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Novel Approaches and Challenges in Nuclear Fusion Engineering

A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Energy Science and Technology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 July 2025 | Viewed by 3956

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Engineering and Sciences, Universitas Mercatorum, 00186 Rome, Italy
Interests: power supplies and electrical systems in nuclear fusion; computational electromagnetics; plasma modeling; superconductivity; bioelectromagnetism
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
1. Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA), 00044 Frascati, Italy
2. DTT S. c. a r. l., 00044 Frascati, Italy
Interests: supercapacitors; power supplies and electrical systems; characterization, modeling and simulation of supercapacitors; hybrid energy storage
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Nuclear fusion, the reaction that powers the Sun and the stars, is expected to be a safe, non-polluting, and virtually limitless energy resource. In the future, it is foreseen that nuclear fusion power plants could spread all over the world into the energy production context, reducing the contribution to electricity coming from fossil fuels and other polluting resources. The achievement of such a goal requires the solution of many challenging problems in a wide range of engineering fields, requiring the discovery of novel solutions and the development of new technologies. This Special Issue aims at collecting scientific and technical manuscripts on the technical and theoretical aspects concerning the most important issues to be faced to design and safely operate a future nuclear fusion power plant. The key focus of the Special Issue is to describe the current state of the art, the emerging technologies, and new technical solutions under investigation in nuclear fusion engineering, including (but not limited to) the following key topics:

  • Balance of plant in a nuclear fusion facility;
  • High-current and high-voltage power supplies;
  • Electrical distribution systems for pulsed loads;
  • High-performance (electric, magnetic, and thermal) energy storage systems;
  • Solutions and layouts for cooling and heat transport
  • Power conversion, power generation, and connection to the external grid;
  • Thermomechanical design of structural elements and plasma-facing components;
  • Advances in applied superconductivity;
  • Heating and current drive technologies;
  • Nuclear and real-time diagnostics;
  • Plasma scenarios and equilibria design, optimization, and control;
  • Solutions for power exhaust management;
  • Technologies for tritium extraction and fuel cycle;
  • Safety and reliability issues in nuclear fusion;
  • Design and management of experimental facilities.

Dr. Simone Minucci
Dr. Alessandro Lampasi
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Applied Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • nuclear fusion
  • high-current and high-voltage power supplies
  • pulsed loads
  • energy storage
  • electromechanical and thermomechanical analysis
  • power conversion system in nuclear fusion facilities
  • nuclear and real-time diagnostics
  • neutronics
  • cooling systems
  • manufacturing processes for nuclear fusion
  • multiphysics analyses
  • superconductivity
  • artificial intelligence and machine learning
  • power exhaust

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 7215 KiB  
Article
Modeling Approaches for Accounting Radiation-Induced Effect in HVDC-GIS Design for Nuclear Fusion Applications
by Francesco Lucchini, Alessandro Frescura, Kenji Urazaki Junior, Nicolò Marconato and Paolo Bettini
Appl. Sci. 2024, 14(24), 11666; https://doi.org/10.3390/app142411666 - 13 Dec 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 733
Abstract
This paper examines the modeling approaches used to analyze the electric field distribution in high-voltage direct-current gas-insulated systems (HVDC-GISs) used for the acceleration grid power supply (AGPS) of neutral beam injectors (NBIs). A key challenge in this context is the degradation of dielectric [...] Read more.
This paper examines the modeling approaches used to analyze the electric field distribution in high-voltage direct-current gas-insulated systems (HVDC-GISs) used for the acceleration grid power supply (AGPS) of neutral beam injectors (NBIs). A key challenge in this context is the degradation of dielectric performance due to radiation-induced conductivity (RIC), a phenomenon specific to the harsh radioactive environments near fusion reactors. Traditional models for gas conductivity in HVDC-GISs often rely on constant or nonlinear conductivity formulations, which are based on experimental data but fail to capture the effects of external ionizing radiation that triggers RIC. To address this limitation, a more advanced approach, the drift–diffusion recombination (DDR) model, is used, as it more accurately represents gas ionization and the influence of radiation fields. However, this increased accuracy comes at the cost of higher computational complexity. This paper compares the different modeling strategies, discussing their strengths and weaknesses, with a focus on the capabilities in evaluating the charge accumulation and the RIC phenomenon. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Novel Approaches and Challenges in Nuclear Fusion Engineering)
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26 pages, 7106 KiB  
Article
Optimization of DC Energy Storage in Tokamak Poloidal Coils
by Alessandro Lampasi, Riccardo Testa, Bhavana Gudala, Cristina Terlizzi, Sabino Pipolo and Sandro Tenconi
Appl. Sci. 2024, 14(19), 8975; https://doi.org/10.3390/app14198975 - 5 Oct 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1156
Abstract
Tokamaks are a very promising option to exploit nuclear fusion as a programmable and safe energy source. A very critical issue for the practical use of tokamaks consists of the power flow required to initiate and sustain the fusion process, in particular in [...] Read more.
Tokamaks are a very promising option to exploit nuclear fusion as a programmable and safe energy source. A very critical issue for the practical use of tokamaks consists of the power flow required to initiate and sustain the fusion process, in particular in the poloidal field coils. This flow can be managed by introducing a DC energy storage based on supercapacitors. Because such storage may be the most expensive and largest part of the poloidal power supply system, an excessive size would cancel its potential advantages. This paper presents innovative strategies to optimize the DC storage in poloidal power supply systems. The proposed solution involves the sharing of the DC storage between different coil circuits. The study is supported by novel analytical formulas and by a circuital model developed for this application. The obtained results show that this method and the related algorithms can noticeably reduce the overall size of the storage and the power exchange with the grid, providing a practical contribution toward the feasibility and the effectiveness of nuclear fusion systems. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Novel Approaches and Challenges in Nuclear Fusion Engineering)
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13 pages, 6376 KiB  
Article
High Current Measurement of Commercial REBCO Tapes in Liquid Helium: Experimental Challenges and Solutions
by Andrea Masi, Rosa Freda, Andrea Formichetti, Alberto Greco, Andrea Alimenti, Masood Rauf Khan and Giuseppe Celentano
Appl. Sci. 2024, 14(17), 7697; https://doi.org/10.3390/app14177697 - 31 Aug 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1262
Abstract
Recent advances in high-temperature superconductors (HTS) have made them extremely attractive for low-temperature, high-magnetic-field-power applications such as in fusion technology, where the advantages over traditional low-temperature superconductors (LTS) allow for the design of fusion reactors operating in different and more convenient regimes. However, [...] Read more.
Recent advances in high-temperature superconductors (HTS) have made them extremely attractive for low-temperature, high-magnetic-field-power applications such as in fusion technology, where the advantages over traditional low-temperature superconductors (LTS) allow for the design of fusion reactors operating in different and more convenient regimes. However, the performance enhancement exhibited by novel conductors poses several challenges for the measurement of their superconducting properties. The high critical currents coupled with the relatively low thermal stability of the conductors and their mechanical fragility render this task a challenge, as the angular anisotropies complicate the experimental setup. In this work, we describe the development of our novel high-current measurement facility, focusing on the solutions introduced regarding critical aspects such as the superconducting leads and the sample holder design. We show how simple but effectively designed solutions can be adopted to combat the complexity of the measurement. The results reported in this work guide the development of a measurement system able to withstand high critical currents (I > 1500 A) at high magnetic fields (µ0H > 12 T) by evaluating the angular response of 4 mm wide short samples (L ~ 7.5 cm) in a robust and reproducible manner. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Novel Approaches and Challenges in Nuclear Fusion Engineering)
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