Zahlavi

The NPI helps shape the future of nuclear fusion in Europe

29. 09. 2025

In September 2025, the SPIRAL2-CZ research infrastructure team from the NPI participated in a series of experiments at the French GANIL/SPIRAL2 laboratory focused on measuring reactions important for the development of materials for future fusion reactors. The data obtained will contribute to the preparation of the European IFMIF-DONES facility and to understanding how structural materials react to intense neutron radiation.

The experiments investigated the effective cross sections of activation of iron and chromium – basic construction materials for fusion technologies – by deuterons up to an energy of 40 MeV. These measurements are follow-up of the earlier work carried out at the NPI in Řež on the U-120M cyclotron.

Another part of the experiments focused on lithium activation and tritium production. These processes are important for the targets of the IFMIF-DONES facility, which will be made of liquid lithium. The main task of DONES will be to test the structural materials in extreme neutron fields, similar to those produced during nuclear fusion.

IFMIF-DONES (International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility – DEMO Oriented Neutron Source) is a European fusion infrastructure being built in the Andalusian city of Granada. (Same IFMIF-DONES will generate an intense neutron flux to mimic the conditions in future ITER and DEMO reactors, enabling the testing of materials for their construction.)

The data measured during this September will be used both to expand the nuclear databases and to model the response of materials to neutron and deuteron irradiation. The results will become a part of the dissertation of a doctoral student from the NPI CAS, who is currently on an internship at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in Germany.

The NFS (Neutrons for Science) laboratory at GANIL/SPIRAL2 provides particle beams and technology to study reactions with deuterons and neutrons in the energy range of 1–40 MeV. The SPIRAL2-CZ team has delivered a unique equipment to the laboratory and conducts there long-term experiments here in collaboration with international partners in the field of nuclear physics and materials research.

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