DTT) in the last 10 years and an average of 650 people involved each year. The DTT confirms Italy’s centrality as home to one of the major international infrastructures, key together with ITER for future fusion plants, and ready to share these experiences with the G7.”

The Working Group identified priorities and timetable for future work, which will continue under the Canadian chairmanship, on the following topics:

Exchange of best practices on ongoing research activities and development programs to strengthen cooperation, also to identify the technological challenges on which to focus in order to accelerate the development of fusion projects;

defining the criteria governing fusion facility projects to harmonize procedures and standards and provide a framework for industries investing in the field;

identifying possible mechanisms to facilitate public/private collaboration to promote private investment.

The G7 Working Group meeting on fusion in Frascati immediately follows another event of global importance, the inaugural ministerial meeting of the World Fusion Energy Group, which took place on Wednesday, November 6, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. This meeting, jointly organized by the IAEA and Italy, on the initiative of the IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, was attended by several ministers and senior political representatives from around the world, along with representatives of major industries committed to achieving the goal of large-scale fusion energy production.

According to Minister Pichetto Fratin, who coordinated the ministerial session of the event, “no nation can tackle this challenge on its own. The first meeting of the G7 Working Group on fusion,” he added, ”is a concrete sign of the commitment of the G7 countries to strengthen international cooperation on fusion energy, on the eve of the launch of the global group in Rome.