The young children called back inside school by the bell on this crisp sunny morning must have no idea what is happening just a few hundred metres down the road. They are probably bewildered by the many police officers and black limousines in their neighbourhood, and by the crowds of people making their way to the gates of one of the world's largest and most important conferences—the 26th Conference of the Parties, COP26. Organized by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), COP26 is hosted by the United Kingdom in partnership with Italy. On the agenda of this conference taking place in Glasgow, Scotland, from 31 October to 12 November 2021 is nothing short of the future of our planet. More than 190 world leaders, along with tens of thousands of negotiators, government representatives, business people and citizens will gather at the Scottish Event Campus over two weeks to address the imminent threat of climate change and to set clear pathways for the transition to a net zero economy. Whether nuclear technologies would be given a voice at this COP conference was unclear until a few weeks before the start of the event. But when the decision was made and publicized not only did the "Nuclear for Climate" initiative send a delegation of 50 young scientists to Glasgow, drawing attention with a flashmob in the city centre, but a delegation from ITER also head north. On 4 November in the Action Hub, an amphitheatre set up in the centre of the conference venue, ITER presented the status of fusion research—both in the south of France, where ITER is being assembled, and worldwide. After an introduction by Matteo Barbarino from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on the history of fusion research, seven projects were presented in short two-minute video clips including JT-60SA in Japan, the EAST tokamak in China, KSTAR in Korea, the Wendelstein 7-X stellarator in Germany, and the European JET in the United Kingdom. The next stopover on this world tour was the American east coast where the fusion start-up Commonwealth Fusion Systems is collaborating with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The collaborative team reached a key technological milestone seven weeks ago in the demonstration of their high temperature superconducting magnet. Last but not least, the floor was given to General Fusion, a privately financed project in Canada using a technology called magnetized target fusion. The company announced a few weeks ago that they plan to build a fusion demonstration plant in the United Kingdom. Questions kept coming in from the audience and the more than 300 participants who had joined remotely to hear more about the technology of the future. "Count on us!" was the motto of the event. The full video of the Action Hub presentation can be found here. Fusion energy and the ITER Project will again be on stage this coming Friday 12 November from 11:30 to 12:30 GMT. ITER Director-General Bernard Bigot and representatives from the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), the University of Manchester, the Max Planck Institute, and the US NGO Energy for the Common Good will invite world leaders to look towards a future in which fusion is a key part of the world's zero carbon energy mix. The panel session "Looking to the Future with Fusion Energy" will stream live on the UK Government's YouTube channel here.

The ITER Organization and a group of global partners has launched INFUSED—the International Fusion Education Initiative. The program curates quality fusion education materials and makes them available to interested students, educators and members of the public. The race to make fusion a reality is a multinational endeavour, with increasing numbers of public and private ventures in North America, Europe and Asia joining publicly funded laboratories across the world. The earlier fusion can be introduced into the classroom, ITER and its partners are convinced, the greater chance that a sufficient pool of highly trained physicists and engineers will be available to design, build, and operate the fusion power plants of the future. The goal of INFUSED is to ensure that teachers and students have access to a rich variety of global fusion educational materials. The resources, continually updated, will help to prepare students for careers in plasma physics, electromagnetic engineering, robotics, or dozens of other disciplines that will be needed to support the global fusion enterprise. "INFUSED reflects the original understanding of Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev in 1985—when they launched their proposal for broad international cooperation on hydrogen fusion research that became the ITER Project in 2006—that fusion energy should be for the benefit of all humankind," says ITER Director-General Bernard Bigot. "[...] But as we look to the future, we want to inspire young people from every nation to join the fusion quest." The INFUSED homepage on the ITER website offers an array of materials ranging from lectures and massive open online courses (MOOCs) to instructional videos, virtual tours, games, and even do-it-yourself projects. The program benchmarks the fusion materials available for different target groups—educators, students, policy makers, environmental enthusiasts, and the simply curious. ITER catalogues the material and makes it easily searchable by audience, by content type, by source, and by language. Materials are available in 11 languages—a figure that is likely to rise as a "virtuous circle" is created between the contributors to INFUSED and users. "Fusion is our chance to leave a better energy legacy to our children," says Laban Coblentz, Head of Communication at ITER. "The more we can get teachers to talk about fusion, the more we can inspire young fusion leaders. The more we can motivate students to join master's and PhD programs, the better off we'll be in the coming decades." An example of an INFUSED partner is Energy for the Common Good (ECG), a US-based NGO whose self-declared mission is to prepare leaders in energy, environmental regulation, and policy to bring fusion energy to the grid "soon enough to make a difference." Jane Hotchkiss, the co-founder and president, sees education as a central element of this mission. "At ECG, we are building a voice for fusion energy," Hotchkiss says. "We engage with regulatory bodies and policymakers—so that when fusion is ready for deployment it can be received. We will need an army of fusion engineers in the future, so central to our vision is the urgent development of a fusion-based educational clean energy curriculum for middle and high school students." To develop this curriculum, Hotchkiss and her team are working with STEM Kings & Queens, a New-York-based team of young scientists devoted to cultivating diverse young minds that will shape the future. As their founder, Kayla Miller, explains: "STEM Kings & Queens provides STEM¹ as well as entrepreneurship educational enrichment for K-12 students of diverse and under-resourced backgrounds. Partnering with Energy for the Common Good, a non-profit advancing the acceptance of fusion energy, presents a unique opportunity for our students to learn about, innovate, and be advocates for this clean energy source. Our hope is that they will feel empowered to use their creativity in a way that positively impacts change for our climate and humanity." Another example is Nirodha Ranasinghe, a Sri Lankan scientist who is inspired by the enormous promise of fusion. As part of the outreach program for the Radiation Protection & Technical Service Division of the Sri Lankan government, Ranasinghe writes about nuclear science and radiation physics on social media and gives lectures at universities. "Fusion is a technology that no country can afford to ignore. I hope that someday Sri Lanka can play a role. I know it's a big step—but if we can teach our people about fusion, in the future they will be able to adopt it. And then when fusion is commercialized, we will have the required expertise, thanks to the actions we take now." After researching what ITER was providing through articles, videos and social media, Ranasinghe found a receptive audience for translated fusion content. "Now when we do lectures online, we usually have more than 40,000 students attending," says Ranasinghe. "Sometimes I translate material into Sinhalese, one of the national languages of Sri Lanka, with a speaking population of about 16 million." Most of his followers are university students. Others are professionals, usually with a scientific background, who want to know more about the promise of fusion energy. "The INFUSED initiative is exactly what we need," says Ranasinghe. "I was especially interested to learn that the site includes input material to print a model of the ITER Tokamak. I have a 3D printer in my laboratory and am very eager to print out the ITER model. I know it will be very useful for our outreach program." ¹STEM is an acronym for the fields of science, technology, engineering and math. To visit the INFUSED site, follow this link. To contribute a resource, contact @email.

In order to enhance the power handling capability of the EAST tokamak's lower divertor, scientists put forward a new comprehensive solution called the "corner slot" divertor, which represents an upgrade in both shape and material on this medium-size tokamak that has been in operation in Hefei, China, since 2006. The EAST team at the Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ASIPP) has developed and installed a new lower divertor upgrade concept. This is an actively-cooled tungsten divertor, inspired by the tungsten monoblock technology used to build the ITER divertor. Using the state-of-the-art edge plasma modelling tool SOLPS-ITER, distributed and maintained by the ITER Organization, the team discovered a new divertor operation regime with enhanced performance, relying on the "corner effect." The corner effect can be achieved if the magnetic separatrix hits the divertor close to (within a centimetre or so) a sharp corner. It promotes plasma detachment, which protects the divertor target surface; such features are also included in the ITER divertor design. Building an actively-cooled tungsten monoblock divertor with a sharp corner was not without its challenges, however, and a recently published article in Nuclear Fusion details the scientific basis and engineering solutions used for this new hardware.  See the Chinese Academy Of Sciences press release in English. 

For 15 years ITER has been opening its doors to visitors, either in small groups or during regular Open Doors Days. Approximately 160,000 visitors from all horizons—school children, students, members of the public, companies, politicians—have passed through the ITER gates since 2007, returning home with a better idea of the scale and importance of ITER and of the passion that inhabits the men and women who work here. Benoit Manfreo, a technical officer for tokamak integration, has been involved in ITER Open Doors Days for many years. "I've always enjoyed interacting with the visitors. For us, engineers and technical officers, it is important to connect with the general public, to answer questions, to feed curiosity, and to keep track of the broader picture—the purpose of ITER, why we are doing it, and what this unique technological adventure stands for ..." Traditionally organized twice a year in spring and autumn, the event usually attracts 1,000 visitors, hosted by up to 50 volunteers from the ITER Organization, its partners Fusion for Energy (the European Domestic Agency) and Agence Iter France, and on-site actors APAVE (health and safety) and ENGAGE (architect engineering). For the first edition in October 2011, there was not much to show on the platform: a "near-finished" Poloidal Field Coils Winding Facility, a "forest of pylons" in the electrical switchyard, and a 17-metre-deep excavation where installation work had just begun on the anti-seismic system of the Tokamak Complex. Over time the ITER landscape changed dramatically, with an ever increasing number of buildings, technical areas and storage facilities. Today, 10 years after the first edition, construction works have passed the 80 percent mark, giant components are arriving, and assembly activities are underway. Most recently, these dramatic changes were taking place against the backdrop of the global pandemic. Like every other organization, ITER's outreach efforts were severely impacted by the COVID-19 crisis, so this autumn the team decided on a virtual format for its Open Doors Day. The event organized on 27 October in French and in English combined different types of on-line content such as recorded or live presentations, videos, a virtual reality demonstration, and more. "For the two past editions, I had adapted the 3D tools that ITER designers use on a daily basis for the general public in a way that offered them the chance to navigate inside the machine," says Manfreo, who is in charge of ITER's virtual reality room. "For the remote edition, we decided to pre-record a 15-minute demonstration so that visitors could still have the chance to participate in this unique immersive experience. As we are now in the machine assembly phase, this is the perfect tool for understanding ongoing operations!" The traditional "plasmagician" was also on stage, live streamed from the ITER amphitheatre. Other highlights were the live streams from the worksite, where technical officers and ''ITER reporters'' presented updates on some of the buildings that are traditionally part of the Open Doors Day tour; a virtual exhibition centre; and a special area where the youngest participants could download age-appropriate content such as do-it-yourself experiments, mangas, and motion design videos. Close to 700 people from all over the globe took part in the event, including from non-ITER Member countries such as Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico and South Africa. Jean-Louis Bersier, a vacuum engineer at ITER, is amazed at the continued enthusiasm for Open Door Day events. "The excitement and energy from the public never fades. This year the format of the event was different, but we chose to maintain the spirit of past events, including the very popular demonstrations for children. It was challenging to do this live from the amphitheatre, but at the same time a lot of fun. Of course I am very much looking forward to the next 'real' Open Doors Day, as there is no better reward than the enthusiasm that you see in the eyes of your public."