The IAEA DEMO Programme Workshop Series: 2012–2021 report

Abstract

Abstract The IAEA DEMO Programme Workshop Series was initiated to be the reference forum to debate, evaluate and establish the next steps to be taken within the international fusion community to deliver fusion as a reliable source of clean energy. The DEMO programme refers predominantly to a future magnetic confinement Tokamak design concept, after the ITER project, with a goal of delivering electricity to the grid. To enable this, the programme workshop series provides a unique frame where the discussion and analysis of the progress and findings of the various DEMO programmes, and not just the presentation of results being the major goals. More recently, due to the construction development of ITER, the workshop has also provided a forum to bring together the fusion community and industry. This is an important development for DEMO programmes, which will be more reliant on industry given their focus on devices proximate to a commercial fusion power plant. In this paper a summary of all editions of this workshop (2012–2013–2015–2016–2018–2019) up to 2021 are summarized. Topics addressed are listed and findings and open questions pointed out for each edition.