Of Interest archive

The European Commission, Directorate-General for Energy, has published the "Foresight study on the worldwide developments in advancing fusion energy, including the small scale private initiatives."

Commissioned from the consultancy Trinomics, the paper provides an analysis of the leading public and private fusion initiatives globally and uses the analysis to generate four foresight scenarios for fusion development to inform European Commission decision making on fusion.

What are the strengths and weaknesses of various fusion approaches? When can the next fusion devices be expected? What are the most optimistic and least optimistic estimations for the arrival of fusion power on the grid? What technical challenges remain? 

The 113-page document can be consulted free of charge at this link. (© European Union, 2023)

It's the Holy Grail for limitless clean energy, but will nuclear fusion come soon enough to avoid the worst of the climate crisis?

As part of the Bloomberg series The Future with Hannah Fry, follow Episode 4, "Can Nuclear Fusion Power the Future?" as Hannah visits the ITER Project in southern France, checks in with an expert at Imperial College London on the economics of fusion, and flies to Los Angeles to witness a new generation of private start-ups racing to put fusion energy on the grid. 

Her hosts at ITER are Richard Pitts, head of the Experiments & Plasma Operation Section, and Sabina Griffith, from Communication.

Watch "Can Nuclear Fusion Power the Future?" here. Browse all episodes here.

Join Ian Bonnett, ITER's Tritium Plant Section Leader, for a deep dive into the hydrogen isotope tritium—its particular characteristics, and how it will be used and recycled at ITER as part of a closed fuelling loop. A dedicated Tritium Plant at ITER contains all of the systems and sub-systems needed for safe tritium management.

Watch the eleventh episode of the ITER Talks here.

See the full ITER Talks playlist on YouTube.

Registration for the 28th International Conference on Magnet Technology (MT-28) is open on the conference website beginning today, 13 March 2023.

See all fee information here, including reductions for retired participants, students and one-day attendees. The registration fee includes access to the exhibition, all technical sessions, all poster sessions, and receptions.

The conference will take place in Aix-en-Provence, France (only 30 minutes from the ITER site) from 10 to 15 September 2023.

To register to MT-28, see this link.

The ITER World, ITER's second podcast miniseries, debutes this week for International Women's Day with Episode 1: "The Women at ITER." It is available directly through the ITER website or through the following channels: Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, PodBean, Spotify, Tune In and World Radio Paris. 

Season 1 of the ITER podcast, All About ITER, took a look at what nuclear fusion is and how one of the largest, most complex science experiments on Earth is taking shape in the south of France.

Season 2 begins to orbit this world in order to understand its multifaceted inhabitants, their motivations and challenges. From hearing about their love for fusion, to meeting some of the women involved or gaining a first-hand perspective on what it's like to be a part of this extraordinary, once-in-a-lifetime global project. Six episodes are planned, with host Kruti Mawani Fayot.

See the podcast page of the ITER website.

The Fusion Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) and the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) have worked with the fusion community to prepare a two-week program created to meet the needs of the emerging fusion industry and associated supply chain companies and organizations.

The Fusion Industry School is a two-week interactive program of lectures from world-leading experts in fusion, aimed at providing an overview of the current progress and challenges to industry professionals. The school consists of lectures, networking sessions, panel discussions and Q&As as well as visits to the UKAEA national fusion facilities.

The first week (19-22 June 2023) takes place in York (UK) and focuses on the underpinning fusion science and technology. The second week (25-28 September 2023) in Oxfordshire (UK) builds on the first week, with more of an emphasis on engineering applications. The program is optimized for delegates attending both weeks, but there is still benefit to only attending one. No prior knowledge of fusion science and technology is necessary.

The target audience is: early and mid-career scientists, engineers and regulators.

See all information on the CDT website.

Women in Fusion—the one-year-old global platform established to highlight the role that women play in advancing cutting-edge research and technology in fusion and to promote networking and advocacy—has launched a new initiative: mentoring.

By connecting mentors with mentees, the Women in Fusion program aims to support women with backgrounds in science, engineering, legal or administration in all aspects of their career development, including goal setting, leadership, and work/life balance. Expand your network and foster your career growth as a mentee, or grow your leadership skills and assist an early-career professional as a mentor.

All details are available on this page of the Women in Fusion website.

The 60th Culham Plasma Physics Summer School will take place from 17 to 27 July 2023 at the Culham Science Centre in Oxfordshire (UK).

The aim of the Summer School is to provide an introduction to the fundamental principles of plasma physics, together with a broad understanding of its fields of application. It assumes no previous knowledge of the subject, but familiarity with electromagnetism and applied mathematics at first degree level would be helpful.

The 2023 school will cover fundamental plasma physics, as well as important topics in fusion, astrophysical, laser and low temperature plasmas. Lecturers are drawn from the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy (CCFE), the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) together with leading European universities. All are renowned experts in their fields.

For more details and to apply visit the dedicated website. The deadline for applications is 19 June 2023.

Visit the exhibition and sponsorship pages of the MT-28 website to find out more about participating as a company or an academic partner in this premier international forum for magnet-related technology and design. 

The 28th International Conference on Magnet Technology (MT-28), planned in Aix-en-Provence, France, during the week of 10 to 15 September 2023, is a unique opportunity to reach the superconducting magnet community, industry, and students and researchers. Multiple exhibition and sponsorship opportunities are available.

For all information, see the MT-28 website.

The European Domestic Agency for ITER, Fusion for Energy, seeks to reward the commercial use of fusion technologies in non-fusion markets. Its Technology Transfer Award 2023, open to European companies and organizations, comes with a prize of EUR 10,000.

The Technology Transfer Award competition aims to encourage and promote projects where a fusion technology or know-how is used or is planned to be used outside of fusion applications.

Applications will be evaluated according to the resources and efforts deployed by the candidate to achieve commercial use of the technology in a non-fusion market, as well as the socio-economic impact of the project on the market. 

Applications are open from 1 February 2023 to 19 May 2023 at this link.

Under the patronage of H.R.H. Prince El Hassan Bin Talal of Jordan, the Al Hussein Technical University cordially invites you to a join a webinar that it is organizing on 8 March 2023.

The webinar, titled "Towards an Arab Initiative for Fusion Energy," will feature speakers Tim Luce, Chief Scientist at ITER; Prof. Tony Donné, CEO of EUROfusion; Prof. Sir Steven Cowley, Director of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL); and Andrew Holland, CEO of the Fusion Industry Association.

Scan the QR code on the poster at right or click here to sign up.

The 28th International Conference on Magnet Technology (MT-28) will be held in Aix-en-Provence, France, during the week of 10 to 15 September 2023. The scientific program of MT-28—the preeminent international forum for magnet-related technology and design—will cover fusion, high-energy physics, power engineering and medical diagnosis. 

The deadline for submitting abstracts has been extended to 6 March 2023.

Don't miss the opportunity to submit your abstract now!

Organized every two years by CEA Cadarache (France) and the Institute of Nuclear Physics PAN (Poland), the PhDiaFusion Summer School of Plasma Diagnostics is designed for graduate students and their tutors in the spirit of a "master and apprentice" approach.

Diagnostic measurements are essential in plasma experiments to infer the relevant plasma properties, both for physical interpretation and for real-time control. In modern fusion devices such as ITER, DEMO, or the DONES neutron facility, the huge amount of generated data may require fast and efficient processes to infer the physical quantities with a reasonable computational cost. The use of artificial intelligence can be of a great help to achieve this goal by feeding learning systems with experimental data and/or simulation results.

The 2023 edition of the PhDiaFusion Summer School will cover diagnostics data processing, interpretation, validation and real-time control aspects with a focus on artificial intelligence methods.

Join us for the next edition of PhDiaFusion from 19 to 23 June 2023 on the topic of "Artificial Intelligence for Plasma Diagnostics and Controlled Fusion." 

Register on line by 15 May 2023. See all information on this page. 

With a ceremonial event on 10 February, Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) officially opened its new 50-acre campus in Devens, Massachusetts (USA). 

The campus is home to the company's corporate headquarters, an advanced manufacturing facility, and the building dedicated to SPARC—a compact 100 MW magnetic confinement fusion experiment now under construction.

CFS spun out of MIT's Plasma Science and Fusion Center as a private company in 2018 and is backed by more than $2 billion from the world's leading investors in clean energy.

Attending the event on campus were US Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm, US Senator Elizabeth Warren, US Senator Edward Markey, and US Representative Lori Trahan, Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll, with other state and local leaders.

See the full news story here.

The virtual tour of ITER construction has been updated with 360° photos from January 2023. Enter the main ITER plant buildings or the machine assembly theatre to see what has changed since the last update in April 2022.

Accessible from the home page of the ITER website (yellow icon) or by clicking on the link below.

Click here to enter the latest 360° ITER virtual tour.

The Governing Board of Fusion for Energy (F4E), the European Joint Undertaking for ITER and the Development of Fusion Energy, has appointed Marc Lachaise as Director.

Carlos Alejaldre, Chair of the F4E Governing Board, thanked all delegates for their cooperation and congratulated Marc Lachaise on their behalf. "We look forward to working with you in order to lead Europe's contribution to ITER, and its participation in various fusion projects aiming to demonstrate the full potential of this energy source."

Trained in engineering, Marc Lachaise worked for 27 years as part of the French EDF Group (Électricité de France), where most recently he was Deputy Head of Department for Nuclear Procurement (2015), then Contract Manager Director of the EDF Group (2018), and Supply Chain Control Director in the newly formed assurance function for the EDF New Build nuclear projects (2021).

"It is an honour to be appointed Director of Fusion for Energy and I promise to lead this organization and its staff with commitment, integrity and a truly collaborative spirit. During my career I have worked in the field of energy, building experience on management, supply chain, and big nuclear projects. I'm ready to offer my expertise to the fusion community because I'm truly convinced of its potential. The responsibility bestowed on me is also an opportunity to honour Europe's contribution to ITER, empower teams, and collaborate with our partners to deliver ITER."

Read the full report on the Fusion for Energy website.

"Science and technology have the potential to solve some of the most critical issues of our time, to improve our lives, and to inspire our curiosity about the world around us." 

This conviction, from the Franklin Institute's mission statement, animated the production of the Institute's new six-part documentary series, "The Road to 2050," where some of the world's top innovators take the viewer on a journey of exploration into the future, covering everything from environmental challenges to off-world expansion and the exciting possibilities of jetpacks and teleportation. 

Shira Tabachnikoff, ITER's Internal & Stakeholder Relations Manager, features in part two of the docuseries: "Act 2: Energy of the Future." Moving toward a world that is increasingly electrified, new, cleaner sources of energy will be needed. Fusion is one of the potential solutions, and minds around the world are working to make it happen. 

Access the full series on YouTube at this address.

(The 200-year-old Franklin Institute is a centre for science education and development located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.)

To stimulate excellence in fusion research, the European Fusion Education Network FuseNet awards the Master Thesis Prize to students who write outstanding Master's theses that were carried out and completed across Europe. The prizes serve as an acknowledgement of the excellent and important research that is carried out by fusion students.

The application period has been extended to 10 February 2023. To nominate your best students of the past year, please fill out the submission form at this address. 

For more information about the Master Thesis Prize 2022, see the FuseNet website.

Worth watching: two recent TEDx talks featuring fusion and ITER.

In the first, "Why should we make a star on Earth?" EUROfusion's Tony Donné, explains the advantages of fusion--a baseload source clean and safe energy, power dense, requiring only small amounts of fuel and a small footprint for reactor construction, and without any long-lived radioactive waste. He touches on recent accomplishments in the field and the large numbers of industrial spinoffs that have already resulted from investment in fusion research.

In the second, "Entering the Fusion Energy Delivery Era," JET's Head of Operations Joe Milnes outlines a bright future for fusion, taking the audience from recent milestones in the fusion world to the turbo-charged current state of play and his hope for a fusion future, where all countries can build reactors based on fuels that are accessible to all. What are the breakthrough technologies that will help us access fusion electricity? What challenges still remain?

The 28th International Conference on Magnet Technology (MT-28) will be hosted by the ITER Organization and the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) in Aix-en-Provence, France, during the week of 10 to 15 September 2023. 

The MT-28 Local Organizing Committee (LOC) team has planned a dynamic student program to make MT-28 a moment to remember for all participating students. There are grant opportunities, short courses and workshops, best paper awards, recruitment and career opportunities, and fun extracurricular events.

See this page for a description of all student events and opportunities.

And a reminder to all: abstract submission is open now through 20 February 2023.