The European Roadmap to the realisation of fusion energy breaks the quest for fusion energy into eight missions. For each mission, it reviews the current status of research, identifies open issues, proposes a research and development programme and estimates the required resources. It points out the needs to intensify industrial involvement and to seek all opportunities for collaboration outside Europe.

The presentation will focus on the strategy behind the fusion roadmap and will describe the major challenges that need to be tackled on the road towards fusion electricity. Encouraging recent results will be given to demonstrate the outcome of the focused approach in European fusion research.

Overview of neutron research activities at EUROfusion – JET (Paola BATISTONI)

The operation of ITER experimental fusion reactor and fusion power plants requires the development of neutron measurement techniques to derive the fusion power, plasma parameters and the radiation field in the device and in the surrounding areas. Nuclear analyses provide essential input to the conceptual design, optimization, engineering and safety case in ITER and power plant studies. These calculations are extremely challenging because of the large physical extent of the reactor plant, the complexity of the geometry, the combination of deep penetration in large shields and streaming paths, and therefore they require very reliable nuclear data and validated numerical tools.

The presentation will focus on the neutron research activities at JET, including the accurate calibration of JET neutron monitors at 14 MeV neutron energy using a well characterised neutron generator, the development of new neutron detectors and spectrometers for the fusion environment, the neutronics benchmark experiments for the validation of nuclear data and codes, and the development of an irradiation station for studies of the neutron induced activation and radiation damage in fusion relevant materials.

Contact : cuccari@ill.fr