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29th Fusion Energy Conference (FEC 2023)
October 16, 2023 - October 21, 2023
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The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) fosters the exchange of scientific and technical results in nuclear fusion research and development through its series of Fusion Energy Conferences.
The 29th Fusion Energy Conference (FEC 2023) aims to provide a forum for the discussion of key physics and technology issues as well as innovative concepts of direct relevance to the use of nuclear fusion as a future source of energy.
According to the IAEA’s Fusion Device Information System (FusDIS), as of 2023, there are almost 130 experimental fusion devices and testing facilities operating, under construction or being planned, and a dozen of demonstration plant or pilot plant designs under development. Driven by recent scientific and technical advances, a vibrant private sector and the climate crisis, attention is switching to the remaining challenges of demonstrating the technological feasibility of fusion power as well as the safe and economic viability of this energy source.
The scope of FEC 2023 is, therefore, intended to reflect the priorities of this new era in fusion energy research, technology development and preparation to industrial deployment. The conference aims to serve as a platform for sharing the results of research and development efforts in both national and international fusion programmes that have been shaped by these new priorities, and to thereby help in pinpointing worldwide advances in fusion theory, experiments, technology, engineering, materials, advanced concepts, safety, socio-economics and preparation to industrial deployment. Furthermore, the conference will also set these results against the backdrop of the requirements for a net energy-producing fusion device and a fusion power plant in general, and will thus help in defining the way forward.
With the participation of international organizations such as the ITER International Fusion Energy Organization and the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom), as well as the collaboration of more than 40 countries and a great number of research institutes and organisations, including those working on smaller devices, it is expected that this conference will, like previous conferences in the series, serve to identify the possibilities and means for continuous and effective international collaboration in this area.
The 29th Fusion Energy Conference is being organized by the IAEA through the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) in London, United Kingdom, from 16 to 21 October 2023. Previous conferences in this series were held in Salzburg, Austria (1961), Culham, United Kingdom (1965), Novosibirsk, Russian Federation (1968), Madison, United States of America (1971), Tokyo, Japan (1974), Berchtesgaden, Germany (1976), Innsbruck, Austria (1978), Brussels, Belgium (1980), Baltimore, United States of America (1982), London, United Kingdom (1984), Kyoto, Japan (1986), Nice, France (1988), Washington DC, United States of America (1990), Würzburg, Germany (1992), Seville, Spain (1994), Montreal, Canada (1996), Yokohama, Japan (1998), Sorrento, Italy (2000), Lyon, France (2002), Vilamoura, Spain (2004), Chengdu, China (2006), Geneva, Switzerland (2008), Daejeon, Republic of Korea (2010), San Diego, United States of America (2012), Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation (2014), Kyoto, Japan (2016), Ahmedabad, India (2018) and Nice, France (postponed from 2020 to 2021 and held online because of the global COVID-19 pandemic).