Of Interest archive

According to an independent study conducted for the European Domestic Agency for ITER (Fusion for Energy) by CSIL, Trinomics and Cambridge Econometrics, the European Union’s investment in fusion between 2018 and 2024 has created a strong positive impact on Europe’s economy and industrial competitiveness.

Since its creation in 2007, Fusion for Energy has invested over EUR 7 billion to provide Europe’s contribution to ITER and other international projects through more than 1,400 contracts. This has helped shaped the largest fusion supply chain in the world, with at least 2,700 companies and 75 R&D organizations involved. Besides the infrastructure and technologies delivered, the analysis shows the far-reaching benefits in terms of knowledge, growth and jobs. For instance, 66% of firms reported that their staff had acquired new skills and 77% acknowledged enhanced know-how, driven by ITER’s complex requirements. Around half of surveyed firms noted improvements to their products or processes, with some reporting patents or spin-offs towards sectors like fission, medicine or aerospace.

 See this article on the Fusion for Energy website for more analysis or download the report directly here.

Applications are open now for the 2027 EUROfusion Bernard Bigot Researcher Grants. 

These grants fund individual post-doctoral research projects for two years (beginning 2027) by contributing to the salaries, research and training activities of up to nine outstanding early career researchers. 

Researchers and engineers of all nationalities who have completed their PhD and defended their thesis in the two years preceding the application deadline are eligible. 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 or institutes affiliated with EUROfusion, who will submit the application and offer to employ the candidate for the proposed duration of the project.

For details and to see all application documents, visit this EUROfusion website. The application deadline is 11 May 2026.

The 7th International Conference on Data-Driven Plasma Science (ICDDPS 7) will take place in Kiel, Germany, from 3–7 August 2026.

ICDDPS is an international conference that intends to be the premier forum for researchers from academia and industry to discuss current and future directions in Al and machine learning applied to plasma science and technology, including but not limited to topics such as plasma processing and nuclear fusion.

The conference will bring together researchers working on AI, machine learning, and data-driven approaches applied to plasma science, fusion, and plasma technologies, with a focus on the latest advances in extracting knowledge from large experimental and simulation datasets.

More information is available on the conference website. Registration is open now.

In December, timed to coincide with a state visit of French President Emmanuel Macron to China, students in the Chinese language section at the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur International School (EIPACA), near ITER, decided to put their growing language skills to use. With the help of their teachers, they wrote a letter to Chinese President Xi Jinping, sharing their enthusiasm for the language and describing how, in a unique international school in southern France, they are learning more each day about Chinese history and culture.

They had no way of knowing whether the letter would ever receive a reply—or even reach the president's desk.

So the surprise was considerable when a formal response arrived in March. In his letter, President Xi extended his best wishes to the students, the teachers and the entire school. He encouraged them to become “pillars of friendly cooperation” between China and France, and between China and Europe. He added that they would be welcome in China for study, exchanges or visits, and expressed the hope that the Chinese language would become their “lifelong friend.”

The Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur International School was established in 2007 to serve the needs of the ITER project, but it also benefits the local community. From the outset, its mission has been to provide bilingual education—in French plus one of the ITER languages. Currently, six language sections are offered: Chinese, English, German, Italian, Japanese and Spanish. From junior high school onward, English-speaking students may also join the European Section, where about 80 percent of courses are taught in English.

--EIPACA students and teachers from the Chinese language section.

On 28 and 29 April 2026, the ITER Organization will host its third annual Public-Private Fusion Workshop—an event dedicated to the dynamic fusion ecosystem across the ITER Members and the importance of public-private collaboration. 

Over two days at ITER, experts will present innovations in robotics, AI, fusion diagnostics, and heating technologies. Panel discussions will also address key challenges, including tritium breeding, scaling up high-temperature superconducting magnets, and progress in liquid metal wall technology.

This year’s agenda will also feature discussions on lessons learned—positive and negative—in ITER’s Engineering Basis Handbook, as well as more recent project management insights on construction and assembly. By popular request, the global fusion supply chain will again feature prominently, with fusion supplier companies showcasing their latest technologies at an exhibition on Tuesday night.

Registration for the workshop, as well as for tours and consultations, is open at this address. Scroll down to see the current program (still very much in flux and subject to change as speakers refine their proposals and private sector fusion firms refine their topics of interest).

At the second IAEA Nuclear Energy Summit in Paris on 10 March, the ITER project was cited in statements by several Heads of State and Government as part of a broader discussion on research and innovation in the nuclear sector.

In his opening address, French President Emmanuel Macron outlined several priorities for the future of nuclear energy, including financing, supply chains, workforce development and research. He mentioned ITER in the context of this final theme, which focused on the role that open and innovative science should play in influencing government policy.

“I would like to pay tribute to the women and men who are bringing the ITER project to life in Cadarache, which fuels our hopes for tangible progress. We believe in these efforts and we will continue to support them. We want to continue to attract and train the best researchers in this field.”

President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen also referenced ITER in the context of a discussion about European funding and industrial strategy for nuclear technologies including fusion. Emphasizing that high electricity prices in Europe were a structural problem with direct consequences for industrial competitiveness, she stressed that Europe should remain a leader in next-generation nuclear technologies and highlighted recent policy changes to support the sector. 

“In the last years, we see a global revival of nuclear energy. And Europe wants to be part of it. Last year, we changed our State aid rules to expand support for nuclear fission and fuels. We launched the world's first industrial alliance for small modular reactors and proposed to invest over EUR 5 billion in our next budget on fusion research, notably through ITER.”

Prime Minister Andrej Plenković of Croatia spoke of his country's plans to create the conditions for the development of a civil nuclear program, and added, “And since we must prepare tomorrow's technologies today, we are also involved in the European nuclear fusion program, especially through large projects such as ITER and DONES.”

Chairman of the Mazhilis of the Parliament, Republic of Kazakhstan, Yerlan Koshanov, called attention to ITER in remarks about Kazakhstan’s cooperation with the IAEA in reactor technology, radiopharmaceuticals, and fusion research.

ITER Director-General Pietro Barabaschi took part in a panel at the Summit titled “New Nuclear and the Role of Innovation for the Nuclear Technologies of the Future,” where he discussed ITER’s role within the evolving fusion ecosystem.

Read more about the IAEA Nuclear Energy Summit hosted in Paris here.

Following a shutdown period dedicated to the installation of an extensive set of upgrades, the joint Japan/Europe international fusion experiment JT-60SA in Naka, Japan, is now taking the progressive commissioning steps that will lead to the re-start of the device this year.  

Enhancements to JT-60SA's heating and current drive systems, in-vessel control coils, diagnostics, and plasma-facing components have positioned the device for a new experimental campaign, OP2, that is foreseen to start at the end of this year and extend into 2027. ITER representatives were recently on site in Naka to participate in the 5th Experiment Team Coordination Meeting to discuss how the new campaign can address ITER priorities. ITER Organization staff are planning to participate in experiments both on site in Japan as well as remotely. 

Read more about the JT-60SA device, which is currently the largest operational tokamak in the world.

See this related story on the European Domestic Agency (Fusion for Energy) website.

In a comprehensive new article in Nuclear Fusion, ITER Director-General Pietro Barabaschi and colleagues outline the progress of ITER and reaffirm the project’s central role in bringing fusion energy from experimental science to industrial reality. 

After a period of restructuring, contract adjustments, and technical recovery, the project is now advancing under a revised plan known as Baseline 2024, designed as a realistic and achievable path to the first experiments, deuterium operation, and ultimately deuterium-tritium fusion with a gain of Q ≥ 10. Over the past two years, the organization has reported its strongest performance to date, maintaining schedule and cost targets while accelerating assembly and manufacturing activities. 

Major milestones include completion of all superconducting magnets, start of series production of tungsten plasma-facing components, and renewed progress in tokamak assembly following successful repairs to key elements. Large plant systems such as the cryogenic infrastructure are operating, and critical test facilities are coming on line as the project transitions from construction to integrated commissioning. 

The authors describe how, despite the emergence of new fusion actors, ITER’s mission is unchanged: to demonstrate integrated, industrial-scale fusion and provide the knowledge and technology needed for future power plants. In that sense, they argue, ITER is not competing with the expanding fusion ecosystem—it is laying its foundation. 

Barabaschi, P., Artola, F. J., Oliva, A. B., Carannante, G., Coblentz, L., Encheva, A., Giniiatulin, R., Grillot, D., Hunt, R., Jachmich, S., Kamada, Y., Kim, S., Loarte, A., Marquez, A., Merola, M., Noh, C. H., Nunes, I., Orlandi, S., Perrier, G., . . . Veltri, P. (2026). Progress of ITER and its importance for fusion development. Nuclear Fusion. https://doi.org/10.1088/1741-4326/ae4d5c

The program for this summer's 15th ITER International School is now available and pre-registration is open on the event website.

Since its launch in 2007, every ITER International School has focused on a specific theme. The 15th School, to be held in Chengdu, China, from 20–24 July 2026, will explore the engineering of heating and current drive systems as well as the physics processes undergirding their use for plasma heating, current drive, and the control of plasma scenarios in ITER and other magnetic fusion devices.

The organizers of the event—the Engineering & Technical College of Chengdu University of Technology and the Southwestern Institute of Physics (SWIP)—have now opened the webpage for pre-registration. The program for the five-day event is also consultable on the website. 

Visit the 15th ITER International School website for all information or to pre-register.

Download the 2026 School poster here.

The Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics is reporting that physicists have, for the first time, explained the sudden formation of high-confinement mode (H-mode) in tokamaks using simulations based purely on fundamental physical principles. First observed in 1982 on the ASDEX tokamak in Garching, H-mode dramatically improves plasma energy confinement and is considered essential for future fusion devices, including ITER. Yet despite decades of experimental and theoretical work, scientists had not fully understood why the transition occurs at a specific heating power.

Led by Wladimir Zholobenko, IPP researchers performed advanced “flux-driven” edge simulations with the GRILLIX code, allowing the plasma to evolve naturally as heating power increased step by step. Unlike earlier models, the transition was not imposed but emerged self-consistently from turbulence dynamics. Simulating just 50 milliseconds of plasma evolution required a year of supercomputer time.

The simulations show that after a gradual buildup of turbulence, heat transport at the plasma edge abruptly reverses. Within 100 microseconds, the characteristic H-mode pedestal—a steep pressure and temperature gradient—forms. The transition is linked to a sudden shift from drift-wave turbulence to kinetic ballooning modes, along with a rapid reorganization of microscopic fluctuations. The model even predicts a brief inward heat flow before transport stabilizes.

Based on conditions from ASDEX Upgrade, the simulation shows that it reproduces exactly those effects that can also be observed in experimental results. However, the researchers have not yet been able to achieve satisfactory quantitative agreement—in other words, the actual measurements from ASDEX Upgrade are either above or below the simulated results.“We haven't reached our goal yet, but the simulations provide insight into what is still missing,” says Dr Zholobenko. The aim is to end up with a simulation model that can predict the experimental parameters at which H-mode occurs in fusion facilities that have not yet been built.

The findings were published in Physical Review Letters. 

See the original report on the IPP website.

Since 2019, ITER Japan has been publishing a manga series that brings the ITER project to life for a broad audience. 

The story follows Japanese student Taiyô Tenna, who discovers ITER while on a world tour after meeting a French student in Aix-en-Provence. His journey continues through an internship experience at ITER, and then as he returns to Japan to learn more about the advanced fusion technologies developed by Japan’s Domestic Agency for the project. In the eighth volume, just released, he has become a staff member at the National Institutes for Quantum Science and Technology (QST), where he learns about ITER's new baseline scope and schedule and the ways in which Japan's flagship fusion device, JT-60SA is participating.

Explore all volumes of the ITER manga series on the ITER Japan website or download Volume 8 from ITER's Publication Centre. Editions are available in Japanese, English, French and ... Provençal.

Registration is open now for the third ITER Public-Private Fusion Workshop that will be organized on 28 and 29 April 2026 at the ITER site in Saint Paul-lez-Durance, France.

For the past two years, ITER has opened its doors to private sector fusion companies for joint workshops on areas of mutual interest and mechanisms for positive engagement. This year’s theme—“Fusion: a Joint Quest”—reflects the reality that progress toward fusion energy is neither linear nor uniform, but pursued through multiple technical approaches, institutional models, and timelines. Across public and private efforts alike, divergent visions coexist with genuinely complementary strengths—in science, engineering, manufacturing, and systems integration.

See the detailed agenda on the workshop website under Program (scroll down). On the day before or after the workshop—Monday, 27 April and/or Thursday, 30 April—participants may arrange consultations with ITER experts, customized tours of the ITER worksite, and opportunities for networking and discussion with fellow attendees.

Register to attend the third ITER Public-Private Fusion Workshop here.

The IEEE Nuclear Plasma Science Society (NPSS) Fusion Technology Standing Committee is pleased to announce that the nomination period for the 2026 Fusion Technology Award is now open. The award will be presented during the 32nd Symposium on Fusion Engineering (SOFE 2027) in San Diego, California, in June 2027.

The Fusion Technology Award recognizes individuals who have made outstanding contributions to research and development in the field of fusion technology. The awards each consist of a USD 3,000 cash prize, a plaque, and an invited talk at SOFE 2027.

Equal consideration will be given to innovation across all fusion approaches and outstanding leadership in the fusion community. Any person, regardless of Society affiliation, is eligible for the award, with the exception that no current member of the IEEE/NPSS Standing Committee on Fusion Technology may be nominated. The nomination package should be sent to the Fusion Technology Committee Awards Chair, Dr. Trey Gebhart (@email), and it should consist of a letter describing the technical contributions on which the nomination is recommended and a current resume of the candidate. Other supporting endorsements are encouraged.

For more detailed information on eligibility criteria, the basis for judging, nomination process and a list of past award recipients, please visit this IEEE webpage and go to the “Fusion Technology Awards” section. The nomination deadline for the 2026 Fusion Technology Award is 13 March 2026.

A new exhibition at the ATOM Museum, Moscow, celebrates the life and work of Evgeny Velikhov, a major figure in the history of fusion research and, as Mikhail Gorbachev’s friend and scientific advisor, one of the driving forces behind the creation of ITER.

“Evgeny Velikhov was an extraordinary individual, with a brilliant mind, unwavering integrity, and visionary outlook,” wrote ITER Director-General Pietro Barabaschi in his message to staff and stakeholders after the scientist's passing in 2024, just months before his 90th birthday.

The multimedia exposition, At the Center of Science and Society: Evgeny Velikhov, retraces the extraordinary career of this eminent Soviet and Russian scientist and polymath. Appointed scientific director of fusion research in the USSR in 1973, Velikhov played a central role in advancing the field. He later led the Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy, first as director and subsequently as president. From 2010 to 2012, he served as Chair of the ITER Council and was later appointed an Honorary Member in recognition of his lasting contributions.

The exposition runs from 3 February to 2 March 2026. Further information is available here.

--Source: ATOM Museum, Moscow

In Season 3, Episode 6 of the ITER podcast, we meet the "guardian of fusion"—the extraordinary blanket system that shields our "star in a bottle." Guided by warrior and dragon imagery inspired by Chinese legend, and some very down to earth engineering, podcast hosts Kruti Fayot and Julia Ponomareva explore how ITER’s blanket and tungsten first wall protect the machine, tame furious neutrons, and quietly turn a raging plasma into something as familiar as hot water in a kettle.

Mechanical engineer Jinke Fu introduces Nezha, a mythical Chinese rebel guardian, while ITER experts Ryan Hunt, Sophie Carpentier, and Silvia di Sarra reveal how real world guardians are built: from armor like tungsten tiles and ultraprecise assembly to world record plasma shots and global collaborations from EAST to WEST. If you’ve ever wondered how you stop particles that could reach the Moon and back in seconds, or why choosing the “right” wall material is like choosing a life partner, this episode is for you—part myth, part cutting-edge science, and a love letter to the star that started it all: the Sun.

Tune into Episode 6, "The Guardian of Fusion," on the ITER website's podcast page or open it directly here. You can also find this episode and all past episodes of the ITER podcast at Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, and Podbean. 

Candidates holding a PhD in science, technology, or engineering whose expertise aligns with the needs of the ITER project may be eligible for a two-year postdoctoral position at the ITER Organization.

For the 2026 recruitment campaign, seventeen research topics have been published across a wide range of fields, including integrated plasma scenario design and transport modelling, artificial intelligence and digital twin technologies for fusion systems, diagnostics calibration and validation, and robotics and automated handling (see the full list here).

Selected fellows will work closely with ITER specialists during a two-year appointment and contribute to the project through original, cutting-edge research.

The current selection process aims to fill eight postdoctoral fellowships—five Monaco-ITER fellowships and three Korea-ITER fellowships—and to establish a reserve list of qualified candidates for future openings.

The deadline for applications is 1 March 2026. To apply, see the JOBS page of the ITER website, or consult the Postdoctoral Fellowships page for detailed information about the program. 

Watch as one-ninth of the ITER vacuum vessel is lifted out of tooling and lowered into the machine assembly pit. The operation—which took place over two days in January—tested, once again, the accuracy of the metrology system and the navigation skills of the assembly team (read more here). Vacuum vessel sector module #8 joins modules #5, #6 and #7 to form nearly one-half of the ITER plasma chamber. Three more of these incredible "lifts" are expected this year.

Watch the video on the ITER YouTube channel.

Fusion for Energy—the European Union organization managing Europe’s contribution to ITER—is organizing an Energy Summer School at its headquarters in Barcelona, Spain, from 15 to 19 June 2026. 

The curriculum covers a broad spectrum of topics, beginning with energy fundamentals and the operation of electrical grids, and extending to the study of diverse energy sources, their environmental impact, and the geopolitics of energy. The objective is to equip participants with the knowledge and the analytical tools necessary to understand the complexity of today's energy challenges, while preparing them to contribute effectively to the sustainable transition of our societies.

The summer school is designed for European Union citizens attending PhD or Master's courses in engineering, natural sciences, economy or political sciences. Whether you hope to work in engineering, science, finance, procurement, policymaking or communication, the program will provide insight into the technical, environmental, and regulatory dimensions that drive investment decisions, supply strategies, and political agendas.  

More information about applying to the program can be downloaded here. Applications close on 31 March.

Originally filmed on site at ITER in May 2025, this video has been updated with new footage of the tokamak pit from December (1:14–2:12). A third of the ITER plasma chamber is now in place, and the installation of a fourth sector is imminent. Fly above, and into, the modules of the ITER vacuum vessel, or—if you haven't already seen it—watch the rest of the video to see how the ITER machine and plant are coming together on a 180-hectare site in southern France.

See the updated video on the ITER YouTube channel.

The final design review has been completed and manufacturing of Europe’s first ITER gyrotrons is set to begin. This marks another key milestone for the Electron Cyclotron Heating (ECH) system that will be used to heat the ITER plasma to more than 100 million degrees Celsius and sustain fusion reactions.

Gyrotrons essentially convert electricity into high-frequency microwaves that will transfer energy to plasma electrons once injected into the tokamak. Initially, there were plans for 24 gyrotrons at ITER and the European Domestic Agency, Fusion for Energy, was responsible for supplying six of them through a contract with Thales. However, when the new baseline was introduced in 2024, the number of gyrotrons was increased to 48 at the Start of Research Operation phase, with another 24 scheduled to be added once deuterium-tritium testing begins. With the wider use of gyrotrons, Europe will produce more units.

Learn more about the preparations for gyrotron manufacturing here.

(Pictured is work on the gyrotron prototype done in 2022.)