Two months earlier, in June, the Cabinet had decided upon the country\u2019s \u201cIntegrated Innovation Strategy and Grand Design\u201d as well as the 2024 revised version of the \u201cAction Plan for a New Form of Capitalism.\u201d Both of those promote R&D on a Japanese prototype reactor\u00a0to demonstrate fusion power, following the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) Project. The aim is to generate power through nuclear fusion in the 2030s, ahead of the rest of the world.<\/p>\n
On July 10, MEXT\u2019s\u00a0Science\u00a0and\u00a0Technology Committee\u00a0on\u00a0Fusion\u00a0Energy said that it would revise its schedule for Japan\u2019s R&D on prototype reactors, based on the delay in the ITER Project\u2014whose achievement of first plasma has been pushed back from next year (2025) to 2034 or so\u2014and those in the goals of other countries developing nuclear fusion.<\/p>\n
On August 16, then, members of a working group under the committee\u2014including OYAMA Naoyuki, director of Department of Research Planning and Promotion at the National Institute for Quantum and Radiological Science and Technology (QST)\u2014voiced their opinions.<\/p>\n
With QST taking the position that a swifter realization of power generation using a prototype reactor could boost activities in the nuclear industry, including startups, Oyama introduced the JA DEMO vision, in which the timing of a shift to the stage of prototype development would be decided in 2035 or so.<\/p>\n
From the point of a domestic institution in the ITER Project, Oyama went on to explain the technological prospects for the development of a prototype reactor concept. Specifically, describing the concept \u201cas an extension of ITER core technologies,\u201d he said that Japanese technological capabilities could be fully exerted in the development of the toroidal-field magnetic coils (TF coils), breeder blankets and divertors.<\/p>\n
Technologies apart from ITER concepts, meanwhile, will be developed on the basis of the industry\u2019s power-generation plant technologies and its operational experience, as well as heretofore unexplored technologies discovered by universities and the like.<\/p>\n
At the same time, other committee members pointed out the need to pay sufficient attention to \u201cfactors that will determine the shifting to a prototype reactor,\u201d based on the rise of startup companies and research in a germinal stage, including R&D on fusion reactors other than tokamaks.<\/p>\n
In response to the above developments, MEXT representatives indicated concrete directions for various activities to develop the infrastructure underlying the realization of prototype reactors\u2014including R&D, developing human resources (HR), outreach, and centralization for the sake of innovation\u2014thereby showing the way forward.<\/p>\n
As for HR development, the ITER International School (IIS2024) will be held in December under Japan\u2019s initiative, letting students and young scholars from seven parties to the ITER Project study nuclear fusion in this country. Meanwhile, on August 26, the second JT-60SA International Fusion School started at the QST facility.<\/p>\n
In terms of outreach, PR activities will be conducted at next year\u2019s Osaka EXPO.<\/p>\n
A committee member suggested the need to strengthen efforts to blend all activities, saying that \u201cthe younger generation is also watching.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Two months earlier, in June, the Cabinet had decided upon the country\u2019s \u201cIntegrated Innovation Strategy and Grand Design\u201d as well as the 2024 revised version of the \u201cAction Plan for a New Form of Capitalism.\u201d Both of those promote R&D on a Japanese prototype reactor\u00a0to demonstrate fusion power, following the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":7174,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,1],"tags":[1181,654,1182,187,483],"class_list":["post-7171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry","category-news","tag-fusion-power","tag-iter","tag-ja-demo","tag-mext","tag-qst"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jaif.or.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jaif.or.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jaif.or.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jaif.or.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jaif.or.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7171"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jaif.or.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7171\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7173,"href":"https:\/\/www.jaif.or.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7171\/revisions\/7173"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jaif.or.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jaif.or.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jaif.or.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jaif.or.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}