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Fusion Forum Germany at ITER

Eighty people took part in the two-day German Fusion Forum in December, held for the first time at ITER Headquarters.
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80 representatives of the public and private fusion sector in Germany met for a two-day forum at ITER on 7 and 8 December 2023. Peter Schroth, who leads the German Fusion Industrial Liaison Office hosted at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, describes the momentum in fusion as "challenging but also exciting."
Last week, the ITER Organization hosted the fourth convention of the German Fusion Forum, a coalition of fusion industries, research centres and fusion startups. More than 80 participants accepted the invitation of the Fusion Industrial Liaison Office (FILO) and its CEO Heinz-Ullrich Kraft to take stock of the recent developments in the public and the private fusion sectors, and to learn about the government funding foreseen in the coming years.

On the first day, ITER Director-General Pietro Barabaschi presented the current state of the project and took his time to discuss technical issues, lessons learned and the planned approach towards ITER operation. Presentations were also made by representatives of German startups Proxima Fusion, Focused Energy and Marvel Fusion.

The second day was dedicated to fusion financing, for example asking how private equity might support fusion technology development. Much attention was paid to the presentation given by the representative of the German Federal Ministry for Education and Science, Peter Schroth, who explained Germany's roadmap "to making fusion a reality." In September 2023, Federal Research Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger had announced more than EUR 1 billion (USD 1.1 billion) for fusion research over the next five years, targeted both to magnetic confinement and laser fusion concepts. The announcement followed the publication of a position paper describing the framework conditions under which a fusion power plant could become reality as quickly as possible. Calls for proposals will open as soon as the German government comes to an agreement on the budget for 2024. "These are challenging but also exciting times," Schroth concluded.

Presentations have been uploaded here: www.filo.kit.edu