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Fusion glossary

I

International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna, Austria. See this website.

The International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility/DEMO Oriented NEutron Source (IFMIF-DONES) will be a research infrastructure for the testing, validation and qualification of the materials to be used in future fusion power plants like DEMO (a demonstration fusion reactor prototype). It is under construction now in Granada, Spain, with Spain, Croatia, and Japan as principal project leads. See this website.

International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility, Naka, Japan. Part of the Broader Approach agreement, IFMIF is an international scientific research program designed to test materials for suitability for use in a fusion reactor. Jointly developed by Europe and Japan, IFMIF will use a particle accelerator-based neutron source to produce a large neutron flux, in a suitable quantity and time period to test the long-term behavior of materials under conditions similar to those expected at the inner wall of a fusion reactor. Engineering validation and engineering design activities (EVEDA) are currently underway. See more at IFMIF/EVEDA.

The point at which a fusion reaction becomes completely self-sustaining. At ignition, fusion self-heating is sufficient to compensate for all energy losses, external sources of heating power are no longer necessary to sustain the reaction.
Atoms of unwanted elements in the plasma usually originating from the surrounding walls.
The in-vessel components comprise the blanket, the divertor, the fuelling and internal pumping systems, the port plugs, the in-vessel coils and diagnostic sensors mounted directly on the vessel.  
An atom which has become charged as a result of gaining or losing one or more orbiting electrons. A completely ionized atom is one that is stripped of all its electrons.
(ICRH) An external mode of heating the plasma through resonant absorption of energy by introducing electromagnetic waves into the plasma at the cyclotron frequency of ions.
The removing or adding of an electron to a neutral atom, thereby creating an ion.

Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP) in Germany, home to the ASDEX Upgrade tokamak (Garching) and the Wendelstein 7-X stellarator (Greifswald). See this site.

One of several versions of the same element, possessing different numbers of neutrons but the same number of protons in their nuclei.
The acronym ITER (pronounced "eater") is the Latin word for "the way." In choosing this name, the participants in the early Conceptual Design Activities for ITER (1988-1992) were expressing their common hopes that the project would lead to international cooperation on the development of a new form of energy. (The acronym also originally stood for International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor—a name that is no longer used.)

The International Tokamak Physics and Engineering Activity (ITPEA) provides a framework for internationally coordinated fusion research activities. The ITPEA continues the tokamak physics and engineering R&D activities that have been conducted on an international level for many years resulting in the achievement of a broad engineering and physics basis essential for the ITER design and useful for all fusion programs and for progress toward fusion energy generally. (The name was changed from the ITPA in late 2025.)

The ITPEA operates under the auspices of ITER. See the ITPEA page hosted on the ITER website.

The cost estimates for the construction and operation phases of the ITER Project have been quantified using an internal currency called the ITER Unit of Account or IUA, established in 1989. The basis of conversion from IUA to Euro has been agreed between the Members and is updated each year. Because seven ITER Members are collaborating to build ITER, each with responsibility for the procurement of in-kind hardware in its own territory with its own currency, the IUA was devised to measure the value of in-kind contributions consistently over time, and to neutralize market fluctuations.