‘Nuclear Fusion’, the journal jointly published by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and IOP Science and regarded as the most prestigious in the field, has released a special issue dedicated to IFMIF-DONES. This comprehensive publication features more than 15 papers on DONES, covering all aspects of the design developed over the past ten years.

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has published a special issue on IFMIF-DONES in the prestigious scientific platform IOP Science. The guest editors for this publication were Ángel Ibarra (IFMIF-DONES and CIEMAT, Spain), Davide Bernardi (ENEA, Italy), Wojciech Krolas (IFJ-PAN, Poland), and Shinichi Ishida (QST, Japan).

Since 2015 the engineering design, including significant validation experiments, of the IFMIF-DONES fusion neutron source has been developed as a specific workpackage in the EUROfusion Consortium. Based on the obtained progresses, as well as on the results achieved in the IFMIF/EVEDA project included in the EU-JA Broader Approach Agreement, the DONES Programme was approved by the DONES Steering Committee on March 16th 2023 as well as the start of the construction phase of the IFMIF-DONES facility. As a consequence, a handover of the EUROfusion engineering work to the new Programme Team is taking place.

This Special Issue shows up the IFMIF-DONES engineering status and planned capabilities at this very special milestone. This Issue includes papers focusing on the different key aspects of the facility. They contain significant new information and, at the same time, an overview of the other topics.

Over the coming weeks, we will be publishing information about each of the articles included in this special issue.