Dr. Fernanda Rimini is a key fusion scientist when it comes to the exploitation of the JET, the European Joint Torus. For her amazing pioneering work during JET’s last Deuterium-Tritium Campaign, the Senior Exploitation Manager received the prestigious Fusion Technology Awards from the IEEE Nuclear & Plasma Sciences Society in 2024.
Fernanda Rimini’s knowledge is unique because JET is still the only fusion device able to operate the ‘real’ fusion fuel, namely Deuterium and Tritium.
Being on the forefront of fusion research, we have checked in with Fernanda to learn about the challenges of building a future fusion power plant and the integration of large industrial partners into the process. Read here what she has to say about setting up the Next Gen fusion machines.
What are the key differences between current tokamak operations and the needs of future Fusion Power Plants?
The lessons learned from JET, where we already had to deal with substantially higher machine risks and aspects of nuclear safety in D-T operations, together with suitable planning and testing of operational concepts for the next generation of D-T facilities (ITER, SPARC, BEST, HL-3) can help us moving towards the new paradigms.
Most present fusion facilities are designed to be flexible, relatively “simple” to operate and with low risks for machine integrity in case of events like disruptions (Disturbances which weaken the plasma. The plasma needs to be stable to produce the anticipated energy).
A Fusion Power Plant (FPP) will need to be operated similarly to present Power Plants, with a small crew of engineering and technical staff. So, we should prepare for how we go from these large experiments with lots of manpower to easy-to-operate fusion power plants.
Why is it important to integrate operational planning into the early design of fusion power plants?
If you build something, especially a First of a Kind facility, but you haven’t thought how it will be commissioned and operated, there is a significant risk of delays, and not achieving the project objectives, when you start actually operating it.
Worse, in a FPP the nuclear safety aspects will require a level of attention to operational safety that we have so far never experienced in fusion facilities.
A so-called “Concept of Operations” relatively early in the design and building phase of a project helps identifying issues for the facility. It also supports planning for suitable staff training, and certification, the development of the management processes, and of suitable software tools.
How should we prepare and train the next generation?
Hopefully, we only must bridge the timespan of a few years until the first of the Next Gen facilities starts operating.
We could use the lessons learned to consolidate our knowledge basis, to prepare training courses which exploit the present facilities and sets up digital platforms, until the Next Gen of facilities is ready.
EUROfusion is at the forefront of these knowledge capture and training activities. The dedicated Special Issue of Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion providing a collection of special papers on plans for operator mobility across various facilities in Europe and courses for expert operator of various tokamak sub-systems proves that our endeavours across the continent are worth it.
What lessons can we draw from fission and other safety-critical industries?
We have to rethink our real-time control systems: we are used to highly flexible and configurable systems, but a fusion power plant needs more rigorous testing and does not allow much flexibility in both algorithms and software implementation.
Another area is the training and certification of operators: having more formal ways to form the operators will be essential for a FPP, not only for the technical staff but also for the expert engineers.
We should adopt such processes from nuclear and petrochemical industries and see how they fit our needs. Then, they should be tested in Next Gen.
Such processes have been long developed and implemented in industries such as Nuclear and petrochemical; we should adopt and adapt some of these practices to our specific needs, and test them in Next Gen, before they will be needed in a FPP.
Info box:
“Next Gen” (short for next generation) is a broad term used across industries — including fusion energy — to describe technologies, devices, or systems that represent a major leap forward in performance, design, or capabilities compared to their predecessors. When it comes to finally generating energy from fusion, the Next Gen machines are defined by achieving energy breakeven or gain, a continuous operation, the integration of advanced material as well as demonstrating commercial feasibility.
How can the fusion community better engage with industrial partners in planning for safe, efficient operations?
We should engage with our industrial partners so that they are not only the providers of components for future machines but also partners in their exploitation. Without falling into the extreme of stating that “industry will do everything, and we don’t need physicists anymore”, we need to learn how the industry expertise in operating and maintaining large facilities, over timescales of decades, can be combined with our physics insight to get the best results, as effectively and safely as possible, from Next Gen facilities.
We need to recognize that, even before we build a FPP, Next Gen fusion facilities cannot be operated like our present facilities, relying on PhD students and post-Docs, which is absolutely fine for a small or medium size facility but not for installations with high machine risks and nuclear safety requirements.
All your knowledge and pioneering work has been recently awarded with the known Fusion Technology Award. How do you feel about it?
Surprised. Grateful. Humbled. Very proud of the recognition of the amazing success of the JET project and of the engineering capability of the JET Operations Team.
How did you start your career at the European tokamak and what made you so curious about it?
I did my thesis on plasma physics in 1986 and, already then, JET was the biggest show in town. It was designed to be the largest experiments, really pushing the boundaries of physics towards reactor parameters and the new physics relevant for realizing a fusion power plant. So, when I was offered a post-doc grant to JET, in 1987, I didn’t hesitate. I only planned to stay for a couple of years before moving back to Italy and looking for a job in research or industry. After working on plasma modelling, I was encouraged to broaden my horizon towards tokamak operations, and I am still here.
