The session “Integrating Fusion into the EU Energy Roadmap” is starting at the Cleantech Forum Europe 2025 in Sitges, Spain with the introduction by the session organizer Zainab Gilani.
On 12 November 2025, BSC’s Fusion Group participated in a high-level panel discussion at the Cleantech Forum Europe 2025 in Sitges, Spain. The session, titled “Integrating Fusion into the EU Energy Roadmap,” brought together leading voices from research, industry, and policy to discuss Europe’s evolving role in the global fusion energy landscape.
The panel was moderated by Zainab Gilani (Cleantech Group) and included Mervi Mantsinen (Barcelona Supercomputing Center), Richard Kembleton (Gauss Fusion), and Pierre-Yves Chaffard (Fusion for Energy).
Mervi Mantsinen during her talk “40 Years of ICRF Physics on the JET Tokamak: Highlights and Lessons Learned for Future Facilities” at the 25th Topical Conference on Radio-Frequency Power in Plasmas. Photo credits: H. Faugel (IPP)
The 25th Topical Conference on Radio-Frequency Power in Plasmas took place from 19 to 22 May 2025 and attracted more than 130 participants. Our group leader, Mervi Mantsinen, delivered an invited talk at this conference reviewing key milestones from four decades of Ion Cyclotron Range of Frequencies (ICRF) physics on the Joint European Torus (JET), highlighting its significant contributions to fusion research and implications for future reactors.
JET, Europe’s leading tokamak device, has achieved exceptional performance surpassing its design specifications, operating with magnetic fields of up to 4 T, plasma currents of 7 MA, and auxiliary heating powers totalling 37 MW. Its versatile ICRF system, with a frequency range of 25–56 MHz, has enabled a wide array of heating and current drive experiments.
The workshop started with a welcome by Director of the IFMIF-DONES España Consortium Angel Ibarra Sanchez. Image credit: IFMIF-DONES
From 28 to 30 January, our group leader Mervi Mantsinen attended the 32nd European Fusion Programme Workshop in Granada, Spain. More than a hundred experts in fusion physics and technology took part and shared their progress and visions within the European Fusion Programme.
This year’s theme was “Nuclear Engineering and Physics for Fusion Power Plants”, and key topics included “Materials Testing”, “Fuel Cycle and Shelter”, “Fusion Reactor Life Cycle and Safety” and “Towards Fusion Power Plants”. Participants also had the opportunity to visit the University of Granada-DONES Research Centre in Escúzar, Granada.
Entrance to JET. Picture from BSC Fusion Group archive.
On 11-15 March our group leader, ICREA Research Prof. Mervi Mantsinen visited the JET tokamakat Culham, United Kingdom, to take part in the Analysis and Modelling Meeting of the EUROfusion Work Package Tokamak Exploitation (WPTE). In total, approximately 85 fusion scientists from all around Europe participated in this meeting in person.
Alfvénic instabilities driven by energetic particles pose a challenge to the efficient operation of magnetic confinement fusion devices. These modes can dispel fast ions leading to the introduction of significant heat loads onto plasma facing components and degradation of overall plasma confinement. One class of Alfvénic instabilities known as reversed shear Alfvén eigenmodes (RSAEs) are of particular risk in devices with reversed shear rotational transform profiles. Reversed shear configurations have recently been of interest because of their enhancement to confinement quality. With this in mind, further study of RSAEs is necessary.
The nuclear industry is a crucial part of our energy infrastructure, providing a significant portion of the world’s electricity. However, the sector has traditionally been male-dominated, with women making up only a small fraction (less than 25%) of the workforce. The same applies to its sub-sectors including fusion where our group belongs.
In the webinar on March 8, a report was launched to address the issue of gender imbalance in the nuclear sector. The report provides insights and recommendations based on the first publicly available international data on gender balance in the nuclear sector. The data was collected from over 8 000 women in the nuclear workforce in 32 countries, as well as human resources data from 96 nuclear organisations in 17 countries. Based on the findings, a comprehensive, evidence-driven policy framework is proposed with practical recommendations.
