Dublin conference highlights progress and outstanding challenges

SOFT, the largest and most important fusion technology conference in Europe, brought together 1,000 scientists, researchers and engineers from all over the world for its thirty-fourth session from 22 to 27 September. The latest in fusion technology developments was presented in 98 talks and roughly 700 poster presentations.

Naturally, ITER was one of the dominating themes of the conference. At the same time, post-ITER fusion projects were also represented—including DEMO (Europe's demonstration power plant), the fusion materials irradiation facility IFMIF-DONES, and the divertor tokamak test facility DTT. Beyond Europe, participants received updates on fusion programs in China, Japan, Korea and the United States. Private fusion initiatives were also featured at the conference including Gauss Fusion, which drew a crowd of more than 300 to its satellite event.

Gianfranco Federici, from the European Consortium for the Development of Fusion Energy EUROfusion, presented the technological issues that still require solving before fusion can be harnessed as a practical energy source. ITER will contribute to addressing each of them, in an integrated manner, but further R&D is a prerequisite to delivering a credible design for a next-phase demonstration reactor. "There are still important plasma physics and technology uncertainties that strongly impact the design [of a commercial fusion reactor]," he said, listing tritium breeding, power exhaust management, remote maintenance, neutron-hardened materials, and heat extraction and conversion as the most important outstanding technical challenges. He also emphasized the shortage of engineering skills in the fusion workforce—an issue that is repeated as a concern at all fusion energy conferences. "Fusion engineering education needs to be strengthened," he said as the concluding point of his contribution.

"We are at an exploratory time," said Sehila Gonzalez of the Clean Air Task Force while speaking on the topic of regulating fusion energy devices. Future fusion power plants need to protect the safety of the workers, the public and the environment, but simply applying the regulatory framework of nuclear power plants would be disproportionate and would not address the specificities of fusion power plants, she said. After presenting some of the different approaches being followed around the world, Gonzalez called for an "early international alignment or harmonization on fusion energy regulatory requirements" which would "simplify and accelerate the export and international deployment of fusion energy."

The symposium also featured a strong industrial component, with many suppliers setting up stands in the halls of the conference venue to present their capabilities. Industry Day on Tuesday 24 September provided ITER's Head of Procurement Mack Stanley the opportunity to present upcoming business opportunities in the areas of engineering; machine assembly; controls and integrated commissioning; buildings and site management; and diagnostics. Stanley forecasted procurement at ITER in the value of EUR 700 million for 2024 and 2025 combined.

A highlight at every SOFT conference is the announcement of the SOFT Innovation Prize winners. The prestigious prize, funded by the European Union's Euratom Research and Training Programme, is awarded for groundbreaking and innovative fusion research projects with market potential. The first prize went to Petra Jenus of Slovenia for the development of a tungsten carbide-reinforced material ideal for DEMO divertor applications. Alexander Feichtmayer of Germany won the second prize for a novel facility enabling real-time testing of fusion materials under simulated reactor conditions. The third prize went to Stephane Gazzotti of France for creating a ventilated immersive suit with extended reality technology for use in nuclear simulations.

In his opening talk, ITER Director-General Pietro Barabaschi had invited conference participants to visit ITER. None of them could have known at that point that they will have a good chance of seeing ITER with their own eyes at the 34th Symposium of Fusion Technology, which will be hosted in 2026 by the Institute for Magnetic Fusion Research (IRFM) in Aix-en-Provence, France—just 35 km south of the ITER site. A visit to the ITER worksite will definitely be a key part of the program.