The European Consortium for Development of Fusion Energy, coordinating fusion research across more than 30 laboratories and universities in Europe to prepare the path from ITER to a demonstration fusion power plant.
EUROfusion (the European Consortium for Development of Fusion Energy) is the organization responsible for coordinating and funding fusion research across Europe. Established in 2014, it brings together national fusion laboratories, universities, and research institutions from across the European Union and associated states, unifying what had previously been a patchwork of bilateral agreements under the earlier European Fusion Development Agreement (EFDA).1
EUROfusion operates under a grant agreement with the European Commission through the Euratom Research and Training Programme. Its mandate is twofold: to exploit the Joint European Torus (JET) and other existing devices for ITER-relevant research, and to develop the conceptual design for a European demonstration fusion power plant known as EU-DEMO. The consortium's General Assembly, composed of representatives from each member institution, sets strategic priorities, while a Programme Manager and supporting staff at the Garching headquarters coordinate day-to-day research activities.2
The consortium's flagship experimental facility was the Joint European Torus (JET) at the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy in the United Kingdom, which operated from 1983 until its final shutdown in December 2023. In its final deuterium-tritium campaign in 2021, JET set a world record of 59 megajoules of sustained fusion energy over a five-second pulse — a result that validated plasma scenarios planned for ITER.3
With JET now in decommissioning, EUROfusion's experimental program has pivoted to a distributed network of medium-sized tokamaks and stellarators across Europe, including ASDEX Upgrade in Germany, WEST in France, TCV in Switzerland, and MAST Upgrade in the United Kingdom. These devices address specific physics and technology challenges identified on the path to ITER and DEMO.
EU-DEMO is envisioned as Europe's first fusion device to deliver electricity to the grid. EUROfusion's 2021 Roadmap targets a DEMO construction decision around 2040, with the plant intended to produce several hundred megawatts of net electrical power. The pre-conceptual design work spans plasma physics, breeding blankets, divertor materials, remote maintenance, and tritium self-sufficiency — each organized into dedicated work packages coordinated across member laboratories.4
EUROfusion faces the challenge of maintaining momentum and expertise during the transition from JET to ITER operation. The consortium has invested in enhanced modeling capabilities, materials testing through the International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility (IFMIF-DONES), and training programs to develop the next generation of fusion scientists. Budget negotiations for the next Euratom framework period will be critical to sustaining the breadth of the European fusion program.5
As ITER approaches operational milestones and private fusion companies accelerate their own programs, EUROfusion's role as the coordinator of Europe's public-sector fusion effort positions it as a central player in determining whether and when fusion power reaches commercial viability on the continent.