Development of Strategic Establishment of Technology Bases for a Fusion DEMO Reactor in Japan

The strategic establishment of technology bases required for the development of a fusion demonstration reactor (DEMO) has been discussed by joint endeavors throughout the Japanese fusion community. The mission of Fusion DEMO is to demonstrate the technological and economic feasibility of fusion energy. The basic concept of Fusion DEMO has been identified and the structure of technological issues to ensure the feasibility of this DEMO concept has been examined. The Joint-Core Team consisting of experts from the Japanese fusion community including industry has pointed out that DEMO should be aimed at steady power generation beyond several hundred thousand kilowatts, availability which must be extensible to commercialization, and overall tritium breeding sufficient to achieve fuel-cycle self-sufficiency. The necessary technological issues and activities have been sorted out along with 11 identified elements of DEMO, such as superconducting coils, blanket, divertor, and others. These will be arranged within a time line to lead to the Japanese fusion roadmap.