The 30th Fusion Energy Conference, co-organized from 13 to 18 October by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the China Atomic Energy Authority in Chengdu, China, attracted nearly 2,000 experts, scholars and industry representatives from 61 countries. The key takeaway? Developing fusion energy is now a priority around the world. Shan Zhongde, Chairman of the China Atomic Energy Authority, opened the conference by reaffirming China’s commitment to the development of fusion energy as part of its vision for a sustainable future, promising to devote “Chinese wisdom, Chinese solutions and Chinese strength” to its realization. “The country has built a number of large-scale scientific facilities and is actively advancing in-depth cooperation among industry players, researchers and the international nuclear energy community.”During the conference, the Southwestern Institute of Physics (SWIP), located in Chengdu, was officially recognized as the first IAEA Fusion Research and Training Centre. Home to the HL-3 tokamak, SWIP is collaborating with the ITER Organization on ITER research priorities.The 2025 Nuclear Fusion Award, traditionally presented at the biennial IAEA Fusion Energy Conference, was announced and the winner is ITER scientist Stefan Jachmich (see this article) for his work on disruption mitigation.In parallel to the main conference, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi convened the Second Ministerial Meeting of the IAEA World Fusion Energy Group. Approximately 150 participants discussed scientific progress and policy strategies to accelerate fusion technology demonstration. He also announced the release of the 2025 edition of the IAEA World Fusion Outlook—a global reference tracking activity in both the private and public sectors—which underscores that fusion is entering a new phase of implementation, becoming a cornerstone of national energy strategies and industrial planning.  At the ITER stand are some of the ITER Organization staff, and others, who delivered technical presentations at the 30th IAEA Fusion Energy Conference. ITER Director-General Pietro Barabaschi delivered remarks as part of a World Fusion Energy Group panel on “Fusion State of Play: Closing the Gaps.” (You can watch the speech here.) While celebrating the growing consensus in support of fusion energy, he cautioned that significant challenges remain. To move forward meaningfully, he said, the community must understand and address them. “At ITER we stand ready to collaborate on solutions,” he emphasized, expressing confidence that “hard engineering, disciplined learning, and global cooperation” will move fusion forward. In closing, he reminded participants that the ITER facility “belongs” to the community. “I should be thanking you,” he stressed. “I know how much the community has contributed. The ITER project is all of you—the research institutes, the companies that provide tremendous value to ITER. Thank you for all you do.” 

The journal Nuclear Fusion has published a collection of papers prepared by the Topical Physics Groups of the International Tokamak Physics Activity (ITPA) reviewing progress in the development of the physics basis for burning plasma operation. Taking advantage of the presence of fusion scientists and engineers from all over the world at the 30th International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Fusion Energy Conference in China this month, the IAEA Nuclear Fusion journal announced the publication of a special issue: “On the Path to Tokamak Burning Plasma Operation.” Physicist David Campbell—the former director of Science & Operations at ITER—served as the coordinating editor for this major scientific endeavour.The special issue describes the extensive physics R&D activities for ITER and fusion energy development carried out under the International Tokamak Physics Activity (ITPA) between 2007 and 2025. It covers a wide range of physics issues—from plasma confinement and fast particles to plasma control, including power fluxes on plasma-facing components and the mitigation of power transients, and diagnostics to cite a few. The special issue follows the path of the Nuclear Fusion volume in 1999 on the ITER physics basis, and the Nuclear Fusion volume in 2007 titled “Progress in the ITER Physics Basis"—both summarizing ITPA R&D work for ITER.The 2025 special issue includes topics of relevance to ITER, as well as to tokamak burning plasmas more generally. In many cases, the underlying physics R&D activities were motivated by specific features of the previous ITER Baseline developed around the staged approach but the scope of the implemented R&D studies has wider implications. In particular, the new ITER 2024 Baseline and its associated Research Plan, which were presented at the 30th IAEA Fusion Energy Conference are, to a substantial degree, based on these ITPA R&D studies.Click to access “On the Path to Tokamak Burning Plasma Operation.”

Established by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in 2024, the World Fusion Energy Group seeks to promote the advancement of a “transformative technology.” The Second Ministerial Meeting of the World Fusion Energy Group opened jointly with the 30th IAEA Fusion Energy Conference in Chengdu, China, on 14 October 2025.Speaking to a large assembly of leaders, scientists and policy makers, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi described the Group as a unique global platform where all actors—from governments and regulators to research institutions and private industry—come together around concrete topics and implementation. Among the areas of focus, supporting the establishment of effective fusion regulation, fostering international collaboration through dialogue and partnership, identifying technology and engineering gaps, and promoting public engagement were cited during the group’s inaugural meeting in 2024 and emphasized again this year.Achieving the goal of supporting fusion R&D and deployment will require an “inclusive, multistakeholder approach,” said China’s Vice Premier Guoqing Zhang, in his address to the Ministerial Meeting. “Equally vital is building public trust: engaging communities from the very beginning to ensure that fusion energy is developed transparently, deployed safely, and embraced responsibly.”ITER Director-General Pietro Barabaschi used his address to the body to list the ways in which the ITER project is delivering value to the global effort toward fusion energy—training the next generation of fusion engineers, technicians, and scientists; creating a global fusion supply chain; and opening ITER’s doors to the private sector. He also evoked the significant challenges that remain.“Fusion energy’s promise is real, but so are its challenges,” he said, as he listed cost, power flux/materials, tritium breeding and RAMI (reliability, availability, maintainability and inspectability) as substantial hurdles that remain to be resolved. “Our shared success will come from thoughtful collaboration, innovation and collective perseverance.” The IAEA plans to periodically convene World Fusion Energy Group gatherings to review achievements, maintain high-level engagement, and promote further collaborative action.See the Statement published after the Second Ministerial Meeting here.

Stefan Jachmich has been recognized with the 2025 Nuclear Fusion Award for his “highly significant paper” validating shattered pellet injection as a key method for disruption mitigation. Jachmich’s paper, titled “Shattered pellet injection experiments at JET in support of the ITER disruption mitigation system design,” first published in December 2021, reports on critical results from an experimental campaign executed on the Joint European Torus. According to the judges: “This highly significant paper validates shattered pellet injection as a key disruption mitigation method to protect large tokamaks such as ITER from the damaging effects of disrupting plasmas, strengthening the ITER disruption mitigation system design and guiding design choices for DEMO and future tokamak-based fusion power plants.”  Mikhail Chudakov, IAEA Deputy Director General and Head of the Department of Nuclear Energy, presents the award to ITER's Stefan Jachmich. The Nuclear Fusion Award, given annually and traditionally presented at the biennial IAEA Fusion Energy Conference, honours outstanding research published in the journal. It celebrates papers of exceptional scientific quality that make a significant contribution to their field. Nominations are based on citation records and recommendations by the Board of Editors, with a final selection made by secret ballot. The winning paper is the one judged to have had the greatest scientific impact.“This is a huge recognition of my work and that of my collaborators,” said Jachmich after the ceremony. “I am also happy for the ITER Organization, which is often viewed mainly as a construction project. A lot of science is being done at ITER. We are reaching out to partner institutes to answer the essential questions to further progress the different plant systems but also the ITER Research Plan.” Journal article reference: S. Jachmich, U. Kruezi, M. Lehnen, M. Baruzzo, L.R. Baylor, D. Carnevale, D. Craven, N.W. Eidietis, O. Ficker, T.E. Gebhart, S. Gerasimov, J.L. Herfindal, E. Hollmann, A. Huber, P. Lomas, J. Lovell, A. Manzanares, M. Maslov, J. Mlynar, G. Pautasso, C. Paz-Soldan, A. Peacock, L. Piron, V. Plyusnin, M. Reinke, C. Reux, F. Rimini, U. Sheikh, D. Shiraki, S. Silburn, R. Sweeney, J. Wilson, P. Carvalho and the JET Contributors (2021). Shattered pellet injection experiments at JET in support of the ITER disruption mitigation system design. Nuclear Fusion, 62. https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1741-4326/ac3c86

The high-level cooperation agreement will strengthen academic, scientific, and technical collaboration in support of ITER. Building off of long-established ties, EUROfusion and ITER are agreeing to collaborate even more closely over the next two years with an agreement that will fast-track participation in some of ITER's most pressing design and engineering challenges.Two areas that are initially targeted through Implementing Agreements—support for the design of ITER's first wall and the development of tungsten coating techniques—are related to the new ITER baseline and the decision to replace beryllium with tungsten as blanket first wall armour material. A third, joint initiatives in training and education, aims to smooth the transition at ITER from construction to operation. The agreement also opens the door to joint activities in research, engineering, data exchange, and knowledge management.“The ITER project and EUROfusion have a long history of working together," commented ITER Director-General Barabaschi. "The agreement today is important because it formalizes that cooperation. I am very grateful that EUROfusion is ready to deploy resources to ITER. As I said at the conference today, ITER is a facility for the community and EUROfusion represents the fusion community in Europe.”The EUROfusion program has long been focused on addressing the fundamental physics and technological gaps identified by ITER. This new cooperation agreement builds on that foundation to provide a complementary, fast-track framework to deliver agile, targeted solutions.Read the EUROfusion press release here.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) publishes the annual World Fusion Outlook as a reference for authoritative information and updates on fusion energy research. The 2025 edition presents a selection of recent achievements in fusion energy, outlines some of the dozens of fusion plant concepts currently at various stages of development worldwide, highlights global efforts in fusion energy development and discusses for the first time the global outlook for fusion energy deployment. As a special focus topic, this edition of the publication explores high temperature superconductors and their potential role in the commercialization of fusion energy.Read or download the full report at this address.