The second DONES Steering Committee, the highest governing body of the DONES Fusion Programme, has met in Granada on 26^th October to review the progress of the programme, in particular the results of the panel of independent experts that analysed the current state of the DONES baseline.

The preliminary review report of the experts panel recommends the setting up of the international team (Programme Team) to progress in the construction of the particle accelerator being built in Escúzar (Granada).

The Committee held today at the Palacio de Congresos in Granada was attended by representatives of 17 countries, as well as the European Commission on behalf of EURATOM, the consortium of European fusion laboratories (EUROfusion) and Fusion for Energy (F4E). Ukraine has also participated for the first time to this board meeting.

In addition, the DONES Steering Committee has discussed the accomplishments reached since the first Steering Committee meeting held in Granada on 16 March 2023.

In parallel, the representatives have reviewed several activities to accelerate the project, such as the basis of the Programme Plan and the procedures for selecting key profiles for the programme implementation, namely the Programme Manager and the Chief Engineer. The Committee has also been updated on the current status of the discussions with interested countries to define their participation.

Finally, a representative of the Spanish Nuclear Safety Council presented the safety and regulatory framework applicable to the IFMIF-DONES project.

The next meeting of the DONES Steering Committee will be held in the Croatian city of Zadar in March 2024.

At this second meeting, the Committee was attended by representatives from Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Ukraine.