In order to accelerate the development of nuclear fusion, Japan will establish a nuclear fusion umbrella organization in March 2024 to bring together industry and academia to jointly develop technologies and sales channels for the commercialization of nuclear fusion.
According to Nikkei, the participants include heavy industry engineering IHI, JGC Holdings, and Obayashi, as well as the oil conglomerate Inpex, as well as nuclear fusion startups Kyoto Fusioneering and Ex-fusion, as well as material manufacturers and ** companies, a total of about 50 companies and groups participated, and will continue to recruit members in the future until the project starts.
Tentatively named the "Fusion Energy Forum", the organization aims to identify the technical needs of the nuclear fusion industry and combine the expertise and resources of major players to accelerate development.
At present, the United States and Europe are vigorously developing nuclear fusion, generating a large amount of electricity with a small amount of fuel, and will not emit carbon dioxide or highly radioactive nuclear waste, and there is no furnace melting accident that traditional nuclear technology will have.
The new organization will be modeled after organizations such as the Fusion Industry Association (FIA) in the United States, and the participants will also include many materials and industrial companies, and will actively cooperate with overseas companies in the future, said Satoshi Konishi, CEO of Kyoto Fusioneering.
Japan is also part of the International Thermonuclear Fusion Experimental Reactor (ITER) program, which aims to build a prototype reactor by 2050. In April this year, Japan also drafted the first national nuclear fusion energy strategy, hoping to promote the creation of industrial bases, chains and core technologies until the implementation is realized, and although there is still a long way to go to commercialize nuclear fusion power generation, the technology involved can also be used in other industries.
JT-60SA, a nuclear fusion experimental facility jointly developed by Japan's Quantum Science and Technology Exploration Agency (QST) and the European Union, also succeeded in producing plasma for the first time on October 23, and announced on December 1 that it was successfully completed and put into operation.
The first image is a schematic diagram, **iter).