Progress along the path towards fusion electricity

ITER is the key facility on the European fusion roadmap as it will achieve most of the important milestones on the path to fusion power. Therefore, the focus is on experiments and modelling to optimise the ITER Research Plan. This includes especially experiments in tokamaks with a full metal wall. The recent world-record fusion energy performance in JET, yielding 59 MJ of fusion energy in a 5 s deuterium-tritium pulse has validated the theoretical models for ITER.

ITER is followed by DEMO, which will provide first electricity to the grid. An important supporting facility is IFMIF-DONES, a 14 MeV accelerator-based neutron source that will be build in Spain.

The presentation will focus on the strategy behind the fusion roadmap and the major challenges that need to be tackled on the road towards fusion electricity. Recent results are presented to demonstrate the progress of the focused approach in European fusion research.