ºÚÁÏÉçapp

The European Master of Science in Nuclear Fusion and Engineering Physics (FUSION-EP) is a two-year Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree (EMJMD) funded by the European Union. Focusing on the physics and technology of nuclear fusion as an energy source, it offers research-oriented education in engineering physics, offered by a consortium of eight European universities in Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany and Spain.

The curriculum is organized in two periods of increasing specialization, each in two different countries, along two distinct tracks: Fusion Sciences and Fusion Technology.

Students from all countries can apply. The selection procedure does not make any distinction between EU students and students coming from outside the EU. Scholarships are available to top-ranked students that cover the participation fee and offer a monthly allowance for the two years.

The campaign for the program beginning autumn 2024 is underway now. Apply before 15 February 2024 on the FUSION EP .

The 15th ºÚÁÏÉçapp Neutronics Meeting and Fusion Neutronics Workshop 2024 will be held at ºÚÁÏÉçapp Headquarters from 8 to 10 April 2024.

The workshop will provide the opportunity for the fusion neutronics community to discuss recent advancements, issues and successes in the field.

Considering work underway in startups on alternative fusion concepts, progress on other technologies such as inertial fusion, and recent advancements (codes, shielding materials, etc.), the workshop seeks to broaden participation beyond ºÚÁÏÉçapp/DEMO scope. We encourage young researchers and fusion start-ups to participate in this event and present their work.

Planned topics include:

• Neutronics related to ºÚÁÏÉçapp
• Nuclear-radiation-related safety issues (safety margins/uncertainties, code qualification)
• Computational tools and nuclear data relevant for nuclear fusion (transport codes, activation codes, CAD/MCNP converting tools ...)
• Dose reduction methods and optimization, ALARA
• Shielding materials
• Material damage, nuclear heating, radioactive waste production and management 
• Accelerator-driven neutron sources for fusion applications
• Activated corrosion products
• Nuclear licensing for fusion reactors 
• Neutronics beyond ºÚÁÏÉçapp (DEMO, fusion power plants, alternate fusion schemes)

This meeting will be held primarily in-person but a few online presentations/participations are also possible. Subject to conditions, this workshop also includes ºÚÁÏÉçapp construction site visit.

See important dates and registration information . 

On Friday 2 February, the Royal Institution in London is hosting a public discussion on "The latest developments in fusion energy."

At this in-person and live-streamed event, co-hosted by the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), distinguished experts Fernanda Rimini (UKAEA), Pietro Barabaschi (Director-General of the ºÚÁÏÉçapp Project), and Tammy Ma (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory) will take participants on a journey into the heart of fusion research and the most recent and groundbreaking discoveries in this leading-edge field.

See all information for how to attend in person or online .

The recruitment campaign for 2024-2026 Monaco-ºÚÁÏÉçapp Postdoctoral Fellowships has opened. We are looking for top candidates with an excellent track record of creativity and accomplishment. Research possibilities exist in many areas of fusion science and technology, including:

Control technology
Plasma-facing materials and components
Burning plasma physics (confinement, stability, plasma-wall interactions, control, energetic particle physics)
Heating and current drive physics and technology
Fusion plasma diagnostics
Superconducting magnet technology
Electrical engineering
Mechanical engineering/ structural analysis
Remote handling technology
Vacuum technology and plasma fuelling technology
Cryogenics
Tokamak operations
Tritium breeding and tritium handling technology
Thermohydraulics

If your PhD was awarded after 1 January 2021—or if you are about to obtain one—and you come from one of the seven ºÚÁÏÉçapp Members or the Principality of Monaco, you are eligible to apply.

See all information on this webpage. Applications close on 29 February.

Fusion researchers are constantly challenging the scientific state of the art and improving the technology. This drive lay the basis the conditions for innovation, much of which can be exploited in other sciences and industrial sectors for the benefit of society.

The SOFT Innovation Prize rewards outstanding achievements in fusion energy research showcasing opportunities of valorization in the sector. It is intended for researchers and/or industrial actors who find new solutions, possibly with wider applications, to the challenges of fusion.

SOFT stands for Symposium on Fusion Technology—the name of  conference where the prize is awarded. Following the success of the previous editions, the European Commission is holding the contest again in conjunction with  (23-27 September 2024, Dublin, Ireland).

There are no specific categories for this prize. Participants are free to submit an application concerning any physics or technology innovation that has been developed in magnetic confinement fusion research and that has market potential or has been taken up (or recognized) by industry to be further developed for the market.

Entries will be assessed on originality and replicability, technical excellence, economic impact, exploitation, and plans for further development. Proposals are studied by an independent jury composed of experts in technology transfer, from business and academia.

The deadline to submit applications has been extended to 15 February 2024. See further details on the .

At the Korea Institute of Fusion Energy (KFE), the KSTAR tokamak recommenced operations in December after a major upgrade to replace the device's carbon divertor with a tungsten divertor.

According to an  on the KFE website, the original carbon divertors could take a thermal load of 5MW/m², whereas the tungsten divertor can take 10MW/m². The upgrade is critical to the goal of sustaining a 100-million-degree plasma for 300 seconds by 2026. Data from the operational campaign will be directly relevant to ºÚÁÏÉçapp, which will operate a tungsten divertor under similar plasma conditions in terms of shape and structure.

This testing campaign will continue through February 2024. Read more about the plans in this  in English on the KFE website, or in Korean in the .

From a UKAEA  on 20 December 2023.

Some 40 and a half years after its first pulse on 25 June 1983, JET delivered pulse number 105,842 on Tuesday 18 December 2023.

UKAEA Chief Executive Officer, Prof Sir Ian Chapman, who was in attendance in JET's control room for the final plasma experiment, said: "This is the final milestone in JET's 40-year history. Those decades of research using JET by dedicated teams of scientists and engineers have played a critical role in accelerating the development of fusion energy."

JET's final day of plasma continued to push scientific boundaries, firstly attempting an inverted plasma shape for the first time at Culham before deliberately aiming electrons at the inner wall to improve understanding of beam control and damage mechanisms. The findings of these experiments will support the development of ºÚÁÏÉçapp.

JET will now move on to the next phase of its life cycle in early 2024 for repurposing and decommissioning, which will last until approximately 2040.

JET was operated at the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy as a Joint Undertaking of the European Community between 1977 and 2000, with the Euratom Research and Training program contributing approximately 80 percent of JET operation costs through 2021. Under the operation of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) since 2000, JET was used by 4,800  consortium experts, students and staff from across Europe.

--The JET control room on the day of final plasma experiments. Photo: UKAEA/EUROfusion

On Thursday 14 December, join in for Episode #2 of the IAEA Fusion Energy Webinar Series. "Fusion Energy at COP28: A promising emerging climate solution" will address the growing momentum worldwide behind fusion as a climate solution, as evidenced most recently at the COP 28 climate summit in Dubai.

Adam Danilowicz, of the IAEA, will moderate a panel with distinguished guests:

Scott Hsu, Senior Advisor and Lead Fusion Coordinator Office of the Under Secretary for Science & Innovation, US Department of Energy

Tim Bestwick, Chief Development Officer and Deputy CEO, United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority 

Stephanie Diem, Assistant Professor, Department of Engineering Physics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

Andrew Holland, Chief Executive Officer of the Fusion Industry Association

See all information at .

On Tuesday 12 December, from 10:30 to 11:45 in the morning (GMT), the JET tokamak team will be hosting a special *LIVE* YouTube show direct from the JET control room. 

JET operation ends this week with final plasma shots planned on 14 and 15 December. Join the team to look back over 40 years of research on JET and look ahead toward the future of fusion. The agenda includes a talk on "What's made JET special"; a discussion about achievements at JET; an interview with Tony Donné from EUROfusion; and a discussion on the next steps in fusion.

Participants can ask their questions by chat during the live stream. See all information .

Have you written a fusion-related Master's thesis in 2023? Then you can participate in the FuseNet Master Thesis Prize 2023!

To stimulate excellence in fusion research, FuseNet would like to award several students for outstanding Master's theses that were carried out in Europe or in collaboration with international institutions.

Nominations for this Master's thesis prize can be made through the FuseNet website at the link below. Please make sure that the submission is agreed with your institution and its FuseNet contact person. Only one submission per FuseNet member institution is allowed. The submission deadline is 1 February 2024.

See all information on the .

Félicie Albert, Director of the Jupiter Laser Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory () in California, delivered a guest lecture on 4 December 2023 to several hundred members of the ºÚÁÏÉçapp community. She returned to the achievement of fusion ignition at the National Ignition Facility in December 2022—a first-of-class milestone that had reverberated around the world and that has been replicated several times since—and brought the audience up to date on future plans for the facility.

"The National Ignition Facility has not yet reached its full potential; we have many plans for the future," she said. Increasing the energy of the laser, achieving more routine implosions of the deuterium-tritium target, and sustaining the facility through the maintenance and replacement of components are all on the list. As for the longer-term prospects of designing and building a fusion power plant based on laser technology (inertial fusion), she described the many scientific and technological challenges that would have to be overcome.

Director Albert also took time to describe other laser facilities at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory where research activities are underway to investigate particle acceleration in laser-driven plasmas as a way to generate x-rays that have unique properties and that can be used for non-destructive examination of materials or the probing of matter in extreme conditions.

Félicie Albert is a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS) and the recipient of numerous awards including the APS Katherine E. Weimer Award (2017) and the Presidential Early Career Award for Science and Engineers (2019).

After dedicating their careers to fusion power development, five recently retired engineers have launched an educational website, Facts ºÚÁÏÉçapp Fusion, that is designed to make the intricate world of fusion energy understandable and engaging for everyone.

Bill Spears, Federico Casci, Werner Gulden, Antonino Cardella, and Lorenzo Virgilio Boccaccini set out to give "a grounded view of the requirements, aims, and variety of fusion power development, highlighting the achievements so far, the current status, and the steps still needed to reach an acceptable solution."

What sets this site apart, according to its authors, is its objective viewpoint. "While the authors are knowledgeable and experienced in the field of fusion, their retirement status allows them to offer a neutral perspective that complements existing fusion project websites. This unique vantage point enhances the website's goal of fostering a better-informed public."

Click to visit .

See this  by Bill Spears published on the EUROfusion website.

Join the ºÚÁÏÉçapp at the United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP28, in Dubai from 30 November to 12 December. You can find the ºÚÁÏÉçapp pavilion in the Blue Zone, B7, Building 88, on the second floor. Follow us on social media to stay abreast of the dynamic series of talks, panel discussions and events planned around fusion energy.

On Tuesday, 28 November, the will open its doors at Paris Villepinte, and the ºÚÁÏÉçapp will be there to hold up the fusion flag. Come and see us at our exhibition booth AE140. On Thursday, 30 November, 11.30-12.00, we will also present upcoming business opportunities in a special workshop in Room 3.

See all information about the World Nuclear Exhibition .

Global technology solutions provider NTT Corporation (Japan) and the ºÚÁÏÉçapp are planning joint experiments on predicting anomalies in ºÚÁÏÉçapp plant facilities. The early detection of anomalies and failures can reduce equipment downtime and increase the efficiency of the ºÚÁÏÉçapp Tokamak's operational phases.

NTT's artificial-intelligence (AI) powered anomaly prediction technology "DeAnoS" (for Deep Anomaly Surveillance) will be used to understand the normal status of selected ºÚÁÏÉçapp plant equipment, to detect faults, and to predict anomalies. The ºÚÁÏÉçapp has already provided some operational data from the cooling water system to set up this ambitious collaboration, and will scale up with data from other equipment in the years ahead.

These experiments result from a Cooperation Agreement signed with NTT .

See the press release issued by NTT .

In the fifth installment of ºÚÁÏÉçapp Japan's manga series on the project, our hero Taiyô Tenno visits the Gyrotron Test Facility at the Naka Fusion Institute where eight ºÚÁÏÉçapp gyrotrons were manufactured and tested. Taiyô learns about the synthetic diamond windows that were developed over 30 years of R&D and that allow strong microwave pulses to pass through to the plasma without cracking.

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

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

to enter the latest 360° ºÚÁÏÉçapp virtual tour.

On Friday 3 November, ºÚÁÏÉçapp Director-General Pietro Barabaschi took part in a panel discussion on nuclear fusion organized as part of the . 

Moderated by Sakura Pascarelli (Scientific Director, European XFEL), "Nuclear fusion for a decarbonized future" featured:

— Pietro Barabaschi, Director-General, ºÚÁÏÉçapp (keynote)
— Masaya Hanada, Director General, Naka Fusion Institute Japan
— Steven Cowley, Director, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, USA
— Piergiorgio Sonato, President, RFX Consortium, Italy
— Hartmut Zohm, Head of Tokamak Division, MPI-IPP, Germany

After describing project status, Director-General Barabaschi commented on how ºÚÁÏÉçapp is contributing to the world fusion research program. "Fusion is an innovation program ... it's not just one project. [...] We see now a renaissance of fusion around the world. A lot of private investment interest, a lot of companies, a lot of opportunities for young people. [...] A lot of new ideas will come up and I believe that ºÚÁÏÉçapp can provide some support. [...] Others may learn from what we are doing; it's part of our job I believe."

You can watch a replay of the public event at .

The Europe/Japan team at the in Naka, Japan, succeeded on 23 October 2023 in producing a tokamak plasma for the first time.

The team issued the following statement: 

"This is a major achievement by the teams involved in the operation of the biggest experimental fusion device to date using magnetic confinement. The result will be carefully examined as the teams will continue to perform more tests during the next weeks. This will culminate on 1 December when the newly built fusion research facility will be officially inaugurated in Naka in the presence of delegates from Japan and Europe. Stay tuned for further updates!"

See the issued by Japan's National Institutes of Quantum Science and Technology (QST) and the published by the European Domestic Agency, Fusion for Energy.

The IAEA's World Fusion Outlook aims to be the global reference for authoritative information and updates on fusion energy.

The IAEA has been promoting fusion energy research and development for over 60 years, and it continues to strongly support R&D and future deployment by bringing the fusion community together to create solutions for both scientific and technological challenges. This first issue of the publication outlines achievements in fusion energy; its safety, security, safeguards, nuclear law and liability challenges; as well as the role of the IAEA.

Download the full report from the IAEA website .

The introduction to the IAEA World Fusion Outlook 2023 is available in Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, and Spanish  (scroll down the page).