Ambrogio Fasoli

Ambrogio Fasoli

Title: “Fusion Energy and the European Path to Power Plants”

Abstract: One of the crucial challenges for humanity is to develop a clean source of energy that is available to all and compatible with sustainable development. Fusion, the energy source of stars, has enormous potential to help us meet this challenge. Fusion research is a virtuous example of globalisation, the pinnacle of which is ITER, the project that will demonstrate its scientific and technological feasibility. In parallel with ITER, we are focusing on the last leg of the research journey to develop fusion power plants capable of providing electricity along with renewable energy. The European roadmap provides a holistic view covering all aspects and the remaining challenges that need to be tackled before developing a fusion power plant. The most important elements of the European fusion roadmap are ITER, the DEMO demonstration plant and the IFMIF-DONES neutron source for testing and validating materials. In the rapidly changing international fusion landscape, the EUROfusion Consortium is adapting its programme to support ITER, as well as make DEMO a reality at the fastest possible time scale. This can be accomplished by deploying an R&D and design programme that is partly overlapping with ITER operation, in particular concerning the development of the breeding blanket, to optimise the chances of success of DEMO and allow an earlier rollout of fusion power plants by involving industries in Public-Private Partnerships, and by benefiting from the lessons learned from all steps of the ITER developments.

Bio: Professor Ambrogio Fasoli is the Programme Manager (CEO) with the European Consortium for Fusion Energy, EUROfusion, the Director of the Swiss Plasma Center at EPFL, and the Delegate to the Provost of EPFL. Ambrogio Fasoli, an honorary member of the American Physical Society, studied at the University of Milan and obtained his PhD at EPFL. Then, after conducting experiments on the European JET tokamak in the United Kingdom, he became a professor at MIT, in the US, where he worked from 1997 to 2001, before being appointed at EPFL. From 2014 through 2020, he was the Editor-in-Chief of the Nuclear Fusion journal of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Affiliation: Swiss Plasma Center, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne.