Applied Sciences Webinar | Introduction to Physics of Fission and Fusion Reactions and Applications to the Thermodynamics of Nuclear Power Plants
the chair
Good morning, it is my great pleasure to welcome both speakers and attendees of this Webinar titled “Introduction to Physics of Fission and Fusion Reactions and Applications to the Thermodynamics of Nuclear Power Plants”. The speakers are leading experts on the topic and will deliver talks on the fundamentals of fission and fusion processes, the related underlying thermodynamics, and the key engineering and technological applications. The recent advancements in nuclear fission technologies reflect the growing global interest in safer, more flexible, and more sustainable nuclear energy systems.
The first talk will provide an accessible yet scientifically grounded overview of the fundamental principles of nuclear physics underlying fission processes. Key nuclear physics concepts relevant to fission, such as binding energy, neutron-induced reactions, and the mechanism of a self-sustaining chain reaction, will be introduced. Particular emphasis will be placed on how energy is released in nuclear fission and the physical conditions necessary for maintaining controlled reactions within power-generating systems.
The second talk introduces the topic of fusion reactions from an energetic perspective. In nuclear physics, the spontaneity analysis of these reactions relies on the assessment of their exothermicity (the amount of energy defined by the Q-value) and the reaction rate (number of reactions per unit time and per unit volume). Particular emphasis will be placed on the main challenges for future research and the open questions across both physics and engineering.
In the third talk, nuclear processes will be discussed through a classical thermodynamic approach. Compared to the nuclear physics analysis, engineering thermodynamics consider the change of entropy, a parameter that has been neglected thus far. It is important to highlight entropy plays a different role across fission (ΔS > 0) and fusion (ΔS < 0) reactions. While fission reactions are always spontaneous, regardless of the temperature, in fusion reactions, the temperature acts as a very powerful amplifier of the entropic term (- TΔS) that, at very high temperature, may significantly reduce the thermodynamic spontaneity of these processes.
In general, in fusion reactions at very high temperatures (such as that adopted in the tokamaks, i.e., around 108 K) a share of the Q-value is consumed to balance the entropic term (- T ΔS), thus reducing the enormous amount of energy made available by a nuclear fusion process. Such an aspect could have a non-negligible impact on the energy efficiency of the fusion systems and should be considered in future tokamaks designs.
Date: 28 April 2025
Time: 10:00 am CEST | 4:00 pm CST Asia | 6:00 pm AEST
Webinar ID: 893 8595 5371
Webinar Secretariat: journal.webinar@mdpi.com
Important Dates
- Registration end dateApr 28, 2025
Meet Our Speakers
Dr. Lina Quintieri
Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Chilton, Oxon, UK;
Dr Lina Quintieri holds a degree in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Pisa (1998), specialising in innovative nuclear power plants, and a PhD in Nuclear Engineering through a joint programme between the University of Pisa and the Institut de Protection et de Sûreté Nucléaire (IPSN) of the Commissariat à l'énergie atomique (CEA), Cadarache, France.
From 2001 to 2012, she conducted research at the National Laboratories of Frascati (INFN) and at CERN in Geneva. She participated in several major experiments in astrophysics and high-energy physics, including ROG (Gravitational Wave Research), RAP (Acoustic Particle Detection), and KLOE2 (Symmetries in Fundamental Interactions). Her focus was integrating Monte Carlo simulations (FLUKA, MCNP, GEANT4) with structural and thermal finite element analyses to assess components in particle accelerator environments.
In 2006, she received the Best Presentation Prize from Società Italiana di Fisica (SIF) for her work with ROG on the Nautilus (INFN, Frascati) and Explorer (CERN, Geneva) resonant gravitational wave detectors.
She was recognised as a Distinguished Referee in 2014 by the European Physical Journal (EPJ) for her contributions to peer review.
Notably, she contributed to the realisation of a pulsed fast photo-neutron source at the Beam Test Facility of the DAΦNE accelerator for the n@BTF project.
In 2012, she became Head of the Neutron Metrology Laboratory at ENEA (Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development), Casaccia Research Centre, Rome.
Since 2017, Dr Quintieri has been Senior Neutronics Scientist at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, STFC, Harwell Campus, Oxfordshire, UK. Her current research focuses on designing and optimising accelerator-driven neutron sources.
She is the author of over 140 peer-reviewed scientific publications and has contributed to more than 20 international conference proceedings.
Dr. Giù Marcer
Institute for Plasma Science and Technology (ISTP) of the National Research Council (CNR), Italy.;
Dr Giù Marcer was born on 26 January 1996 in Alessandria, Italy. Dr Marcer works with nuclear diagnostics for fusion plasmas within the Milano Neutron Group of the Institute for Plasma Science and Technology of the National Research Council. As of 2023, she also serves as a contract professor at UNIMIB.
Dr. Silvano Tosti
Nuclear Department, ENEA, Frascati, Italy;
Dr Silvano Tosti holds a Master’s degree in Chemical Engineering, Rome, 1983. Since 1985, he has been a researcher at ENEA (Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development), based at the ENEA Frascati laboratories from 1993 onwards.
His main contribution to research include the following: i) research and development of processes and technologies in the fusion fuel cycle for tritium extraction and recovery; ii) study of processes for hydrogen production in membrane reactors and the development of membrane technologies to produce ultra-pure hydrogen; iii) study of hydrogen-metal systems, including hydrogen diffusivity, solubility, and permeation into metals.
He has acted as the Head of the Nuclear Technology Laboratory of the Nuclear Department from 2011 onwards.
Dr Tosti has been a member of the Technical Advisory Panel of F4E (Fusion for Energy) since 2019 and the Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee (STAC) of the EUROfusion programme between 2016 and 2020.
He has been the author of 140 international scientific journal articles and 11 scientific book chapters, and he holds 26 patents (6 of which are international). He has contributed to over 90 conferences, and his current h-index is 37 (Scopus, Apr. 2025).
On Monday, 28 April 2025, MDPI and Applied Sciences organized a webinar entitled "Introduction to Physics of Fission and Fusion Reactions and Applications to the Thermodynamics of Nuclear Power Plants".
Please find the closing summary by our Chair, Prof. Dr. Roberto Ziveri, below.
The scope of this webinar was to give the basic principles of nuclear reactions with special regard to fission and fusion processes together with the related underlying thermodynamics and the important engineering and technological applications. This analysis was supported by recent advancements in nuclear fission technologies which reflect a growing global interest in safer, more flexible, and more sustainable nuclear energy systems.
The webinar was hosted via Zoom and required prior registration to attend. The full recording can be accessed below. In order to learn about future webinars, you can sign up for our newsletter by clicking “Subscribe” at the top of the page.
| Speaker/Presentation | Time in CEST | Time in CST (Asia) |
|---|---|---|
| Prof. Dr. Roberto Zivieri Chair Introduction |
10:00 am–10:10 am | 4:00 pm–4:10 pm |
| Dr. Lina Quintieri Fission Physics and Applications: From Power Generation to Research Reactors |
10:10 am–10:30 am | 4:10 pm–4:30 pm |
| Q&A | 10:30 am–10:40 am | 4:30 pm–4:40 pm |
| Dr. Giù Marcer Fundamentals of Fusion Nuclear Reactions |
10:40 am–11:00 am | 4:40 pm–5:00 pm |
| Q&A | 11:00 am–11:10 am | 5:00 pm–5:10 pm |
| Dr. Silvano Tosti Engineering Thermodynamics of Nuclear Fusion Processes: The Role of Entropy |
11:10 am–11:30 am | 5:10 pm–5:30 pm |
| Q&A | 11:30 am–11:40 am | 5:30 pm–5:40 pm |
|
Prof. Dr. Roberto Zivieri Closing of Webinar |
11:40 am–11:50 am | 5:40 pm–5:50 pm |