Overview of Broader Approach activities

Abstract

The Broader Approach (BA) activities aim to complement the ITER project and to promote the early realization of fusion energy through research, development, and tests of technologies supporting the future demonstration fusion reactor (DEMO). These activities are implemented under the BA agreement, which was signed and ratified in 2007 between Euratom and the Government of Japan. In essence, the BA activities consist of three projects:a) The Satellite Tokamak Programme Project JT-60SA, the world's largest superconducting tokamak until ITER starts, aims to support the assembly, commissioning and preliminary operation of ITER, and carry out demonstration and optimisation of steady-state operation of advanced plasma configurations for DEMO;b) The International Fusion Energy Research Centre (IFERC), which comprises three different sub-projects: the DEMO Design Research and Development Coordination Centre to coordinate design and R&D on materials and components for DEMO, the Fusion Computer Simulation Centre for the simulations of fusion plasmas, the analysis of experimental data, modelling of ITER operation, and contribution to the design of DEMO, and the Remote Experimentation Centre to allow scientists to participate remotely in fusion experiments from its control room in Japan;c) The Engineering Validation and Engineering Design Activities for the International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility (IFMIF/EVEDA) focused on the design and validation of key components needed for the future Fusion Neutron Source facilities to characterize materials envisioned for DEMO.After 13 years of fruitful collaboration, Euratom and Japan launched the second phase of the BA activities in 2020. It is focused on exploiting and enhancing the facilities that have already been built and on working more closely than ever with ITER as the latter advances towards the first plasma. This paper will present a synthesis of the achievements already obtained thanks to the three BA projects and will address the future developments planned in 2023 and beyond.