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2026 Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
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Fusion Science and Technology
November 2025
Latest News
What’s the most difficult question you’ve been asked as a maintenance instructor?
Blye Widmar
"Where are the prints?!"
This was the final question in an onslaught of verbal feedback, comments, and critiques I received from my students back in 2019. I had two years of instructor experience and was teaching a class that had been meticulously rehearsed in preparation for an accreditation visit. I knew the training material well and transferred that knowledge effectively enough for all the students to pass the class. As we wrapped up, I asked the students how they felt about my first big system-level class, and they did not hold back.
“Why was the exam from memory when we don’t work from memory in the plant?” “Why didn’t we refer to the vendor documents?” “Why didn’t we practice more on the mock-up?” And so on.
Letizia Melaragni, M. Scarpari, S. Carusotti, M. Notazio, R. Lombroni, G. Ramogida, S. Migliori, A. Frattolillo, M. Angelucci, G. Calabrò
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 81 | Number 6 | August 2025 | Pages 515-529
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2025.2476842
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Vertical displacement events (VDEs) are among the most dangerous types of disruptions that can take place in a tokamak. They cause a fast release of both thermal and electromagnetic (EM) energy on the plasma-facing components, also inducing eddy and halo currents in the passive components touched by the relatively cold plasma. In the high EM field, these may result in enormous, localized loads. To reduce the impact of disruptions on the structures adjacent the plasma, a disruption mitigation system (DMS) is needed. In this frame, the Divertor Tokamak Test (DTT), which is being built in Frascati (Italy) and is designed to test different divertor solutions for DEMO and ITER, has been proposed to be equipped with a shattered pellet injection (SPI) system as the main DMS. Here, the initial design of DTT SPI and preliminary predictive disruptive plasma scenarios, simulated by the MAXFEA code, will be discussed. A detailed disruption database will be presented, built with a methodological approach. For a single-null configuration, the reference DTT parameters include a plasma current Ipla of 5.5 MA and a magnetic field Bt of 5.85 T, with major radius R and minor radius a of 2.19 and 0.7 m, respectively. In this case, i.e. an unmitigated disruption scenario, the forces acting on the vacuum vessel may reach up to −10.6 MN. Although the structural integrity of DTT is guaranteed under these EM loads, reducing them is recommended in the case of extensive campaigns of disruption studies. Therefore, mitigated ones will be discussed in this work. The current and integral EM forces induced during unmitigated and mitigated disruptions will be compared to give a preliminary evaluation of the effects of VDEs on the tokamak components in view of the DTT SPI system design.