BSC participation at the ITER Business Forum 2025

BSC booth at Iter Business Forum 2025. From left to right, Mario Ejarque, Dani Gallart, Andrés Román, Mervi Mantsinen and Federico Cipolletta.

The ITER Business Forum 2025 (IBF) was held during 23rd–25th April in the sunny city of Marseille, France. This Forum is designed to attract the global industry involved in the realization of fusion energy, from the supply chain to companies and startups. This is a great opportunity to connect and explore new collaborations in the industry ecosystem.

The Barcelona Supercomputing Center participated with representatives of the Fusion Group: Mervi Mantsinen, Federico Cipolletta, and Dani Gallart. Moreover, BSC members Andrés José Román from the Innovation and Business Development department, and Mario Ejarque and Sara Ibáñez from the Communications department, also participated, providing support in several relevant aspects. Special mention to María Paz Baghetti, our Dissemination Officer, who coordinated the preparations of our participation to the event.

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Presentation of a novel method for the detection of alpha heating

Group photo of the 18th Technical Meeting on Energetic Particles in Magnetic Confinement Systems.

The 18th Technical Meeting on Energetic Particles in Magnetic Confinement Systems took place from 17th to 21st March in Sevilla, Spain. This conference tackles the state-of-the-art of physics on energetic particles in magnetically confined plasmas, delving into relevant aspects for fusion plasmas such as triggering and controlling instabilities, studying Alfvén modes, runaway electrons and fusion born alphas. Our group member Dani Gallart was invited to deliver a talk on a novel method for the detection of alpha heating.

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digilab and Next Step Fusion visit BSC Fusion

Nuclear fusion is going from strength to strength, with several technological breakthroughs in recent years, including the ability to build high-temperature superconducting (HTS) magnets that can generate high magnetic fields with almost no energy loss. This is important not only because it increases the obvious net energy production, but also because it may be possible to build more compact magnetic fusion devices such as tokamaks and stellarators. The dimensions of these machines are much smaller than those of ITER, and this has attracted the attention of industry in a variety of ways, from larger and more experienced companies focused on manufacturing, to a proliferation of start-ups focused on novel reactor designs and software modelling.

Part of the industry is developing artificial intelligence (AI) solutions to fusion problems. Two of these companies, digilab and Next Step Fusion, have recently visited the Fusion Group at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center headquarters.

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Our Participation in the Spanish National Fusion Strategy

National Strategy Planning meeting

On 14 October, the Spanish National Fusion Strategy Planning Meeting was held at the CDTI headquarters in Madrid. The meeting brought together most of the fusion stakeholders in the Spanish fusion ecosystem, from research institutions such as CIEMAT or BSC to companies in the fusion sector. With all the relevant advances in fusion that have accelerated the path towards its commercialisation, many countries are either reviewing or creating their own strategy. This was therefore a very timely meeting to define the role that Spain intends to play in the near future, at a time when private investors and industry are closer than ever to fusion.

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Yet again, a new fusion energy record from JET!

Artistic image of humanity harnessing the power of the sun. Generated with AI.

The Joint European Torus (JET) already reached the world fusion energy record back in December 2021, but as if that were not enough, it has done it yet again, two years later, during December 2023 with 69 megajoules using a mere 0.2 milligrams of fuel, beating the previous record of 59 megajoules. This is roughly the energy needed for a hairdryer to work for 10 hours nonstop. The importance of this new feat stems from the evident new knowledge that the fusion community has acquired in recent times that has allowed for such a steady advancement in the field.  

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FuseNet Teacher Day 2023

Teacher Day 2023 announcement

The FuseNet Teacher Day is an annual event organized by FuseNet which closes the gap between research/industry and high school education. Its main purpose is to motivate students in the rich field of fusion physics and technology. It is typically addressed to professors, who receive a nice set of educational material and a gentle overview of fusion technology on the shoulders of the main research labs in each European country. 

We are happy at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) to organize together with Fusion for Energy (F4E) the Catalan session, as done in previous editions (see here). This year the session has been covered by Dr Ferran Albajar (F4E) and Dr Dani Gallart (BSC). The Catalan session, which typically lasts 1 hour, is entirely devoted to the understanding of the key features and advantages that fusion technology has to offer. We also elaborate on the educational materials available and after that we engage in an interesting and enthusiastic discussion with all the audience. We appreciate the interest and the time that professors invest in our talk, and we hope all the material and motivation we try to send during the session is useful and ultimately transferred to the students. The students are the future of our society and so, of fusion technology as well. 

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