"100,000 welcomes" for participants
The 33rd Symposium on Fusion Technology (SOFT 2024) opened on Monday 23 September in Gaelic. Dublin City University Vice President for Academic Affairs, Lisa Looney, wished conference participants a traditional Irish welcome—conveying 100 welcomes for each of the 1,000 scientists, engineers, industry representatives and other fusion aficionados who had travelled to Dublin for the largest fusion technology conference in Europe.
Over the next five days, participants will focus on the latest developments in fusion technologies, fusion experiments and related activities. SOFT 2024 will include invited, oral and poster presentations, as well as an industry day and exhibitions. As Vice President Looney put it, "the latest developments in fusion are not soft at all but important big science."
The chair of the international organizing committee, DCU's Miles Turner, emphasized that the development of fusion energy has never been more urgent. "Fusion has the potential to mitigate the effects of climate change, which poses an existential threat to our way of life as seen in the recent disastrous flooding across Europe."
ITER Director-General Pietro Barabaschi delivered the first talk of the symposium. After presenting an update on the project, he turned to recent challenges and said that it was important to share ITER's experience with the fusion community and the private sector. "We have to provide information on what not to do and about what else can be done," he said, referring to ITER's very valuable lessons learned.
The ITER Newsline will have a full report after the conference.