Madrid – On April 9, the Italian Embassy in Madrid hosted the event “Nuclear Fusion: Prospects and Challenges for the Decarbonization of the Planet”, as part of the 2025 Italian Research Day Worldwide. The event gathered leading figures in scientific research, along with representatives from fifteen major Italian and Spanish companies operating in the sector.
In his opening remarks, Ambassador Giuseppe Buccino Grimaldi emphasized the global importance that nuclear fusion could have, potentially becoming “an abundant, safe, accessible, and environmentally friendly source of energy in the medium term, helping to mitigate the effects of climate change that so greatly affect our two countries.”
He also highlighted the significant efforts Italy and Spain are investing in both multilateral and bilateral projects, as evidenced by “the explicit mention of nuclear fusion in a memorandum of understanding on basic research between Italy and Spain signed last year,” as well as “Italy’s strong interest in a major international laboratory under construction in Granada, dedicated to studying materials for future fusion reactors.”
The ambassador also acknowledged prominent Italian researchers in the field, such as Francesco Romanelli, “who directed the world’s largest magnetic confinement fusion experiment, JET, near Oxford for many years,” and Pietro Barabaschi, “currently leading the construction of ITER in France, the major international reactor seen as JET’s successor and a project in which we place great hopes.” He concluded by thanking the Spanish research institutions, represented at the event by Yolanda Benito and Inmaculada Figueroa.