"Fusion is gathering momentum"

The 34th Symposium on Fusion Technology (SOFT 2026) opened today in Aix-en-Provence, France, just one hour from the ITER site.

Organized by the Institute for Magnetic Fusion Research (IRFM), home to the WEST tokamak and part of the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), the five-day conference brings together scientists, engineers, industry representatives, and exhibitors to share the latest results and breakthroughs across all areas of fusion technology.

ITER Director-General Pietro Barabaschi delivered one of two opening plenaries, sharing an update on ITER’s progress. The ITER Newsline will have a full report next week.

The Third High-level Meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) World Fusion Energy Group will be convened on 12 November 2026 at IAEA Headquarters in Vienna, Austria.

Recent scientific and technological advances in fusion research have heightened interest among policymakers, scientists, investors, and the public, making the faster pursuit of fusion energy a crucial area of focus. The IAEA World Fusion Energy Group (WFEG) is the concrete manifestation of this ambition. 

IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi announced the meeting to the 70th Regular Session of the IAEA General Conference. "Fusion energy has been a part of the IAEA’s portfolio since the very beginning, with scientists using our conferences and publications to demonstrate their most important breakthroughs. This continues to be the case. But fusion has made strides; is gathering momentum and a new group of stakeholders will be crucial to its next phase. They will be gathering at our third high-level meeting of the World Fusion Energy Group (WFEG), here in Vienna in November, helping to accelerate research, development, demonstration, and deployment of a source that takes its inspiration from our most important star."

The inaugural World Fusion Energy Group meeting took place in 2024 in Rome; a second opened jointly with the 30th IAEA Fusion Energy Conference in Chengdu, China, in 2025.

See all information here.

Under a new agreement signed in June 2026, ITER and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Plasma Physics (ASIPP) have launched a joint postdoctoral training program that will give early-career researchers the opportunity to conduct fusion research at both institutions under the supervision of experts from China and ITER. 

ASIPP will be creating a series of postdoctoral positions focused on research topics of mutual interest to the ITER Organization and ASIPP. The selected researchers will be employed by ASIPP and jointly supervised by experts from both organizations. The positions are offered for a two-year term, with research carried out both at ITER and at ASIPP headquarters. 

These postdoctoral positions are now open to application by Chinese nationals and nationals of other ITER Members. Further information, including application details, is available in Chinese and English here.

French YouTuber Amixem recently visited ITER for a video exploring three of France’s most “off-limit” locations, alongside secret areas of the Eiffel Tower and the French presidential plane. Filmed earlier this year, the visit included a tour of the Assembly Hall with project engineer Raphael Tieulent and the tokamak pit with assembly facility coordinator Isabelle Gentili.

The video attracted more than two million views within its first 24 hours online and has since surpassed four million views.

Drawing a parallel between the Eiffel Tower and ITER, Amixem remarked: “[The tower] was a kind of technological demonstration, a way of saying to the world: look at what we can do in our time. And I think ITER is exactly the same.”

Amixem, whose real name is Maxime Chabroud, launched his YouTube channel in 2012 and today has around 9.5 million subscribers. According to vidIQ, his videos have generated more than 4.5 billion views. While he first gained popularity through gaming content, his channel has since expanded to include humour, challenges, travel, experiments, and large-scale documentary-style productions.

The full video is available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1bW68QJMUI. The video is in French and includes English subtitles as well as an automatically dubbed English audio track.