ºÚÁÏרÇø

The 29th IAEA Fusion Energy Conference () is taking place next week in London. In-person registration has closed, but remote participation is possible. Follow the instructions on  to register for virtual attendance.

Registered virtual attendees will be able to follow all the technical sessions of the conference online via the IAEA conference and meetings app. (Consult the preliminary program .)

The 29th Fusion Energy Conference (FEC 2023) aims to provide a forum for the discussion of key physics and technology issues as well as innovative concepts of direct relevance to the use of nuclear fusion as a future source of energy. It is organized by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) through the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA).

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 is 16 January 2024. See further details on the .

Are you currently a fusion or plasma physics Master's student, or are you starting a Master's during the next academic year? Are you looking for an opportunity to meet the community and learn more about studying for this field? Then the FuseNet Master Event 2023 is the place for you.

The third edition of the FuseNet Master Event will take place on Tuesday 23 November 2023. The event will be held fully online on the Gathertown platform. All master's students in fusion-related fields are invited to join the event. The event will interest to both students who are just getting started in fusion, and students who are graduating. 

More information on the program can be found on the . See you there!

The EUROfusion consortium for the realization of fusion energy has awarded ten Bernard Bigot Researcher Grants (ERG) to talented post-doctoral researchers across Europe. The ERG grants enable early-career researchers to develop innovative ideas and techniques to advance EUROfusion's to Fusion Energy.

The EUROfusion Bernard Bigot Researcher Grants program, named after the third Director-General of the ºÚÁÏרÇø Organization, supports excellent scientists at the post-doctoral level in their career development. The ERG grants cover part of the salaries of the selected candidates and part of the cost of their research activities and missions for a duration of up to two years.

Read all about the ten awardees on this .

The Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) is an intergovernmental organization that brings together 43 countries to strengthen regional cooperation and dialogue through specific projects and initiatives that address inclusive and sustainable development, stability and integration in the Euro-Mediterranean area.

On 3 October in Barcelona, Spain, UfM and the European Union co-organized the Euro-Mediterranean Conference on Science Diplomacy, with the aim of highlighting the state of science diplomacy in the Mediterranean as well as obstacles and opportunities. More than 80 people from 22 countries attended, including scientists, diplomats, and research and innovation officials.

ºÚÁÏרÇø, as an example of science diplomacy, was invited to take part. The ºÚÁÏרÇø Project was represented by Marc Lachaise, director of Fusion for Energy (the European Union organization managing Europe's contribution to ºÚÁÏרÇø), who participated in a panel discussion on research infrastructure. 

See the press release issued after the event .

After bringing the magnetic coil systems of JT-60SA to superconducting temperatures in July 2023, energization—the process of running current through the magnets—has begun.

The toroidal field coil system (18 D-shaped coils) was put through a series of tests in  to verify that the system's quench detection and protection circuits were working optimally and that the current could be safely increased. Now, tests have begun on the tokamak's six ring-shaped equilibrium field coils, with limited voltages and currents at the start to avoid unnecessary risk.

Read more about JT-60SA commissioning activities on .

"The world we live in today [has] demands for clean energy outstripping supply. This has made clean sources of energy, such as fusion, of increasing interest to policymakers, investors and the wider public. In principle, fusion could generate four times more energy per kilogram of fuel than fission and nearly four million times more energy than burning oil and coal. The current level of international commitment to this clean source of energy is bringing us closer to fusion energy.

So begins the 800-page Fundamentals of Magnetic Fusion Technology published this month by the International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA. The high-level text book is written for graduate students focusing on fusion technology, as well as for established plasma physicists and others working in the field and requiring a comprehensive overview. 

"Over the coming decades fusion R&D will shift from being science-driven and laboratory-based towards a technology-driven, industry-based venture. Significant innovation is and will be required [...]. Furthermore, the transition will focus on technologies and standards associated with the 'nuclearization of fusion' which has consequences for the required competences of the workforce. The main objective of this publication is to contribute to the consolidation and better exploitation of the achievements already reached in the past to tackle the present challenges in preparing the workforce in the different areas, with special attention to continuous professional development and life-long learning."

Download or order your copy from the .

The European Southern Observatory (ESO) is an intergovernmental organization that designs, constructs and operates powerful ground-based observing facilities for astronomy. It currently operates three unique world class observing sites in the Atacama Desert region of Chile and is building the Extremely Large Telescope, which will be the largest optical/near-infrared telescope in the world. 

Professor Xavier Barcons, the Director General of ESO, was a guest on site at ºÚÁÏרÇø on Friday 15 September. After exchanges with management and an extended tour of the worksite, he delivered a guest lecture to hundreds of members of the ºÚÁÏרÇø community who were present in the amphitheatre or logged on remotely.

"What we can say, to start, is that we both work with plasmas, although many orders of magnitude apart in size," said ºÚÁÏרÇø Director-General Pietro Barabaschi in his introduction of Professor Barcons. "And there are other things that we share—we are delivering research infrastructures at the frontier of science and technology, we are unique in our fields, and we face common challenges not only in engineering and technology ... but also in procurement, administration and staffing issues such as diversity. Beyond the pleasure of welcoming Professor Barcons today, we also hope to find areas where we can assist one another."

You can learn more about the European Southern Observatory .

Registrations are open for the 2023 European Fusion Teacher Day!   The goal of the European Fusion Teacher Day, which will take place on 6 October, is to introduce nuclear fusion to secondary school teachers throughout Europe, discuss teaching nuclear fusion to secondary school students, and create enthusiasm for the field of fusion at the secondary education level.   You can find the agenda and the registration page at the event site . Registration closes on 2 October.

Do you want to be more involved in the promotion of fusion education in Europe? Do you have ideas on how to make the fusion scientific community bigger? Do you want to give input as a student to , the European Fusion Education Network? 

The FuseNet Student Council is a separate advisory body in which Master and PhD students from member institutions across Europe convene and provide input to the Board of Governors. Members of the Student Council take part in Work Packages, and they are responsible for the organization of the FuseNet Master Event. The Student Council convenes predominantly online but also has at least one live meeting each year at the FuseNet PhD Event.

All current Master and PhD students affiliated with a FuseNet member institution are welcome to apply. Member terms are one year with the possibility of a one-year extension.

The deadline is 10 October 2023. See all information .

After designating 2022 as the "International Year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development (IYBSSD)," the United Nations (UN) General Assembly has now proclaimed 2024 to 2033 as the "International Decade of Sciences for Sustainable Development (IDSSD)," acknowledging the imperative to "create bridges accross scientific disciplines and knowledge forms in order to address the complex and intricate challenges of our time."

Recognizing that developing countries face specific challenges in accessing new sciences and technologies, the resolution—proposed by Argentina, Cuba, Equatorial Guinea, Guatemala, Honduras, Hungary, Serbia, South Africa, Spain and Vietnam—proclaims the International Decade of Sciences for Sustainable Development represents "a unique opportunity for humanity to use the critical role that sciences play in the pursuit of sustainable development in its three dimensions as one of the key means of implementation as well as in responding to the complex challenges of our time to ensure a safe and prosperous future for all."

The ºÚÁÏרÇø is one of that supports the .

Read the UN declaration in English .

The technical program of the 28th International Conference on Magnet Technology ( will kick off in Aix-en-Provence, France, on 11 September 2023. Interest has been high, with nearly 1,000 registered participants and extensive paper submissions. Plenary talks, topic sessions, short courses and an industrial exhibition are all on the .

Registration is still available on line through Tuesday, 5 September.

For members of the press, please contact Sabina Griffith (@email) to be kept abreast of the planned press event.

JET, the Joint European Torus in Culham, Oxfordshire (UK), has just kicked off a third and final campaign in deuterium and tritium. The planned experiments, known as "DTE3," will run for seven weeks and focus on plasma science, materials science, and neutronics.

This campaign comes just 20 months after JET demonstrated sustained fusion over five seconds at high power and set a world record. In June, JET celebrated 40 years of science.

JET's research findings have been critical to planning at ºÚÁÏרÇø, as well as to that of the UK's prototype fusion powerplant , the European prototype fusion plant, and other national laboratory and private projects around the world.  

Repurposing and decomissioning activities on JET are scheduled to begin in 2024. 

See the announcement on the UKAEA/Culham Centre for Fusion Energy .

For the third year in a row, the Department of Physics at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) has held its Fusion Energy Summer Camp for high school students.

19 participants aged 16 to 19 got to work as researchers and conduct experiments on DTU's small, and Scandinavia's only, NORTH tokamak. From early morning to late evening, from 30 July to 4 August, they followed lectures, practiced problem solving and programming in fusion energy and plasma physics, and participated in experiments, while also having fun and getting a taste of university life on campus.

The DTU Physics teams thanks the Novo Nordisk Foundation for its generous support in helping to inspire the young generation to consider an education in science and engineering and be part of the push to develop a sustainable future.

--Søren Bang Korsholm, Senior Scientist, and Alexander Simon Thrysøe, Scientist at DTU Physics.

Photo: Students are introduced to the NORdic Tokamak device (NORTH) that is enriching the physics and engineering programs at the Technical University of Denmark. Credit: Magnus Møller 

The transition to superconducting has been observed in the JT-60SA's central solenoid and toroidal field magnets, according to reporting by the team.

Superconductivity is a natural property of certain metals, alloys and ceramics when cooled below a defined "critical temperature." Below the critical temperature—which varies for each material—electrical resistance drops to zero, allowing these materials to carry large amounts of electrical current without losing energy.

JT-60SA's central solenoid is wound from niobium tin (Nb3Sn) cable-in-conduit conductor, which in the absence of any magnetic field becomes superconducting at about 18 K (-255°C). Early on 22 July the four modules of the central solenoid reached this temperature and the resistance of the magnets dropped to almost zero. The superconducting transition for the tokamak's 18 toroidal field coils and 6 equilibrium field coils (made from niobium titanium (NbTi) cable-in-conduit conductor) occurred at about 9 K (-264°C) on 24 July.

The JT-60SA tokamak is a joint program of fusion research and development agreed and co-financed by the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) and the government of Japan.

See the full report on this .

The sixth and last episode of Season 2 of The ºÚÁÏרÇø World is now available.

"Narrating A Giant" caps off the season by interviewing ºÚÁÏרÇø Head of Communication Laban Coblentz. What public information strategy should be followed for this project that has so many complex layers of science, engineering, technology and politics? How to sustain interest in a project that spans decades? How to combat misconceptions? 

Listen to the latest episode directly on the ºÚÁÏרÇø website or through , , , , , or .

Physicist Hartmut Zohm from Germany's Max Planck Institute of Plasma Physics (IPP) invites ºÚÁÏרÇø's Head of Science, Alberto Loarte, to discuss the recent technical setbacks at ºÚÁÏרÇø and plans for recovery. 

What are the specific problems and solutions? How will the setbacks affect full-power operation? Is scientific planning affected? Is the delay for repair also an opportunity in some areas to modify strategy? In what ways does ºÚÁÏרÇø remain a "teaching" device?

The 17-minute talk "Nuclear Fusion: Problems at the ºÚÁÏרÇø Research Project and Current Solutions" is available in and .

RAZOR, CGTN Europe's science and technology show, has published a 27-minute episode on the ºÚÁÏרÇø Project.

Host Neil Cairns takes the viewer into some of the most interesting spaces of the ºÚÁÏרÇø site, including the cathedral-like Tokamak pit, the gargantuan Assembly Hall and ºÚÁÏרÇø Headquarters where staff from 35 nations are collaborating to "recreate the Sun's energy" on Earth. Through interviews with workers, managers and staff, the documentary captures the ambition of ºÚÁÏרÇø and the gamechanging nature of fusion. "It's like when humans learned how to use fire," says one of the Chinese consortium members involved in machine assembly. "This is the second fire of humans in our history."

Watch "Are we any closer to recreating the Sun's energy at ºÚÁÏרÇø?" on the RAZOR Science YouTube channel .

The has released its third annual survey of private fusion enterprises around the world.

The fusion industry continues to grow globally, with 13 new entrants, USD 1.4 billion (EUR 12.5 billion) in fresh funding, and nearly 1,000 direct jobs (+3,000 in the supply chain) created.

Private fusion initiatives exist in Australia (1), Canada (1), China (2), France (1), Israel (1), Italy (1), Germany (3), Japan (3), New Zealand (1), Sweden (1), the United Kingdom (3), and the United States (25).

These fusion companies are also benefitting at times from public money, as governments seek to spur innovation through public-private partnerships.

The companies participating in the survey spoke of their optimism about delivering fusion power to the grid, although "challenges remain."

You can download "The Global Fusion Industry in 2023" from on the Fusion Industry Association website.

Offering unsurpassed hardness, broad band optical transparency, and extremely high thermal conductivity, synthetic diamonds are the material of choice for 60 small windows that offer access to the machine for the high-frequency electromagnetic waves of ºÚÁÏרÇø's electron cyclotron heating system, yet ensure a tight vacuum boundary.

The European Domestic Agency for ºÚÁÏרÇø, Fusion for Energy, has procured 60 synthetic diamond discs through the German firm Diamond Materials. Now they must be polished, optically inspected, and finally joined with the diamond window unit through brazing.

See the on the Fusion for Energy website for all the details.