Of Interest archive

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.) 

Under the editorial lead of EUROfusion, the ITER Engineering Basis Handbook delivers a stand-alone compilation of ITER design principles, the underlying technical design basis and its evolution from conception to construction, together with the technical, scientific, and regulatory rationale behind the major decisions. It facilitates the access and understanding of the project’s technological journey by consolidating the information from a multitude of sources. It aims at securing the lessons learned, the return of experience, and the knowledge transfer from the world's largest fusion project, drawing from the direct experience of knowledgeable experts who have worked on ITER, for the benefit of fusion professionals inside and outside of the ITER project and the next generation.

See the first chapters of Volume 1, "Genesis, Design and Evolution" on the ITER Technical Reports pages of the public website.
 

The third ITER Public-Private Fusion Workshop 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.

The two-day workshop will take place on Tuesday and Wednesday (28 and 29 April), with Monday 27 April and Thursday 30 April set aside for consultations with ITER experts, tailored tours of the ITER worksite, and interactions among participants. Registration will open soon on the Events page of the ITER website.

Recruitment opened on Monday 12 January 2026 for eight Postdoctoral Fellowships at the ITER Organization.

If you are an outstanding PhD graduate in science, technology, and engineering whose expertise aligns with the needs of the ITER project, you may be eligible for a two-year postdoctoral position at the ITER Organization, where you will work closely with ITER specialists and contribute to the project through original research.

The eight Postdoctoral Fellowships are proposed through two different funding schemes: 

Monaco/ITER Postdoctoral Fellowships (5 positions)
The Principality of Monaco is providing the financing for five Postdoctoral Fellowships through a Partnership Arrangement signed with the ITER Organization in 2008 and renewed in 2018. You can apply to a Monaco/ITER Postdoctoral Fellowship if: 1) you are a national of China, the European Union plus Switzerland, India, Japan, Korea, Russia, the United States, or the Principality of Monaco; and 2) your PhD was awarded after 1 January 2023 (or you will have received your PhD before 31 December 2026).

Korea-ITER Postdoctoral Research Fellowships (3 positions)
Through an agreement signed between the ITER Organization and the Korean Domestic Agency, ITER Korea directly funds scientific or technical fellowships in fields of mutual interest and with a view to contributing to training the talent that will be needed for the fusion industry of the future. To apply for a Korea-ITER Postdoctoral Research Fellowship you must be a Korean postdoctoral researcher.

The application process for both Fellowship categories is the same: after verifying that you have relevant experience in one or more of the 2026 research topics, apply by 1 March 2026 through the ITER Jobs portal.

See this ITER webpage for more information. 

The fifth campaign of spherical tokamak fusion experiments is underway at the MAST Upgrade facility at the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy in England. This latest campaign will focus on advancing understanding of high-pressure fusion plasma, optimising plasma control and energy confinement, refining advanced divertor designs for heat exhaust management, and validating predictive tools used to model plasma behaviour in future fusion power plants.

The Mega Amp Spherical Tokamak (MAST) Upgrade, which became operational in 2020, is the world’s largest active spherical tokamak. Its test campaigns will inform the construction of the STEP demo-class fusion plant prototype that is scheduled to begin operations in 2040.

The latest research phase will last six months and involve 950 plasma pulses. More than 200 international researchers will be involved in the experiments and the results will contribute to the growing global body of experimental fusion data.

The 360° virtual tour of the ITER construction site has been updated with a new set of photos—drone footage from December 2025 that shows three vacuum vessel sector modules in the tokamak pit. Click on and rotate the new photos in the Tokamak Pit gallery to see one-third of the ITER plasma chamber from every angle.

Accessible from the NEWS & MEDIA pages of the ITER website or by clicking on the link below, the 2D tour requires no special equipment to enjoy. If you do have 3D glasses, click on the yellow goggle symbol at the top of any screen.

Click here to see the latest 360° ITER virtual tour.

The EU Fusion Safety and Regulation Course 2026, organized by the Clean Air Task Force in partnership with the Xcitech School on Science and Technology, offers professionals an opportunity to learn from leading experts—including specialists from the ITER Organization—about safety and regulatory considerations for fusion facilities. The three-day course will also cover important safety topics that apply to lab-scale fusion research today such as tritium handling and management of cryogenic systems.

Topics include case studies in safety and licensing in multiple facilities across Europe, the latest developments in the regulatory landscape in Europe and the United States, tritium safety and management, activated material safety and activated waste management, and safety practices at lab-scale fusion facilities and major accelerator facilities.

The course will take place at the headquarters of Fusion for Energy in Barcelona, Spain, 17 to 19 February 2026. Learn more here.

The prize-winning Turkmenistan team from the International Physics Olympiad (IPhO) arrived at ITER on 18 December for a special presentation of the project and tour of the site.

The visit was part of the ITER-sponsored prize given for diversity at the IPhO, with Turkmenistan being the best-ranked team that had at least two women and two men. 

The IPhO is open to students under the age of 20 who have not yet entered university. The Turkmenistan team featured Nurgeldi Annagurdov (17), Dovlet Annamyradov (17), and the sisters Aysenem Kakamyradova (17) and Mahriban Kakamyradova (18). Along with being part of the team that won the ITER prize, Aysenem Kakamyradova also won the Claudine Hermann Prize for best female performance.

The delegation from Turkmenistan included the students’ high school teacher, Kerim Cherkezov, and their physics advisor, Allamyrat Amanmadov of Turkmen State University.

While on site, the team received special diplomas of recognition from ITER Deputy Director General Luo Delong and a private presentation of the ITER project given by ITER’s Deputy Director General-Chief Scientist Alain Bécoulet and Alexander Alekseev, the Deputy Head of Science & Integration. Alain Bécoulet said these sorts of initiatives to recognize emerging talent were essential for ITER. “They are 17 and 18 years old. They are the future of fusion.”

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has launched a new platform that will serve as a central hub for information on the fusion sector.

IAEA’s FUSE Fusion CONNECT platform was officially launched on 4 December 2025. It aims to make it easier for IAEA’s 180 member states to follow developments in the fusion sector and access tools such as the Fusion Portal and the Nuclear Fusion journal. The platform is also in the process of compiling a public directory of fusion organizations and machines.

The IAEA noted that the momentum in fusion energy—from record-breaking achievements in the public sector to the thriving private sector—meant that collaborative tools such as FUSE are more important than ever.

Discover the FUSE page here.

In a continuation of the merriest of traditions, ITER has released its annual holiday greeting card. This year, the card was designed by Natacha Roux and Philippe Cathala of IN-MEDIAPROD, who sought to give the video card an original twist by using AI tools to virtually decorate the Assembly Building and other ITER locations.

“We wanted to do something extraordinary this year and since artificial intelligence is everywhere now, we thought we could apply it to the card,” says Natacha.

You can enjoy their creation here.

Over the years, the ITER holiday card has evolved from a simple e-card to more elaborate video productions such as the 2019 card or the 2023 card.

FuseNet has opened nominations for its Master Thesis Prize 2025. The prize is open to students who completed fusion-related theses in 2025 and recognizes outstanding academic work carried out at European institutions or in collaboration with international partners.

Eligible candidates can submit their candidatures until 9 February 2026. FuseNet advises students to coordinate with their home institution before submitting, as each FuseNet member institution may put forward only one nomination.

The 2024 prize recognized three researchers for their theses on divertor modelling, turbulence phenomena in plasmas with varying triangularity, and dimensionality reduction methods applied to magnetohydrodynamic equilibria.

FuseNet supports education, training, and collaboration for students and young researchers in the field of fusion energy across Europe.

More information available here.

As part of French President Emmanuel Macron’s state visit to China from 3 to 5 December, the two countries issued a joint declaration on "further cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy." It included a point asserting nuclear fusion is an “essential option” for abundant, decarbonized energy and reaffirmed their commitment to ITER.

France and China have a long history of working together to ensure the peaceful use of nuclear energy, dating back to a first protocol signed in 1982. Cooperation on nuclear fusion was cited in the 10th Protocol for Cooperation in Peaceful Use of Nuclear Energy, which was signed in 2009 by former ITER Director-General Bernard Bigot when he was still Chairman of the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA). The most recent joint declaration emphasizes the value of nuclear energy for addressing climate change and ensuring energy security while citing the important role nuclear fusion will play in the future. The declaration states:

“Both sides recognize that nuclear fusion energy represents an important direction for the peaceful use of nuclear energy by humanity and an essential option for an abundant and decarbonized energy source for the future. They are ready to continue their extensive participations in the major international scientific project of the Thermonuclear Fusion Experimental Reactor (ITER) in order to contribute to the successful promotion of the ITER project and its timely completion.”

Read the full Joint Declaration on Further Cooperation in the Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy between France and the People’s Republic of China here.

Photograph from the Élysée website.

A new report from the F4E Fusion Observatory analyzes the latest data to provide a global picture of the growing private fusion sector.

The second edition of Global Investment in the Private Fusion Sector shows that, following major investments announced this summer, the cumulative funding for private sector initiatives is now at EUR 13 billion, with 77 companies in the field. "This funding is a mix of sources: private capital accounts for the majority at over EUR 8.9 billion while public funds, totalling around EUR 4.1 billion, are increasingly flowing into private ventures through grants and institutional support. A further EUR 84 million comes from hybrid forms like public-private partnerships and state-backed investments." The report goes on to break down investments by region, by technology, and by type of funding model.

Fusion for Energy (F4E) is the European Union’s organization for the development of fusion energy. It is mainly responsible for Europe’s contribution to ITER, but is also involved in major fusion projects such as the European/Japanese tokamak JT-60SA and the materials research facility IFMIF-DONES. The F4E Fusion Observatory provides objective analysis and intelligence on global and European fusion policies, R&D, technologies, investments and industrial activity for the benefit of European policy makers, the scientific community and other interested parties.

Download the F4E Fusion Observatory report here.

One of the challenges facing fusion is to identify the right materials for the next-generation fusion reactors like DEMO. A major initiative to find these solutions, the IFMIF-DONES project, achieved a major benchmark with the signing on 21 November of an international agreement to strengthen collaboration on testing to identify materials that best resist neutron irradiation.

The International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility-Demo Oriented NEutron Source (IFMIF-DONES) is based in Granada, Spain. The agreement was signed between the IFMIF-DONES España Consortium, Fusion for Energy (F4E) representing the European Commission and Member States, and R&D centres in Croatia (RBI), Japan (QST) and Italy (INFN). The multinational agreement provides a framework for the financing and operation of the test facility.

Learn more at F4E or the IFMIF-DONES site.

The ITER Organization has begun recruitment for its 2026 internship program.

We invite students from across the ITER Members (the People's Republic of China, the European Union, India, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation, the United States) to apply for one of our exciting internship opportunities. All Bachelor’s, Master’s, or PhD students enrolled in a fully accredited degree program are eligible to apply. Internships are offered for up to six months and are extendable to up to one year under certain circumstances. 

The first wave of the campaign runs from 15 November 2025 through 6 January 2026, with the publication of 28 offers on the ITER website. A second-wave campaign will be advertised from 17 January 2026 through 28 February 2026.

See this page to apply. The deadline for first-wave opportunities is 6 January 2026.