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Watch as one-ninth of the ���ߺ��� vacuum vessel is lifted out of tooling and lowered into the machine assembly pit. The operation—which took place over two days in January—tested, once again, the accuracy of the metrology system and the navigation skills of the assembly team (read more here). Vacuum vessel sector module #8 joins modules #5, #6 and #7 to form nearly one-half of the ���ߺ��� plasma chamber. Three more of these incredible "lifts" are expected this year.

Fusion for Energy—the European Union organization managing Europe’s contribution to ���ߺ���—is organizing an Energy Summer School at its headquarters in Barcelona, Spain, from 15 to 19 June 2026. 

The curriculum covers a broad spectrum of topics, beginning with energy fundamentals and the operation of electrical grids, and extending to the study of diverse energy sources, their environmental impact, and the geopolitics of energy. The objective is to equip participants with the knowledge and the analytical tools necessary to understand the complexity of today's energy challenges, while preparing them to contribute effectively to the sustainable transition of our societies.

The summer school is designed for European Union citizens attending PhD or Master's courses in engineering, natural sciences, economy or political sciences. Whether you hope to work in engineering, science, finance, procurement, policymaking or communication, the program will provide insight into the technical, environmental, and regulatory dimensions that drive investment decisions, supply strategies, and political agendas.  

More information about applying to the program can be downloaded . Applications close on 31 March.

Originally filmed on site at ���ߺ��� in May 2025, this video has been updated with new footage of the tokamak pit from December (–). A third of the ���ߺ��� plasma chamber is now in place, and the installation of a fourth sector is imminent. Fly above, and into, the modules of the ���ߺ��� vacuum vessel, or—if you haven't already seen it—watch the rest of the video to see how the ���ߺ��� machine and plant are coming together on a 180-hectare site in southern France.

The final design review has been completed and manufacturing of Europe’s first ���ߺ��� gyrotrons is set to begin. This marks another key milestone for the Electron Cyclotron Heating (ECH) system that will be used to heat the ���ߺ��� plasma to more than 100 million degrees Celsius and sustain fusion reactions.

Gyrotrons essentially convert electricity into high-frequency microwaves that will transfer energy to plasma electrons once injected into the tokamak. Initially, there were plans for 24 gyrotrons at ���ߺ��� and the European Domestic Agency, Fusion for Energy, was responsible for supplying six of them . However, when the new baseline was introduced in 2024, the number of gyrotrons was increased to 48 at the Start of Research Operation phase, with another 24 scheduled to be added once deuterium-tritium testing begins. With the wider use of gyrotrons, Europe will produce more units.

Learn more about the preparations for gyrotron manufacturing .

(Pictured is work on the gyrotron prototype done in 2022.) 

Under the editorial lead of EUROfusion, the ���ߺ��� Engineering Basis Handbook delivers a stand-alone compilation of ���ߺ��� design principles, the underlying technical design basis and its evolution from conception to construction, together with the technical, scientific, and regulatory rationale behind the major decisions. It facilitates the access and understanding of the project’s technological journey by consolidating the information from a multitude of sources. It aims at securing the lessons learned, the return of experience, and the knowledge transfer from the world's largest fusion project, drawing from the direct experience of knowledgeable experts who have worked on ���ߺ���, for the benefit of fusion professionals inside and outside of the ���ߺ��� project and the next generation.

See the first chapters of Volume 1, "Genesis, Design and Evolution" on the ���ߺ��� Technical Reports pages of the public website.
 

The third ���ߺ��� Public-Private Fusion Workshop will be organized on 28 and 29 April 2026 at the ���ߺ��� site in Saint Paul-lez-Durance, France.

For the past two years, ���ߺ��� has opened its doors to private sector fusion companies for joint workshops on areas of mutual interest and mechanisms for positive engagement. This year’s theme—“Fusion: a Joint Quest”—reflects the reality that progress toward fusion energy is neither linear nor uniform, but pursued through multiple technical approaches, institutional models, and timelines. Across public and private efforts alike, divergent visions coexist with genuinely complementary strengths—in science, engineering, manufacturing, and systems integration.

The two-day workshop will take place on Tuesday and Wednesday (28 and 29 April), with Monday 27 April and Thursday 30 April set aside for consultations with ���ߺ��� experts, tailored tours of the ���ߺ��� worksite, and interactions among participants. Registration will open soon on the Events page of the ���ߺ��� website.

Recruitment opened on Monday 12 January 2026 for eight Postdoctoral Fellowships at the ���ߺ���.

If you are an outstanding PhD graduate in science, technology, and engineering whose expertise aligns with the needs of the ���ߺ��� project, you may be eligible for a two-year postdoctoral position at the ���ߺ���, where you will work closely with ���ߺ��� specialists and contribute to the project through original research.

The eight Postdoctoral Fellowships are proposed through two different funding schemes: 

Monaco/���ߺ��� Postdoctoral Fellowships (5 positions)
The Principality of Monaco is providing the financing for five Postdoctoral Fellowships through a Partnership Arrangement signed with the ���ߺ��� in 2008 and renewed in 2018. You can apply to a Monaco/���ߺ��� Postdoctoral Fellowship if: 1) you are a national of China, the European Union plus Switzerland, India, Japan, Korea, Russia, the United States, or the Principality of Monaco; and 2) your PhD was awarded after 1 January 2023 (or you will have received your PhD before 31 December 2026).

Korea-���ߺ��� Postdoctoral Research Fellowships (3 positions)
Through an agreement signed between the ���ߺ��� and the Korean Domestic Agency, ���ߺ��� Korea directly funds scientific or technical fellowships in fields of mutual interest and with a view to contributing to training the talent that will be needed for the fusion industry of the future. To apply for a Korea-���ߺ��� Postdoctoral Research Fellowship you must be a Korean postdoctoral researcher.

The application process for both Fellowship categories is the same: after verifying that you have relevant experience in one or more of the 2026 research topics, apply by 1 March 2026 through the ���ߺ��� Jobs portal.

See this ���ߺ��� webpage for more information. 

The is underway at the MAST Upgrade facility at the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy in England. This latest campaign will focus on advancing understanding of high-pressure fusion plasma, optimising plasma control and energy confinement, refining advanced divertor designs for heat exhaust management, and validating predictive tools used to model plasma behaviour in future fusion power plants.

The Mega Amp Spherical Tokamak (MAST) Upgrade, which became operational in 2020, is the world’s largest active spherical tokamak. Its test campaigns will inform the construction of the that is scheduled to begin operations in 2040.

The latest research phase will last six months and involve 950 plasma pulses. More than 200 international researchers will be involved in the experiments and the results will contribute to the growing global body of experimental fusion data.

The 360° virtual tour of the ���ߺ��� construction site has been updated with a new set of photos—drone footage from December 2025 that shows three vacuum vessel sector modules in the tokamak pit. Click on and rotate the new photos in the Tokamak Pit gallery to see one-third of the ���ߺ��� plasma chamber from every angle.

Accessible from the NEWS & MEDIA pages of the ���ߺ��� website or by clicking on the link below, the 2D tour requires no special equipment to enjoy. If you do have 3D glasses, click on the yellow goggle symbol at the top of any screen.

to see the latest 360° ���ߺ��� virtual tour.

The EU Fusion Safety and Regulation Course 2026, organized by the Clean Air Task Force in partnership with the Xcitech School on Science and Technology, offers professionals an opportunity to learn from leading experts—including specialists from the ���ߺ���—about safety and regulatory considerations for fusion facilities. The three-day course will also cover important safety topics that apply to lab-scale fusion research today such as tritium handling and management of cryogenic systems.

Topics include case studies in safety and licensing in multiple facilities across Europe, the latest developments in the regulatory landscape in Europe and the United States, tritium safety and management, activated material safety and activated waste management, and safety practices at lab-scale fusion facilities and major accelerator facilities.

The course will take place at the headquarters of Fusion for Energy in Barcelona, Spain, 17 to 19 February 2026. Learn more .

The prize-winning Turkmenistan team from the (IPhO) arrived at ���ߺ��� on 18 December for a special presentation of the project and tour of the site.

The visit was part of the ���ߺ���-sponsored prize given for diversity at the IPhO, with Turkmenistan being the best-ranked team that had at least two women and two men. 

The IPhO is open to students under the age of 20 who have not yet entered university. The Turkmenistan team featured Nurgeldi Annagurdov (17), Dovlet Annamyradov (17), and the sisters Aysenem Kakamyradova (17) and Mahriban Kakamyradova (18). Along with being part of the team that won the ���ߺ��� prize, Aysenem Kakamyradova also won .

The delegation from Turkmenistan included the students’ high school teacher, Kerim Cherkezov, and their physics advisor, Allamyrat Amanmadov of Turkmen State University.

While on site, the team received special diplomas of recognition from ���ߺ��� Deputy Director General Luo Delong and a private presentation of the ���ߺ��� project given by ���ߺ���’s Deputy Director General-Chief Scientist Alain Bécoulet and Alexander Alekseev, the Deputy Head of Science & Integration. Alain Bécoulet said these sorts of initiatives to recognize emerging talent were essential for ���ߺ���. “They are 17 and 18 years old. They are the future of fusion.”

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has launched a new platform that will serve as a central hub for information on the fusion sector.

IAEA’s FUSE Fusion CONNECT platform was officially launched on 4 December 2025. It aims to make it easier for IAEA’s 180 member states to follow developments in the fusion sector and access tools such as the and the journal. The platform is also in the process of compiling a public directory of fusion organizations and .

The IAEA noted that the momentum in fusion energy—from record-breaking achievements in the public sector to the thriving private sector—meant that collaborative tools such as FUSE are more important than ever.

Discover .

In a continuation of the merriest of traditions, ���ߺ��� has released its annual holiday greeting card. This year, the card was designed by Natacha Roux and Philippe Cathala of IN-MEDIAPROD, who sought to give the video card an original twist by using AI tools to virtually decorate the Assembly Building and other ���ߺ��� locations.

“We wanted to do something extraordinary this year and since artificial intelligence is everywhere now, we thought we could apply it to the card,” says Natacha.

You can .

Over the years, the ���ߺ��� holiday card has evolved from a simple e-card to more elaborate video productions such as or .

FuseNet has opened nominations for its Master Thesis Prize 2025. The prize is open to students who completed fusion-related theses in 2025 and recognizes outstanding academic work carried out at European institutions or in collaboration with international partners.

Eligible candidates can submit their candidatures until 9 February 2026. FuseNet advises students to coordinate with their home institution before submitting, as each FuseNet member institution may put forward only one nomination.

The 2024 prize recognized three researchers for their theses on divertor modelling, turbulence phenomena in plasmas with varying triangularity, and dimensionality reduction methods applied to magnetohydrodynamic equilibria.

FuseNet supports education, training, and collaboration for students and young researchers in the field of fusion energy across Europe.

More information available

As part of French President Emmanuel Macron’s state visit to China from 3 to 5 December, the two countries issued a joint declaration on "further cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy." It included a point asserting nuclear fusion is an “essential option” for abundant, decarbonized energy and reaffirmed their commitment to ���ߺ���.

France and China have a long history of working together to ensure the peaceful use of nuclear energy, dating back to . Cooperation on nuclear fusion was cited in , which was signed in 2009 by former ���ߺ��� Director-General Bernard Bigot when he was still Chairman of the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA). The most recent joint declaration emphasizes the value of nuclear energy for addressing climate change and ensuring energy security while citing the important role nuclear fusion will play in the future. The declaration states:

“Both sides recognize that nuclear fusion energy represents an important direction for the peaceful use of nuclear energy by humanity and an essential option for an abundant and decarbonized energy source for the future. They are ready to continue their extensive participations in the major international scientific project of the Thermonuclear Fusion Experimental Reactor (���ߺ���) in order to contribute to the successful promotion of the ���ߺ��� project and its timely completion.”

Read the full Joint Declaration on Further Cooperation in the Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy between France and the People’s Republic of China .

Photograph from the Élysée website.

A new report from the F4E Fusion Observatory analyzes the latest data to provide a global picture of the growing private fusion sector.

The second edition of Global Investment in the Private Fusion Sector shows that, following major investments announced this summer, the cumulative funding for private sector initiatives is now at EUR 13 billion, with 77 companies in the field. "This funding is a mix of sources: private capital accounts for the majority at over EUR 8.9 billion while public funds, totalling around EUR 4.1 billion, are increasingly flowing into private ventures through grants and institutional support. A further EUR 84 million comes from hybrid forms like public-private partnerships and state-backed investments." The report goes on to break down investments by region, by technology, and by type of funding model.

Fusion for Energy (F4E) is the European Union’s organization for the development of fusion energy. It is mainly responsible for Europe’s contribution to ���ߺ���, but is also involved in major fusion projects such as the European/Japanese tokamak JT-60SA and the materials research facility . The F4E Fusion Observatory provides objective analysis and intelligence on global and European fusion policies, R&D, technologies, investments and industrial activity for the benefit of European policy makers, the scientific community and other interested parties.

Download the F4E Fusion Observatory report .

One of the challenges facing fusion is to identify the right materials for the next-generation fusion reactors like DEMO. A major initiative to find these solutions, the IFMIF-DONES project, achieved a major benchmark with the signing on 21 November of an international agreement to strengthen collaboration on testing to identify materials that best resist neutron irradiation.

The International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility-Demo Oriented NEutron Source (IFMIF-DONES) is based in Granada, Spain. The agreement was signed between the IFMIF-DONES España Consortium,  representing the European Commission and Member States, and R&D centres in Croatia (), Japan () and Italy (). The multinational agreement provides a framework for the financing and operation of the test facility.

Learn more at or the site.

The ���ߺ��� has begun recruitment for its 2026 internship program.

We invite students from across the ���ߺ��� Members (the People's Republic of China, the European Union, India, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation, the United States) to apply for one of our exciting internship opportunities. All Bachelor’s, Master’s, or PhD students enrolled in a fully accredited degree program are eligible to apply. Internships are offered for up to six months and are extendable to up to one year under certain circumstances. 

The first wave of the campaign runs from 15 November 2025 through 6 January 2026, with the publication of 28 offers on the ���ߺ��� website. A second-wave campaign will be advertised from 17 January 2026 through 28 February 2026.

See this page to apply. The deadline for first-wave opportunities is 6 January 2026.

The WEST tokamak in France, with its tungsten divertor, is exploring the plasma physics of operation in a tungsten environment.

Research on WEST is directly relevant to ���ߺ���, helping to answer questions such as "How will the actively cooled tungsten components of the ���ߺ��� divertor behave after hours of plasma discharge?" or "Can performant plasmas be produced if plasma-facing components are damaged?" or "How can the monitoring system be optimized for these components?" 

In a six-week campaign that started on 7 November, the team is testing the performance of a tungsten coating on tiles in collaboration with ���ߺ���, running experiments to test the "I-mode" regime (an ELM-free improved confinement regime with low impurity content) in collaboration with American and Chinese collaborators, and studying the growth of deposits on the divertor under high particle fluence.

The WEST tokamak (for W Environment in Steady-state Tokamak) is located at the Institute for Magnetic Fusion Research (IRFM) near ���ߺ���, part of the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission's (CEA's) Cadarache Centre.

At the ���ߺ��� Neutral Beam Test Facility in Italy, progress was made in October on the MITICA testbed, where a full-size prototype of the ���ߺ��� heating neutral beam injector will be tested before ���ߺ��� operation.

During tests of MITICA's cryogenic infrastructure, the cryopump system successfully reached its nominal operating temperatures: 4.6 K for the cryopumps and 80 K for the thermal radiation shields. Controlled gas injection inside MITICA’s vacuum vessel came next, providing essential data on the cryopumps' behaviour and their capability to capture and retain gas under realistic operating conditions. The charcoal layer within the cryopump reached full saturation, allowing researchers to study gas release dynamics and system limitations. The campaign concluded with the successful warm-up of the MITICA cryogenic system back to room temperature.

Read a full report on the Consorzio RFX website in or .