During the meeting, Moisés Weber provided an overview of the current status and upcoming activities at the international scientific facility, highlighting the latest milestones achieved. Among these, he emphasised the awarding of contracts that will make it possible to begin the main construction works of the IFMIF-DONES international scientific infrastructure within this year. This facility is also part of the European roadmap for the development of fusion energy, a new model of clean, limitless and safe energy, such as that produced at the core of the sun and the stars.

 

In this context, Moisés Weber, Yolanda Benito and Philippe Cara – Director of the DONES Programme, in which Spain, Croatia, Japan, Italy and the European Commission are currently participating – analysed the development of the international scientific infrastructure and shared views on the prominent role of CIEMAT in coordinating the forthcoming European Fusion Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA-Fusion). This agenda is aligned with the strategy aimed at preserving Europe’s scientific and technological leadership in the development of fusion energy, the energy of the future. In addition, the Director General of CIEMAT подчеркed that SRIA-Fusion is also aligned with the National Nuclear Fusion Strategy, which seeks to strengthen the national ecosystem around this energy and is currently under development with the participation of public research centres, universities and companies. The objective of this strategy is to reinforce and align national priorities with the European roadmap, promoting the integration of the science and technology required for the development of commercial nuclear fusion power plants.

 

The Director General also visited the Liquid Metals Facility (LITEC) in Granada, which is expected to become operational in the coming months. This facility has been part of CIEMAT’s efforts to promote the DONES-PRIME project and the site preparation activities for the accelerator, boosting Spain’s involvement in this major international project.

 

Likewise, the Director General met with the organisation’s research staff based in Granada to acknowledge their teamwork and highlighted CIEMAT’s contribution, under the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, to the scientific, technical and organisational progress of this major infrastructure.

The visit also highlighted the essential role of CIEMAT in the development, management, and research activities of IFMIF-DONES since its inception. At the international level, the organisation has worked in close collaboration with Japanese institutions within the framework of the Broader Approach collaboration agreement between the European Union and Japan since 2007. CIEMAT has coordinated European activities through EUROfusion since 2015 and has participated in the preparation and coordination efforts to integrate IFMIF-DONES into the ESFRI Roadmap 2018 of EURATOM (European Commission), making a decisive contribution to the scientific, technical and administrative definition of the project.

In this context, CIEMAT’s contribution includes the development and validation of key technologies required for the implementation and operation of IFMIF-DONES, including the accelerator system, the lithium loop system, and the irradiation area systems. The facility already has a scientific-technical building, owned by the University of Granada, that houses support laboratories, including CIEMAT’s LITEC facility—a lithium technologies laboratory unique in Spain and essential for the operation of the project’s future lithium circuit.

In addition, IFMIF-DONES has an office and general services building constructed by the Government of Spain through CIEMAT, which is attached to the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities. More than €16 million has been invested in this building, co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

 

CIEMAT (Centre for Energy, Environmental and Technological Research) is a Public Research Organisation attached to the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities through the General Secretariat for Research, focused primarily on research related to energy and the environment and the technological fields associated with both.

 

With more than seven decades of history, CIEMAT’s mission is to contribute to Spain’s sustainable development through the generation and application of scientific and technological knowledge. Its headquarters are currently located in Madrid, and it has five regional centres across Spain: the Plataforma Solar de Almería (PSA) in Almería; the Centre for Renewable Energy Development (CEDER) and the International Centre for Environmental Law Studies (CIEDA) in Soria; the Extremadura Centre for Advanced Technologies (CETA) in Extremadura; and the Centre for Socio-Technical Research (CISOT) in Barcelona.