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Department of Nuclear Energy

Fusion Research – Spanning Five Decades

IAEA Strengthens International Cooperation

21 October 2008 – The international fusion community assembled in Geneva, Switzerland, in mid-October 2008 to mark a significant event: fifty years of international collaboration in magnetic fusion research, initiated during the 1958 Second UN Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy.

"Celebrating 50 years of fusion…entering into the burning plasma era" was thus the motto of the 22nd IAEA Fusion Energy Conference (FEC 2008) held from 13 to 18 October 2008. This major event – organized in cooperation with the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne - offered a forum for over 800 fusion scientists from 50 countries and international organizations, such as the European Commission and the ITER International Fusion Energy Organization to present and discuss the state-of-the-art in fusion experiments, theory and technology.

IAEA Deputy Director General Yuri Sokolov opening the 22nd Fusion Energy Conference in Geneva, 13 Oct. 2008 (Photo: ITER)

Fusion is a form of nuclear energy created by the merging of light atoms. Fusion research is aimed at demonstrating that this energy source can be used to produce electricity in a safe and environmentally benign way, with abundant fuel resources, to meet the needs of a growing world population. The IAEA’s fusion programme focuses on increasing international cooperation and support for science and technology for fusion power.

"Since the first world fusion conference in 1958, remarkable progress in fusion research has been made, and the IAEA has helped consolidate the international fusion community" said Yuri Sokolov, IAEA Deputy Director General and Head of the Department of Nuclear Energy in his opening address. Recognizing their scientific work, Mr. Sokolov also thanked ‘fusion pioneers’, such as Ksenyia A. Razumova of the Russian Kurchatov Institute, whose scientific work has spanned five decades.

Conference Programme

The FEC 2008 programme, organized by an international scientific committee under the chairmanship of Mitsuru Kikuchi of Japan, included key areas in nuclear fusion research:

Magnetic confinement experiments
Magnetic confinement theory and modelling
Activities of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project
Inertial fusion experiments and theory
Innovative confinement concepts
Fusion technology and power plant design
Safety, environmental and economic aspects of fusion.

Palais des Nations, Geneva, location of the 22nd Fusion Energy Conference

"More than 540 scientific papers were presented during the conference sessions; this is the highest number of scientific contributions ever in this conference series", said Günter Mank, Head of the IAEA Physics Section and Scientific Secretary of the Conference. Many of the results will be published in Nuclear Fusion Journal, a leading international journal on all aspects of controlled nuclear fusion, co-published monthly by the IAEA and IOP Publishing.

IAEA/ITER Cooperative Agreement

Based on the expectation that nuclear fusion will be able to provide an abundant source of energy, the main goal for the future is to demonstrate that the energy released by the controlled thermonuclear fusion of deuterium and tritium will exceed the energy necessary for the burning process of fusion plasma.

To that end, the first demonstration reactor for fusion power, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), is being built at Cadarache in the South of France as a joint venture between China, the European Union, India, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation and the USA.

A Cooperative Agreement between the IAEA and ITER, signed on 13 October, the opening day of the Conference, will enhance research on fusion and strengthen the working relationship between the two organizations.

This includes exchanging information on the study and potential application of fusion energy, and co-operation on training, publications, organization of scientific conferences, research on plasma physics and modelling, and fusion safety and security.

Since the agreement also foresees that the IAEA and ITER participate in each other's meetings, it enables ITER scientists to present results of scientific studies at IAEA energy fusion conferences. It also facilitates cooperation between ITER and IAEA Member States that are not ITER members.

"The IAEA has helped the international fusion community to focus its plasma physics research on the ITER design", noted Mr. Sokolov. He said that this has made fusion research more results-oriented and has encouraged greater global investment in fusion. "The worldwide effort in fusion has now reached an important milestone by entering into the burning plasma era", concluded Mr. Sokolov.

The Role of the International Fusion Research Council

Since 1972, the International Fusion Research Council (IFRC) has advised the Director General of the IAEA on matters relating to the Agency’s controlled nuclear fusion programme and promoting international cooperation in this field.

The IFRC also proposes the Scientific Programme Committee of IAEA Fusion Energy Conferences which is then nominated by the IAEA Director General. "It was the recommendation of the IFRC to hold this Fusion Energy Conference in Geneva, the same location as the 1958 UN conference" said IAEA’s Günter Mank in closing the FEC 2008.

Consisting of 10 to 15 members, who serve in their individual capacities, the IFRC meets once a year, this time during the FEC 2008 in Geneva. Since January 2008, Gyung-Su Lee, Director General of ITER Korea and the National Fusion Research Institute at Daejeon, Republic of Korea, is chairing the IFRC for a five-year term.

Speaking at the IFRC annual meeting, IAEA Deputy Director General Yuri Sokolov thanked the outgoing chair Predhimam K. Kaw of ITER India and Director of the Institute for Plasma Research in Gujarat, India, for his leadership of, and contribution to, the Council’s work.

Mr. Sokolov is the new IAEA representative to the IFRC, following Werner Burkart, Deputy Director General and Head of the IAEA Department of Nuclear Science and Applications – an indication that the ITER project is moving from science to engineering.

New developments in fusion research, support for international tokamak physics activities, and close collaboration with ITER and the OECD’s Fusion Power Coordinating Committee, which supports ITER activities in OECD countries, will be among the future challenges for the IFRC.

Nuclear Fusion Prize

Exceptional research work in nuclear fusion is recognized by the Nuclear Fusion Prize, awarded annually and presented at IAEA Fusion Energy Conferences. At the FEC 2008, IAEA Deputy Director General Werner Burkart presented the Nuclear Fusion Prize to two laureates, Clemente Angioni (2007) and Todd Evans (2008), whose works have stimulated ITER physics and design, and encouraged important improvements.