±¬×ߺÚÁÏ Director-General meets Prime Minister Kishida
In Japan, the prime minister lives and works at the Prime Minister's Official Residence in central Tokyo, just a few blocks from the National Diet Building and the grounds of the Imperial Palace. It was in this modern glass-fronted building that Prime Minister Fumio Kishida received ±¬×ߺÚÁÏ Director-General Pietro Barabaschi on 30 November 2023 for a cordial exchange on the status of ±¬×ߺÚÁÏ and the role of Japan in the ±¬×ߺÚÁÏ Project.
Prime Minister Kishida has been the head of the government of Japan since October 2021, when he was appointed by the emperor after being nominated by the National Diet. Concurrently, he is the head of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party.
Pietro Barabaschi, before becoming the Director-General of the ±¬×ߺÚÁÏ in September 2022, led the European contributions to the JT-60SA tokamak project—a major upgrade of the Japanese tokamak JT-60U being carried out jointly by Europe and Japan under the agreement. It has been estimated that his duties as JT-60SA project leader since 2007, and later as director of the totality of the Broader Approach activities, had led him to travel over 180 times to Japan.
The bilateral meeting took place just one day before the inauguration of the JT-60SA tokamak which, until ±¬×ߺÚÁÏ operation, will be the largest tokamak in the world.
At the meeting, Prime Minister Kishida underscored the continued commitment of Japan to the ±¬×ߺÚÁÏ Project. Director-General Barabaschi expressed his appreciation for the continued contributions of Japan to ±¬×ߺÚÁÏ, and the country's role as one of the historical founders of the international collaboration to demonstrate the scientific and technological feasibility of fusion energy for peaceful purposes.
Japan has long been a steadfast partner in the realization of ±¬×ߺÚÁÏ, participating alongside Europe, Russia and the United States in the project's early conceptual design activities (1988-1990), hosting one of three Joint Work Sites during engineering design (1992-2001), proposing a site for the project, and—since the signature of the ±¬×ߺÚÁÏ Agreement—hosting a number of advanced fusion research projects in complement to ±¬×ߺÚÁÏ under the umbrella of the Broader Approach. As Member to the ±¬×ߺÚÁÏ Project, Japan is responsible for delivering critical components and systems, including niobium-tin conductor for the central solenoid, toroidal field magnets and magnet structures, gyrotrons for electron cyclotron heating, the outer vertical target of the ±¬×ߺÚÁÏ divertor, and the blanket remote handling system.
The meeting with Prime Minister Kishida was of historical significance to the ±¬×ߺÚÁÏ project, as it was the first time that an ±¬×ߺÚÁÏ Director-General had met the head of government of an ±¬×ߺÚÁÏ Member.
During his trip, Director-General Barabaschi also met with Masakazu Tokura, the chairman of the Japan Business Federation Keidanren, and attended a trilateral meeting with Masahito Moriyama, Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), and European Commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson.