Has fusion arrived on the big stage? It certainly seems so after the world summit on climate change that was recently held in Dubai, the iridescent hub of the United Arab Emirates. And promotion for this new source of energy came from somewhat unexpected quarters. It happened during the opening session of the 28th Conference of the Parties (COP). COP President Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber from the host country United Arab Emirates had just received the baton from the president of COP27, Egypt's Sameh Shoukry. "We have no time to waste," Al Jaber addressed the assembled world leaders. "We start this COP with a different mindset." The rules of the COP foresee that each party has three minutes to deliver its statement. A procedure that lasted two days, as a long line-up of heads of state and heads of government—including French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and United States Vice President Kamala Harris—took to the stage. But it was Andrej Plenković, Prime Minister of Croatia, who for the first time ever at a COP conference addressed the potential of fusion energy in an official statement. "The IFMIF-DONES project, a joint effort of Croatia and Spain, explores ways to harness fusion—a clean nuclear energy, akin to the power that fuels the Sun—within a few decades." The buzz about fusion energy as a potentially game-changing contribution to mitigating the effects of climate change continued throughout the conference. The announcement by United States Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry on 5 December of an international engagement plan for fusion energy added real momentum to this perspective. "There is the potential in fusion to revolutionize our world," Kerry said, and added that "fusion can be a critical piece of our energy future, along with wind and solar, nuclear fission and geothermal energy." Presenting the strategy as a call to action, Kerry laid out five key areas that will help realize the promise of fusion technology: R&D; supply chain and marketplace; regulation; workforce; and education and engagement. United, and with determination he said, "we can harness the remarkable power of atoms to build a clean energy future." Already in the early days of COP28, which was held from 30 November to 12 December, it became clear that fusion energy is increasingly being recognized as a viable if long-term option for a clean energy future and a solution for the climate change crisis. A panel discussion on 1 December kicked off the many fusion energy-related events at COP28 that looked at the way ahead in the field. Rafael Mariano Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Christofer Mowry, CEO of Type One Energy and Chair of the Fusion Industry Association Board, and Laban Coblentz, ITER Head of Communication, all agreed on the need for global collaboration involving the private sector and public initiatives. Grossi reminded the audience of the initiative announced at the IAEA Fusion Energy Conference in October to enhance fusion energy collaboration—the World Fusion Energy Group. "We will bring everybody together at the IAEA. The World Fusion Energy Group will be the big tent where we can all fit in and share experiences." On the agenda following the announcement of a five-point international engagement plan for fusion energy by US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry (centre) was a panel titled "An inclusive fusion energy future." From left to right: Michelle Patron, Senior Director of Global Sustainability Policy at Microsoft; Gabriela Hearst, Creative Director of Chloé (wearing a tokamak-themed dress that features a blueprint of ITER); Humphrey Mrema, Chairman of the Youth Survival Organization; Special Envoy Kerry; moderator Ernest Moniz, President and CEO of the Energy Futures Initiative; Costa Samaras, US White House Office of Science and Technology Policy; and Bob Mumgaard, CEO of Commonwealth Fusion Systems. Relating to the idea of the big tent, Mowry said that it sets the scene for pulling together all stakeholders "to get the shovel in the ground before the end of the decade." Realizing fusion energy will require policy, regulation, finance, and asset management, he said. "Everybody needs to come together in a collaborative and harmonious way." ITER, together with supporters and collaborators such as Simon Woodruff from Fusion Energy Insights, had set up a stand in one of the conference's four thematic hubs on energy. The diversity of visitors to the ITER pavilion—scientists, political decision-makers, climate activists, students, journalists—made for interesting discussions. Across from the ITER pavilion, the non-governmental organization (NGO) Clean Air Task Force ran a panel discussion on 9 December on fusion energy's potential for providing a transformative source of zero-emission electricity and energy, helping to drive decarbonization, energy security, and energy access around the world. Communication as a means of involving communities in the development of fusion energy was highlighted by Phil Larochelle of Breakthrough Energy Ventures. "We need to get better at telling the story of fusion," he said, while explaining: "People need to understand that it's the original energy source from which nearly every other energy is derived. We also need to highlight the tremendous progress fusion has made over years." Ralf Kaiser of the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) advocated for the involvement now of the global south in the development of fusion energy. Considering that many future power plants will need to be built in the developing world, these countries should have a voice and be involved in the governance of fusion energy, he opined. It seemed as if some key themes kept reverberating throughout the conference and resurfacing in various discussions. Fusion regulation, social licensing, diversity, inclusion and communication to name a few—all of these themes were also touched on during the panel discussion organized by the NGO Energy for the Common Good at the ITER pavilion. And let's not forget that the younger generations have a big stake in the overall issue of climate change. As one Turkish high school student said when visiting the ITER stand, "Our future is at stake so we need to play a major role in addressing climate change." After this climate summit, the bar of expectations for fusion energy has been raised by a few notches. The eyes of the world will be watching as the fusion community sets out to put into practice the many ideas that were raised and discussed at COP28. To be continued at COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan ... See some impressions from the COP28 experience in this short video.

In April 2020, within an interval of one week, the first two D-shaped toroidal field coils required for the ITER Tokamak were delivered to the ITER construction site. Procured by Europe and finalized in Italy, toroidal field coil #9 (TF9) was received in the wee hours of Friday 17 April; eight days later on Saturday 25 April, toroidal field coil #12 (TF12) completed the last leg of its 10,000-kilometre journey from Japan. Since then, the 350-tonne, 17-metre tall components procured by Europe and Japan (10 coils and 9 coils respectively) have been delivered with clockwork regularity. On Friday 15 December, the delivery of toroidal field coil #18 (TF18) from Europe marked the completion of this strategic procurement program. A few hours later, staff from the ITER Organization and the European Domestic Agency Fusion for Energy gathered around Director-General Pietro Barabaschi, Deputy Director-General Yutaka Kamaka and Alessandro Bonito-Oliva, formerly the Magnets Programme Manager for Fusion for Energy and now ITER Head of the Tokamak Program, to "greet" the massive component. A more official celebration for the end of procurement is planned in January 2024.

On Wednesday 13 December, Fusion for Energy Deputy Program Manager Romaric Darbour accepted a rather cumbersome gift: a steel cutaway of the Tokamak Complex mounted on a 1.650-tonne reinforced concrete base. Presented by the representatives of the VFR consortium, the gift symbolically marked the completion of the main construction works on the Tritium Building—a "formidable adventure" under Europe's responsibility that spanned 14 years and involved close to 2,000 workers from dozens of subcontracting companies. An integral part of the Tokamak Complex, the Tritium Building will host the systems and equipment that store, handle and recycle deuterium and tritium, the two hydrogen isotopes that will fuel the fusion reaction in ITER. However, as the building also accommodates non-tritium-related components, such as the gas injection system and HVAC, cooling, and vacuum pumping equipment, the building will be needed as soon as ITER operation starts. The five-storey structure is a nuclear building, with some areas where steel reinforcement is exceptionally dense. It is also home to many rooms, with no less than 300 cubicles distributed throughout the different levels. "Like everything in ITER, things weren't simple," quipped Romaric, "and the path to success was not easy. But over the past 14 years we have developed competences that will prove precious for the construction of future fusion plants." For Jérôme Laclau, the director of Vinci Construction Large Projects in France, the first of these competences was being able to "build a project team" capable of meeting the challenges of a unique construction project and deliver it "on time, and even a bit ahead of schedule." Spanning 14 years, the construction project, under Europe's responsibility, involved close to 2,000 workers from dozens of subcontracting companies. The companies that form the VFR consortium (Vinci, Ferrovial and Razel-Bec), he said, "have delivered the best of their expertise." At the core of this effort, stressed VFR Project Director Aurélien Gayrard-Bouzereau, "are the workers who did their job, rain or shine, by 5 degrees below zero as well as under the scorching sun, when temperatures can reach 40 degrees in Provence." Too heavy to be used as a bookend on Romaric's shelf, the steel-and-concrete gift will probably join a previous symbol of construction achievement, the olive tree that stood for a few days at the top of the Tokamak Building in 2019 and was later replanted at the entrance of ITER Headquarters.  

The ITER Organization has signed an agreement for academic, scientific and technical cooperation with the Southwestern Institute of Physics (SWIP) in Chengdu, China. Affiliated with China National Nuclear Corporation, the Southwestern Institute of Physics (SWIP) is one of the research institutes in China that is advancing the national program for fusion energy. SWIP has built more than 20 experimental devices for controlled nuclear fusion research, including medium-sized tokamaks HL-1 (1984) and HL-1M (1994), divertor-based tokamak HL-2A (2002), and the advanced-divertor tokamak HL-2M (also called HL-3) that achieved first plasma in 2020 and high-confinement operation (H-mode) in August 2023. SWIP has also been an important contributor for Chinese participation in ITER construction, by providing key technologies and components for ITER. The agreement signed on 14 December between the ITER Organization and SWIP aims to deepen cooperation in fusion science and technology. HL-3 is planning to conduct burning plasma experiments in deuterium and tritium within the next three to five years. SWIP Director General LIU Ye confirmed that HL-3 is open as a satellite facility to ITER to provide support for physics research and future ITER operation. "I sincerely invite fusion experts from the world over to participate or lead high-level joint experiments on HL-3 together to contribute to our effort for ITER and fusion energy development."

The ITER Scientist Fellow Network—composed of leading scientists and physicists in the domains of simulation and theory—are playing an important role in the re-baselining activity that is underway at the ITER Organization. Two complementary groups, which focus on plasma boundary modelling and fuel retention management, spent a productive week together on site in December. The Covid-19 pandemic had many consequences for almost everyone and ITER was no exception. Quite apart from the impact on machine construction and assembly, it also took its toll on the network of scientists who have been lending their expertise to the ITER Organization on a voluntary basis over the past roughly seven years. The ITER Scientist Fellow Network was launched in January 2016 by then Director-General Bernard Bigot, aiming to complement another largely voluntary fusion community contribution, the very successful and long-running International Tokamak Physics Activity (ITPA). Whilst the latter focuses mainly on the execution of joint experiments and validation of models to improve predictions for ITER plasma performance, the former was conceived to create a network of leading scientists and physicists mostly working on simulation and theory within the research laboratories of the ITER Members. Following the launch, a meeting of the first group of 19 Fellows to be admitted to the scheme was held at the ITER Organization in September 2016. Since then, the network has expanded to over 60 members, from almost all ITER Members and across all major areas of fusion science of importance to ITER. Currently, these areas are broadly grouped into plasma boundary modelling, fuel retention management, disruption and runaway electron simulations, pedestal confinement and stability, heating and current drive, plasma control, integrated modelling and diagnostics. As a consequence, the majority of network activity falls within the activities of the ITER Science Division, although 15 Fellows are currently associated with plasma diagnostics, managed by the ITER Diagnostics Program. Before the pandemic, small groups of Fellows in the different areas would visit ITER from time to time, with regular progress meetings taking place by video conference. Larger on-site gatherings effectively ceased from 2019 and, since then, visits have largely been confined to individual Fellows coming to work on specific tasks for a few days or even weeks. However, nothing can really replace the interactions possible during face-to-face meetings, especially when several people with similar expertise can sit together in the same room, mostly away from the day-to-day responsibilities in their home institutes. It was thus a genuine pleasure between 4-8 December to welcome almost the entire group of Plasma Boundary Modelling and Fuel Retention Management Fellows. These two groups are strongly linked, since assessments of how the fusion fuels are retained in, permeate through and can be recovered from plasma-facing surfaces during ITER operation are intimately associated with the plasma conditions at the plasma-material interface. The simulations of one group thus provide the input for the other. In science as in life, nothing can really replace the interactions possible during face-to-face meetings. The two Scientist Fellow Network groups that visited ITER in December—Plasma Boundary Modelling and Fuel Retention Management—are complementary, since assessments of how the fusion fuels are retained in, permeate through and can be recovered from plasma-facing surfaces during ITER operation, are intimately associated with the plasma conditions at the plasma-material interface. In view of the recent intense re-baselining activities ongoing at the ITER Organization, it is especially important to re-energize the work of these particular groups. A key component of the re-baselining is the replacement of beryllium by tungsten as plasma-facing armour on the main chamber walls. This favourably impacts the dynamics of fuel retention in, and erosion of, the first wall: tungsten erodes far less than beryllium for the same plasma conditions at the wall interface so that the long-term retention of precious tritium fuel by the process known as co-deposition is almost eliminated. However, even very small concentrations of tungsten in the hot plasma core can compromise the fusion burn so that providing the best possible estimates of the tungsten erosion source for use in integrated modelling of the entire plasma from edge to core is a high priority. It is just such estimates (and much more) that can, and are, being provided by the experts working within these two Scientist Fellow Network groups. An additional key aspect of moving to a "full tungsten" first wall (the ITER divertor is already tungsten armoured) is that plasma start-up is known to be an issue requiring particular care based on experience with smaller-scale tokamak devices which have majority tungsten walls (e.g., ASDEX Upgrade in Germany, WEST in France and EAST in China). To ease the challenge, these experiments typically use a plasma chemical vapour deposition technique to coat the plasma-facing surfaces with a very thin layer (tens of nanometres) of boron, which is extremely efficient at absorbing residual oxygen in the ultra-high vacuum conditions required in the tokamak main chamber for efficient plasma start-up. Known as boronization, this coating process is proposed as a new element in the ITER re-baselining, requiring the design and installation of new hardware.  A drawback of this technique is that the deposited boron will be eroded by plasma operation and can "migrate" to specific locations on the wall and divertor surfaces, where it can also trap fusion fuels. Estimating the erosion lifetime, the transport of eroded boron and the efficiency with which fuel can be trapped and recovered is squarely within the expertise of the Scientist Fellow Network groups which came together at ITER in early December. On the first day of the week-long visit, the 16 Scientist Fellows met in plenary session to be briefed by ITER Organization staff on the re-baselining activity, with particular focus on the aspects requiring their expertise. The rest of week was devoted to informal discussions, working sessions on specific technical issues, and the fixing of objectives for work to be performed under the auspices of the re-baselining. A Thursday afternoon tour of the ITER construction site on foot, followed by dinner in the centre of Aix-en-Provence, already fully adorned for the festive season, were highlights of the visit. In a final debrief, it was agreed that the exercise should be repeated in 2024, a lead hopefully to be followed by many of the other Scientist Fellow Network groups next year. The typical nominees for the Fellowship program have strong international reputations in their area of expertise, often leading teams of scientists in their home institutes. Fellows commit to spending a part of their time working on ITER-related issues and are named for three years with the possibility of renewal. Since the start of the program in 2016, more than 80 percent of the early participants have been renewed. Nominations for the ITER Scientist Fellow Network are accepted on a rolling basis. For questions, please contact @email.