The Center for Energy, Environmental and Technological Research (CIEMAT) hosted the IV DONES User Workshop, a fundamental meeting to shape the scientific and experimental program for IFMIF-DONES. This major international facility is dedicated to studying materials and components for future nuclear fusion energy plants.
The workshop, co-organized by CIEMAT and esDONES with support from the Industry Office, brought together approximately one hundred attendees. Over three days, researchers, experts, and industry representatives collaborated to identify the facility's scientific and technological needs and prepare its future experimental program.
Luis Raúl Sánchez Fernández, director of the National Fusion Laboratory, highlighted CIEMAT's commitment to the construction and commissioning of IFMIF-DONES, as well as to preparing the scientific community. "At CIEMAT, we are fully committed not only to supporting the construction and commissioning of IFMIF-DONES but also to preparing the scientific community and the experimental program that will make this facility a fundamental element of fusion energy research," he stated.
The meeting facilitated the coordination of scientific strategies and experimental proposals to leverage IFMIF-DONES's capabilities throughout its development phases. The program covered topics such as materials qualification for fusion, tritium technologies, nuclear physics, medical and industrial applications, and materials computational science. The work contributed to consolidating the facility's experimental plan, aimed at validating materials and components under extreme neutron irradiation conditions.
A key outcome of the workshop was the formal establishment of a Users' Committee to articulate the participation of the scientific and technological community in the development of the facility's experimental program.
IFMIF-DONES is set to become a strategic scientific infrastructure for fusion energy development, offering unique capabilities to study the behavior of materials and components under irradiation conditions representative of those in future fusion reactors. The early preparation of its program and international scientific coordination are essential to ensure the facility's capacities are utilized from its initial operational stages.
CIEMAT, through its National Fusion Laboratory, actively participates in the development of science and technology associated with IFMIF-DONES and in preparing its user community. The institution expressed special thanks for the support from Kyoto Fusioneering, Gauss Fusion, and Avancem.
