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​Two recently published books describe the history of nuclear fusion research. Search for the Ultimate Energy Source: A history of the US Fusion Energy Program (Springer, 2013) is written by Stephen Dean, president of Fusion Power Associates, a nonprofit advocacy organization. Dean is also a former administrator of the US Department of Energy's fusion research program. Science magazine deputy news editor Daniel Clery's A Piece of the Sun: The Quest for Fusion Energy (Overlook Press, 2013), provides a more global perspective on the same subject.

Physics Today reviewed both books together in March and recently caught up with the authors to discuss their respective works.
 

Read the interview on physicstoday website.

​Director of Agence Iter France, former director of JET (2000-2006) and former head of the European Fusion Development Agreement EFDA (2006-2009), Jérôme Pamela was recently appointed co-president of Eurofusion.

The new consortium, which succeeds EFDA, is the answer of the European fusion community to the new challenges of the "ITER era." It aims at streamlining the fusion programs of the European laboratories and installations in order to contribute to ITER with maximum efficiency.   "We also have to prepare for DEMO, the 'demonstration installation' that will come after ITER," explains Jérôme Pamela,  "and to train a new generation of physicists who will operate ITER and build DEMO."   Jérôme will be co-presiding Eurofusion alongside Sybille Günter, director of the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, IPP Garching.   Photo © AIF - V. Paul

​The European Domestic Agency, with responsibility for the construction of the 39 buildings of the ITER installation, launched its first video on YouTube four years ago. Since then, over 100,000 viewers have followed its regular postings on site progress, industry collaboration and manufacturing.

Find out more here.

​An exposition on ITER is running from now until 8 June at the Cité des Sciences (Parc de la Villette, Paris). Combining different media—display panels, videos, interviews—the exposition is designed to interest a wide public, including a younger audience.

See the Cité des Sciences website for more information (in French).

​The ITER Project is present at this week's NewGen—Future Energy forum in Moscow, where industry and political actors from Russia and abroad debate innovation in energy. 

Anatoly Krasilnikov, head of ITER Russia, led a round table on 26 March titled "Innovative Discussions in the ITER Project" with participation from the Troitsk Institute for Innovation and Fusion Research (TRINITI) and the Tokamak Physics Institute at the Kurchatov Institute.

One topic of discussion was the readiness to begin designing "fusion-fission" hybrid energetics in Russia. "Today we've got everything to start designing," said the deputy director of the Tokamak Physics Institute, Boris Kuteev. "Together with the ITER Project, the implementation of a hybrid project would significantly contribute to creation of a fusion power plant in future."