Nuclear Fusion for a Decarbonized Future

Save the planet by creating a small Sun on Earth.

Fusion is the energy source of the Sun and stars and represents a promising long-term option for a sustainable, non-carbon emitting global energy supply. In the extreme heat and gravity at the core of these stellar bodies, light hydrogen nuclei collide, fuse into heavier helium atoms and release tremendous amounts of energy in the process.

Three conditions must be fulfilled to achieve fusion in a laboratory: very high temperature (in the order of 150,000,000 °C); sufficient plasma particle density (to increase the likelihood that collisions do occur); and sufficient confinement time (to hold the plasma, which has a propensity to expand, within a defined volume).
At extreme temperatures, electrons are separated from nuclei and a gas becomes a plasma—often referred to as the fourth state of matter. Fusion plasmas provide the environment in which light elements can fuse and yield energy, and one way to confine and control the plasma is by means of powerful magnetic fields.

Achieving such conditions at a scale suitable for practical energy production is a formidable scientific and technological challenge.

The directors of some of the world-leading nuclear fusion research centers will present the latest developments in this direction and engage with the public in a thought-provoking discussion.

Moderator: Sakura Pascarelli, Scientific Director, European XFEL
–  KEYNOTE: Pietro Barabaschi, Director General, ITER, Cadarache, France
–  Masaya Hanada, Director General, Naka Fusion Institute, Naka, Japan
– Steven Cowley, Director, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory , Princeton, USA
– Piergiorgio Sonato, President, RFX Consortium, Padova, Italy
– Hartmut Zohm, Head of Tokamak Division, MPI-IPP, Munich, Germany

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