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Fred Mills of  construction channel on YouTube returned to the ITER site this summer to report on ITER after a  produced in 2022 amassed 4 million views.

In a sleekly produced 30-minute feature he reminds his audience of the potential of nuclear fusion ... and the many challenges. He recounts how the international collaboration got its start in the 1980s, how facility construction began in 2010, and how today, in the context of challenges in assembling the one-million-component machine, the teams are collaborating to solve engineering challenges and deliver solutions.

He calls ITER "the planet's most monumental build." The scale of the ambition, the extent of the engineering, the attention to detail is honestly mind-blowing," he says. "It’s hard to think that the place where I’m standing could one become the birthplace of a new form of energy. This spot could literally see the start of something that could change the world." 

Views have already topped 450,000. See the video on YouTube .

The Board of Directors of  (FPA) has announced its 2024 Excellence in Fusion Engineering Awards. The awards will be presented at Fusion Power Associates 45th Annual Meeting and Symposium "Fusion Energy: Progress, Challenges and Promise," December 2-3, in Washington, DC.

Cami Collins, of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, is recognized for her pioneering scientific contributions, including first observation of critical gradient-driven energetic particle transport. The Board also notes her exemplary leadership in advancing U.S. community plans, exceptional record of plasma physics outreach, and strong advocacy for advancing women engagement in fusion research.

Annie Kritcher, of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, is recognized for her multi-year leadership of the design activity that led to the achievement of fusion ignition on NIF (National Ignition Facility). The Board noted that, using complex multi-dimensional radiation hydrodynamics simulations, her target designs were used over several years for a set of experiments with a range of target specifications and laser pulse shapes leading to the successes on NIF.

FPA Excellence in Fusion Engineering Awards have been given annually since 1987, in memory of MIT Professor David J. Rose, to recognize persons in the relatively early part of their careers who have shown both technical accomplishment and potential to become exceptionally influential leaders in the fusion field. A list of previous recipients can be found at  and click on Awards.

A 440-tonne sector of the ITER vacuum vessel completed by HD Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., Ltd was transported to the Korean port of Mipo on Friday 23 August. It shipped on 24 August and is expected to reach ITER next month.

This is the fourth and final vacuum vessel sector expected from Korea. Three other sectors arrived respectively in 2020, 2021, and 2022.

The torus-shaped ITER vacuum vessel will be formed from nine vacuum vessel sectors. Five sectors are expected from the European Domestic Agency including one, sector #5, later this year.

The  has released its 2024 Global Fusion Industry Report. The report, which surveyed 45 companies, found that the fusion industry has attracted over USD 7.1 billion in investment, with USD 900 million in new funds since last year. Total public funding increased by 57% in the last 12 months to USD 426 million, showing that governments increasingly see public-private partnerships as central to making commercial fusion a reality. It also showed the United States leading commercial fusion, with 25 companies, followed by the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, and China. Additionally, employment in private fusion firms grew by 34% to over 4,000.

More information is available .

The ITER Organization has signed an agreement on technical cooperation with TAE Technololgies. 

This private fusion energy company located in California is developing a proprietary compact, linear device called "an advanced beam-driven field-reversed configuration" designed to operate with hydrogen-boron fuel. Two subsidiaries—TAE Power Solutions (for a more efficient and resilient power grid) and TAE Life Sciences (novel cancer drugs)—complement its fusion power activities, which have been underway since the company's founding in 1998.

The purpose of the agreement between TAE and ITER is "to promote cooperation and exchange in technical fields of mutual interest." "Together, we will work to advance the development of fusion power and a well-trained workforce," said the company in a post on .

-- ITER Director-General Pietro Barabaschi (second from left) meets (left to right) Chief Technology Officer Artem Smirnov, SVP Fusion Science Sergei Putvinski, CEO Michl Binderbauer, and VP R&D Mike Meekins during a recent visit to TAE Headquarters.

The Board of Directors of (FPA) has announced its 2024 Leadership Awards. The awards will be presented at Fusion Power Associates 45th Annual Meeting and Symposium "Fusion Energy: Progress, Challenges and Promise," December 2-3, in Washington, DC.

Ian Chapman (UKAEA, left) is recognized for the broad range of his technical and management skills, including the completion of the JET scientific mission and the expansion of the UKAEA Culham Laboratory's role in establishing a UK national focus on moving more quickly toward fusion power.

Constantin Haefner (Fraunhofer Institut, right) is recognized for his demonstrated leadership in the areas of state-of-the-art laser and optical technology for inertial fusion, high energy density physics and the generation of secondary sources for a range of applications, and the role he is playing in elevating national attention on fusion energy development.

FPA Leadership Awards have been given annually since 1980 to recognize persons who have shown outstanding leadership qualities in accelerating the development of fusion as a commercial power source. A list of previous recipients can be found at and click on Awards.

On 2 July, the Fusion Industry Association released its 2024 Supply Chain Report. The report—an updated version of last year's—surveys fusion developers and suppliers to get a snapshot of where the supply chain stands as the fusion industry grows. Designed to capture and analyze trends, challenges, and opportunities within the industry, the report "aims to serve as a resource to better understand the scope of supply and demand in fusion energy, and to guide investment and policy strategy to support the realization of commercial fusion power at scale."

More information available .

The Board of Directors of (FPA) has announced the recipients of its 2024 Distinguished Career Awards. The awards will be presented at Fusion Power Associates 45th Annual Meeting and Symposium, Fusion Energy: Progress, Challenges and Promise, 2-3 December 2024 in Washington, D.C.

E. Michael Campbell is recognized for his decades of scientific and managerial leadership of inertial confinement fusion programs at LLNL, General Atomics and the University of Rochester, and consulting/advisory contributions at many other institutions. The Board especially notes the seminal early roles he played that led to the construction of the National Ignition Faciiity, that then led to the recent first laboratory demonstration of fusion ignition.

Bruno Van Wonterghem is recognized for his decades of tenacious dedication to scientific and operational excellence in bringing both the LLNL Beamlet and NIF facilities to completion and successful operations. The Board especially notes his many scientific  publications contributing to understanding laboratory inertial confinement fusion and his managerial expertise that has enabled thousands of groundbreaking laser-plasma experiments.

FPA Distinguished Career Awards have been given annually since 1987 to recognize individuals who have made distinguished lifelong career contributions to fusion energy development. A list of previous recipients is at  and click on Awards.

In the communiqué published on 14 June 2024 at the close of the G7 Summit in Italy, the leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States listed fusion energy among the initiatives and commitments having the potential to advance efforts to address the triple global crisis of climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss. 

Under the sub-heading of "Energy, Climate and Environment," the communiqué states:

"Fusion energy technology has the potential to provide a lasting solution to the global challenges of climate change and energy security. We will promote international collaborations to accelerate the development and demonstration of fusion plants to foster private investments and public engagement. With this aim, we commit to establishing a G7 Working Group on Fusion Energy. We will also work towards consistent approaches to fusion regulations. To enhance cooperation in this field, we welcome Italy and the International Atomic Energy Agency's decision to host in Rome the inaugural ministerial meeting of the World Fusion Energy Group."

Read the full communiqué .

Fusion For Energy (F4E) will be hosting a roundtable, taking place on 25-26 June in Barcelona, Spain, on International Frameworks for Fusion Technology Development. The event will host scientists, industry representatives, and public sector representatives, addressing topics such as new technologies, and current advancements and challenges in the industry.

Register for the event .

Leading European companies are joining forces to establish the European Fusion Association (EFA).

The initiative, which will be formally established in the next few months, aims to address one of the biggest challenges for the coming decades: enhancing strategic autonomy for clean energy with fusion energy being key to this ambition. The EFA seeks to build a "strong, world-class European fusion ecosystem that ensures a sustainable long-term supply chain for fusion energy," according to the press release, believing that "only a united Europe can achieve true success in this field and prevent the fragmentation of the European industry into isolated national entities."

The group says the idea germinated during the ITER Private Sector Fusion Workshop, held in May 2024, driven by a shared belief that Europe covers all necessary technologies and know-how to develop a fusion energy system in Europe. The founding members include Alsymex (France), ASG (Italy), Assystem (France), Bruker EAS (Germany), Demaco (Netherlands), Gauss Fusion (Europe), IDOM (Spain), Simic (Italy), Subra (Denmark) and Trumpf (Germany).

Read more about the European Fusion Association .

In this bonus episode of the ITER podcast, hear some of the voices of those who took part in the first Private Sector Fusion Workshop at ITER Headquarters in May.

"Future Stars" was recorded on site as hundreds of people were meeting, comparing notes, and exploring possible paths to collaboration—all in the context of ITER asking "How can we help?"

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

The world met at VivaTech, Europe's biggest startup and tech event, and ITER was part of it! With more than 165,000 attendees, 400 speakers and 13,500 startups, Vivatech shattered records and brought together prestigious personalities such as Elon Musk, John Kerry, the Williams sisters and many more.

While artificial intelligence was the hot topic, energy was also discussed on stage and nuclear fusion was part of the discussion. ITER scientist Richard Pitts captivated the VivaTech crowd with a debate with Hartmut Ruhl from Marvel Fusion about the current status of fusion energy the technical challenges remaining on the road to commercialization.

Among the many prestigious visitors, Sylvie Retailleau, French Minister of Higher Education and Research, paid a visit to the ITER booth and confirmed her support and interest in this "fascinating project that will be one the options to delivering a carbon-free energy source for the generations to come." Minister Retailleau toured the ITER site in July 2023.

Sylvie Retailleau, French Minister of Higher Education and Research, paid a visit to the ITER booth and confirmed her support and interest for the project.

Registration is open for the 13th ITER International School (IIS), which will take place from 9 to 13 December 2024 in Nagoya, Japan, hosted by National Institute for Fusion Science (NIFS).

The aim is to prepare young scientists and engineers for working in the field of nuclear fusion and in research applications associated with the ITER Project. The adoption of a "school" format was a result of the need to prepare future scientists and engineers on a range of different subjects and to provide them with a wide overview of the interdisciplinary skills required by ITER.

The subject of the 2024 school is "Magnetic Fusion Diagnostics and Data Science," with a scientific program coordinated by Profs. M. Yokoyama and K. Tanaka (National Institute for Fusion Science) and Drs. M. Kocan and S. McIntosh (ITER Organization). Diagnostics are key to the achievement of ITER fusion power demonstration goals, and they require the application of a wide range of techniques. However, diagnostics are not enough to ensure ITER's success; only through the advanced analysis of the data they provide will it be possible to guide the experiments towards their fusion power goals. More information is available .

The deadline for pre-registration and abstract submission is 1 September 2024. Register .

Last week, in the framework of the International Conference on Plasma-Surface Interaction () hosted in Marseille, a lunch event organized by Women in Fusion on "Creating an Inclusive Fusion Workforce" was attended by more than 100 people.

Women in Fusion () is a global platform advocating for women and women's organizations active in the fusion community (public and private sectors as well as academia) all around the globe. The group seeks to inspire and support women in the fusion field by highlighting their roles in the field, promoting their leadership, and encouraging recognition of their contributions.

The conference also opened with a keynote on the importance of gender diversity and inclusion in the fusion community, delivered by Laurence Piketty (Deputy Director General of the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission, CEA) and ITER Director-General Pietro Barabaschi.

The DIII-D National Fusion Facility at General Atomics in San Diego is starting up after undergoing eight months of upgrades that have equipped it with new and improved plasma control and diagnostic systems. These upgrades, which are expected to support experiments performed at ITER, include a range of new diagnostic instruments as well as enhancements to the way that the plasma is heated. Engineers have also installed a "shape and volume rise" divertor, which consists of a series of modular divertor configurations that the DIII-D will now test when experiments start up later this month. The new divertor will allow plasma shapes to be studied that were not possible with DIII-D's previous divertor geometry.

Read more about the upgrades at DIII-D and .

The French tokamak WEST, located at the Institute for Magnetic Fusion Research (IRFM)/French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), has achieved record results.

WEST's latest campaign, which started in mid-January and ended on 26 April 2024, set a new plasma duration record of 6 minutes and 4 seconds, with an injected energy of 1.15 GJ, along with a steady-state central electron temperature of 4 keV (50 million degrees Celsius), and an electron density twice that of discharges obtained in the tokamak's previous configuration, Tore Supra.

Furthermore, the campaign explored the "X-Point radiation" plasma scenario leading to the achievement of one-minute plasmas with low electron temperature (Te < 5 eV) in the divertor, in turn improving the lifespan of the plasma-facing components by allowing for a better distribution of heat fluxes. In addition, several new diagnostics were successfully deployed, providing new measurements to characterize core and edge plasma. New records for power injection systems were also achieved, with 5.8 MW injected by the lower hybrid heating and current drive system and over 4 MW by the ion cyclotron resonance heating system. Lastly, WEST surpassed the milestone of 10,000 plasmas since the first WEST plasma was achieved in December 2016.

The tokamak is now in a shutdown period for maintenance and the installation of new systems. The next experimental campaign will commence in autumn 2024.

Read more about the campaign's achievements . A French version is available .

Sven Korving, a PhD student researching nuclear fusion at the Eindhoven University of Technology in collaboration with the ITER Science Division, had his publications selected not once, but twice for the Editor's Pick of the journal Physics of Plasmas. The journal called the research "noteworthy, novel, timely, interesting, and important." In his latest paper, dated this month, Korving predicts the transport of impurities in plasmas where instabilities are suppressed by external 3D magnetic fields. His research stands out for the contrast with papers that focus on isolating a single phenomenon, while he develops models to simultaneously and consistently simulate multiple phenomena, interconnected and coupled with each other.

The Eindhoven University of Technology's Department of Applied Physics and Science Education celebrated his achievements in a LinkedIn post, . More information on Sven's research can be found .

Korving, S. Q., Huijsmans, G. T. A., Park, J.-S., & Loarte, A. (2023, April 5). Development of the neutral model in the nonlinear MHD Code JOREK: Application to E × B drifts in ITER PFPO-1 plasmas. AIP Publishing.

Korving, S. Q., Mitterauer, V., Huijsmans, G. T. A., Loarte, A., & Hoelzl, M. (2024b, May 8). Simulation of neoclassical heavy impurity transport in ASDEX Upgrade with applied 3D magnetic fields using the nonlinear MHD code JOREK. AIP Publishing.

--Three dimensional image of the tungsten density at the plasma edge of ASDEX Upgrade modelled by the JOREK code when 3D magnetic fields are applied for ELM control, as foreseen in ITER.

EUROfusion has opened applications for its 2025 Engineering Grants, funding post-Master's engineering projects for two years starting in 2025. Twenty outstanding early-career engineers will receive a grant contributing to their salary, research, and training activities.

The program seeks to support the education and training of a new generation of fusion engineers in alignment with the European Research Roadmap to the Realisation of Fusion Energy.

Eligibility:

- Engineers of all nationalities in possession of a Master's (MSc) degree in Engineering OR with proven multi-year engineering work experience and haven completed their Master's degree in a STEM subject in the six years preceding the application deadline.

- The proposed engineering research topic falls into one of the competency areas defined in Annex 5 of the application documents.

- The candidate must be employed by a EUROfusion Consortium member or one of their Affiliated Entities during the grant period. Interested candidates should jointly prepare their application with an institute(s) affiliated with EUROfusion, who will submit the application and offer to employ the candidate for the proposed duration of the project.

The application deadline is 21 June 2024. See further details about the program and how to apply .

The European Domestic Agency for ITER, Fusion for Energy (F4E), has opened a fusion Traineeship Scheme, with opportunities in Barcelona (Spain), at ITER (France), and in Garching (Germany).

Apply by Monday 10 June for positions beginning in October 2024. Fusion for Energy is looking for profiles to match its needs in fusion engineering and physics, project and contract management, market intelligence, and administration. It offers a supportive work environment, competitive benefits, and opportunities for professional development.

Traineeships are open to candidates with European or Ukrainian nationality who have a university degree (at least three years) and a good knowledge of English (minimum B2).

See a list of available opportunities . See all information on how to apply .