Innovation at Consorzio RFX
is the result of close collaboration between
engineers and physicists
with the support of specialized technical personnel
Researchers and technicians operate in various work programs of science and technology to address the great technological challenges that arise from fusion research. This has meant that over the years a strong synergistic link has been created between industry and research.
This link has proved fruitful for both private companies and the world of research. While on the one hand companies can increase skills that make them competitive in the marketplace, on the other hand research stimulates the development of machinery and technical solutions that do not exist on the market.
The significant participation of Consorzio RFX in international projects of great importance such as ITER has meant that the typical union of RFX between private companies and the research world becomes stronger.
Italian companies have secured the lion’s share of the ITER project orders, through winning the tenders, awarded on a European basis, for the construction of cutting-edge systems and plants that require innovative developments capable of growing the skills and know-how of the national industry.
This includes the attribution of 80% of the supplies for the construction of the SPIDER and MITICA experiments to Italian companies; examples are: OCEM – Valsamoggia (BO), COELME – Santa Maria di Sala (VE), CECOM – Guidonia (Roma), Angelantoni – Massa Martana (PG), DELTA-TI Impianti – Rivoli (TO), De Pretto – Schio (VI), Nidec ASI – Milano, Synecom – Bergamo.
ITER is therefore a great opportunity for the consolidation of Italian research which, in the context of fusion as a safe and unlimited source of energy, involves the major public research bodies, in addition to Consorzio RFX, through the Institute of Plasma Physics of CNR Milan, the ENEA Frascati Research Center and the INFN Legnaro National Laboratories as well as numerous Italian universities.
At the same time, it is a great opportunity to promote the country’s industrial innovation, which is considered the only way to guarantee Italy’s international prestige and to perpetuate the robustness that has characterized it so far.
Al the local level, Consorzio RFX is building fruitful collaborations with companies in the technology sector also thanks to the Veneto region’s MIAIVO project, which has proved to be a golden opportunity to create synergy between the creation of research equipment with high performance and industrial innovation processes.
The project, launched in 2018, is aimed at developing the innovative technologies required to perform the improvements to the RFX-mod2 plant, one of the main experimental machines present at Consorzio RFX and the largest experiment in the world for the study of plasma physics in the RFP configuration.
