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Fusion Science and Technology
August 2026
Latest News
Second round of Launch Pad selections includes eight newcomers
The National Reactor Innovation Center at Idaho National Laboratory has announced 13 project selections across 12 companies for the Nuclear Energy Launch Pad, a Department of Energy–led program that integrates reactor and fuel facility authorization, testing, and deployment support for private nuclear developers.
The Launch Pad emerged from the Reactor Pilot Program and Fuel Line Pilot Program.
According to INL, projects selected include reactor development and nuclear fuel cycle advancements, including fabrication, enrichment, and conversion technologies.
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.