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Today is a crucial day for IFMIF-DONES (International Fusion materials irradicion facility demo-eraned neutron source). This very important scientific project is closely linked to ITER (International Thermonuclear Experctor reactor), The experimental reactor of nuclear fusion that An international consortium led by Europe He is building in the French town of Cadarache. Ifmif-Dones, however, resides in listening to, a town in the province of Granada.
The construction works of this last installation began in mid -September 2022, but today it is a very important day for both Granada and all of Spain. And it is because the Council of Ministers will approve today the investment of almost 200 million euros required by the start of the construction of the IFMIF-DONES linear particle accelerator. This machine is the authentic heart of this scientific installation, and, therefore, the ingenuity that will place Spain in The nuclear fusion map.
The tuning of this linear particle accelerator will cost approximately 450 million euros, although the Andalusian Board will contribute half of this money. However, this is the cost of the accelerator; The IFMIF-Dones project will completely cost about 700 million euros. Spain will contribute half of this capital. To this figure we must add another 50 million to carry out its implementation. In addition, the operation of this avant -garde research center will have an annual cost of about 60 million euros, of which Spain will assume 10%. It may seem a lot of money, but we must not forget that those responsible for the project are convinced that The economic and scientific return Ifmif-Dones will far exceed your cost.
What is Ifmif-Dones and why it is crucial for the future of nuclear fusion
Ifmif-Dones is one of the three fundamental pillars of the nuclear fusion building in whose construction the European Union is involved. The other two are iter and demo. The experimental nuclear fusion reactor that is currently being built in the French town of Cadarache seeks to demonstrate that the merger at the scale that man can handle works, and also that it is profitable from an energy point of view.
However, Iter does not aspire to produce electricity. That will be demo’s task (Demonstration Power Plant), an installation that will take the technological advances that will have shown to function correctly in Iter and take them one step further to establish themselves as The authentic precursor of commercial nuclear fusion reactors. However, without Ifmif-Dones there will be no demo, so Granada is now the center of attention.
The fusion of a deuterium core and another tritium triggers the production of a helium core and a neutron that is fired with an energy of about 14 MEV
To understand in all its extension what is the role of the IFMIF-DONES project, it is necessary that we briefly review the foundations of nuclear fusion. One of the biggest challenges facing the technicians who are involved in the tuning of nuclear fusion reactors by means of magnetic confinement, such as Iter, consists of recreating inside the vacuum chamber of these sophisticated machines the necessary conditions so that the deuterium and tritium nuclei are merged.
However, this is not everything. When this reaction takes place the fusion of a deuterium nucleus and another of tritium triggers the production of a helium core and a neutron that is fired with An energy of about 14 MEV (Megaelectronvolts). The problem is that the neutron lacks net electric charge, so it cannot be confined inside the magnetic field that, however, does retain the deuterium and tritium nuclei, which have positive electric charge.
This is the reason why when it originates as a result of the nuclear fusion reaction, this neutron is fired towards the walls of the vacuum chamber with enormous energy. This particle is very important because in practice it will be closely linked to the production of electrical energy in nuclear fusion reactors, but, at the same time, it represents a very aggressive form of radiation that can significantly degrade the materials used in the reactor.
The components that will be most affected by the direct impact of high energy neutrons and the most intense heat flow are the internal wall of the vacuum chamber and the Blanketthat it is a mantle that covers it and that has as its purpose Regenerate the tritium that it is necessary to use as fuel in the nuclear fusion reaction. This is the reason why it is crucial to develop new materials that are able to support the flow of neutrons and guarantee, therefore, that the reactor will have a prolonged operational life.
IFMIF-DONES linear accelerator will produce high energy neutrons with the intensity and volume of irradiation necessary to test candidate materials
This is, neither more nor less, the purpose of Ifmif-Dones. And to carry it out it is necessary to put ready -to -set facilities to allow the technicians involved in the project to evaluate the properties of candidate materials to intervene not only in demo, but also in future commercial nuclear fusion commercial reactors.
The task of this project invites us to intuit what the heart of Ifmif-Dones is: a source capable of producing high energy neutrons with the intensity and volume of irradiation necessary for Test candidate materials. And this source of neutrons will be nothing other than a linear particle accelerator that will help IFMIF-DONES scientists to try, validate and qualify the materials that in the medium term should reach future electric power production plants through fusion.
Image | IFMIF-DONES
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