Energy: SOFT 2018, the 30th edition of the Symposium on Fusion Technology to kick off

The 30th edition of the Symposium on Fusion Technology (SOFT), organized by ENEA, one of the most important international conferences in nuclear fusion energy research, is to be held in Giardini Naxos, (Messina), from September 16 to September 21. For six days, approximately 1000 of the world's leading scientists and industry representatives will discuss the most significant innovations in the path to reproducing on earth the mechanisms that fuel the stars, with the aim of providing an inexhaustible, safe, clean energy source, capable of satisfying the world’s growing energy needs.

The Symposium opening ceremony, held at the Ancient Theater of Taormina on Sunday 16 September at 5.15 p.m., will be attended by the Deputy-Director General of the European Commission's Research and Innovation Directorate, Patrick Anthony Child, the President of ENEA Federico Testa, the Director General of the ITER international project Bernard Bigot and the Mayor of Taormina, Mario Bolognari.

As part of the ceremony, the "SOFT Innovation Prize" by the  European Commission will award  the first three best fusion research projects standing out for innovation and skills transfer to industry, with 50,000 euros, 25,000 euros and 12,5,000 euros respectively.  The symposium will also be the occasion  to present SMEs and Industries with the great opportunities offered  by fusion research programmes, as part of “The Industy Day”, an information day with meetings and B2B encounters, (Tuesday, September 18, 9.30 a.m.).

ENEA, leader in the global challenge of fusion research, with infrastructures, laboratories and long-standing scientific expertise, has established effective synergies with the national and international industrial world, involving in the challenge of the construction of the ITER experimental reactor over 500 companies, awarded contracts of 1 billion euro value - about 60% of the total European orders - with great scientific and technological repercussions. The start of the DTT project, Divertor Tokamak Test Facility, the international pole of excellence in nuclear fusion research, will take place by November 30th at the ENEA Frascati Center, involving  over 1500 people , with an estimated return of 2 billion euro, with an investment of about 500 million euros. Conceived by ENEA in collaboration with the CNR, INFN, Consorzio RFX, CREATE and some of the most prestigious Italian universities, DTT will provide the answers to some of the major fusion issues, such as the management of large power flows and high heat flux facing materials, constituting the link between ITER and DEMO, the reactor expected to produce nuclear fusion electricity after 2050.

As coordinator of the national research program of the sector and partner of the European Fusion for Energy Agency (F4E) and the EUROfusion Consortium, ENEA has also contributed to the Euro-Japanese Broader Approach agreement, for a more rapid execution of the world research program on nuclear fusion, supplying 9 of the 18 superconducting coils of the experimental nuclear fusion reactor JT-60SA, under construction in Naka (Japan), expected to burn the first plasma in 2019.

To register for the event as journalists: ufficiostampa@enea.it

For more information: https://www.soft2018.eu

For the complete program: https://www.soft2018.eu/en/programme