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The 59th Culham Plasma Physics Summer School will take place from 18 to 28 July 2022 at the Culham Science Centre in Oxfordshire (UK).

The aim of the Summer School is to provide an introduction to the fundamental principles of plasma physics, together with a broad understanding of its fields of application. It assumes no previous knowledge of the subject, but familiarity with electromagnetism and applied mathematics at first degree level would be helpful.

The 2022 school will cover fundamental plasma physics, as well as important topics in fusion, astrophysical, laser and low temperature plasmas. Lecturers are drawn from the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy (CCFE), the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) together with leading European universities. All are renowned experts in their fields.

Special arrangements are being made this year to allow for COVID. For more details and to apply visit the dedicated website.

The deadline for applications is 20 June 2022.

Scientists from the European research consortium EUROfusion have recently completed ambitious fusion energy experiments at the world-leading fusion research facility JET (Joint European Torus) at the UK Atomic Energy Authority in Oxford, UK. Join them for a media event on Wednesday 9 February 2022 at 12pm - 2pm GMT as they reveal the exciting results.

Click here to link to the media event.

On Friday, 11 February 2022—International Day of Women and Girls in Science—Fusion for Energy (F4E) and the Big Science Business Forum will be hosting a webinar on the role of Women in Big Science. The session will bring together representatives from big science organizations, industry and policy in Europe to discuss the potential of women in big science and some of the long-lasting challenges they face.

The idea of an award promoting best practice involving women in big science will also be discussed.

Registration is open here.

For 15 years ITER has been opening its doors to visitors, either in small groups or during regular Open Doors Days. Approximately 160,000 visitors from all horizons—school children, students, members of the public, companies, politicians—have passed through the ITER gates since 2007, returning home with a better idea of the scale and importance of ITER and of the passion that animates the men and women who work here.

Because in-person Open Door Days have been impossible for the past two years, the ITER Communication team innovated in 2021, creating a virtual experience on line for "visitors" from around the world.

Demonstrations, livestreams from the worksite, videos, presentations, virtual reality ... there is something for everyone.

The three-hour event is now available in replay. Follow this link to view it.

The 11th ITER International School will be held from 25 to 29 July 2022, hosted in person by the U.S. Burning Plasma Organization, University of California at San Diego, and General Atomics.

The subject of this year's school is "ITER Plasma Scenarios and Control." As the start of ITER operation approaches, it is timely to address this challenging multidisciplinary topic: the development of integrated operating scenarios and required plasma control to facilitate the ITER goals, particularly for plasmas self-heated by fusion-born alpha particles.

The ITER International School is organized regularly with the goal of giving young scientists and engineers a taste of the stimulating, multi-disciplinary and challenging field that is nuclear fusion.

For all information on the 2022 edition, see this webpage.

Carlos Alejaldre, who was an ITER Organization Deputy-Director-General from 2006 to 2015 and who is the current Director-General of CIEMAT (Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas), the Spanish public research agency focused on energy and the environment, has been appointed as the new Chair of the Fusion for Energy (F4E) Governing Board.

A plasma physicist by training, Carlos has held several important positions in fusion research. Prior to joining ITER, he headed CIEMAT's national fusion laboratory (1992-2004) and was for two years (2004-2006) the director general of technological policy at the Spanish ministry of Education and Science. At ITER, he was head of the Safety and Security Department.

Alejaldre will act as Chair of the F4E Governing Board, the body that supervises the activities of the European Joint Undertaking for ITER and the development of fusion energy, for an initial period of two years starting on 1 January 2022. 

See the F4E website for more information. 

In a rare and memorable moment, the Joint European Torus (JET) team today received His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales for a tour and first-hand discussion of fusion energy. Long known as an advocate of environmental awareness and sustainable energy, Prince Charles was, according to UKAEA CEO Ian Chapman, "keen to understand more about how fusion can be a critical piece of the future global energy puzzle." Together with European and UK officials, ITER Chief Scientist Tim Luce was present to meet the Prince of Wales and explain the JET-ITER connection.

Currently the world's most powerful tokamak, JET is a direct precursor to ITER, and recently celebrated the completion of its 100,000th pulse. New scientific results from the most recent JET deuterium-tritium campaign will be released in February.

During his visit, the Prince of Wales was introduced to ITER by Tim Luce, head of the ITER Science & Operations Domain (left).

See the official UK government press release here.