ITER at the core of the World Nuclear Exhibition

The World Nuclear Exhibition (WNE), the leading event for the global civil nuclear energy community, took place in Paris on 26–28 June 2018. ITER IO and F4E joined forces to showcase the continuous progress of the ITER project – the next important milestone in the way to fusion energy. The new ITER IO exhibit offered a panoramic view of the ITER site and the insides of the tokamak complex, while F4E presented business opportunities and provided specific information to the many companies interested in the project.

This record-breaking third edition covered an area of approximately 25,000 m², with almost 1,000 exhibitors, 20 national pavilions, and 20,000 visitors from all over the world.

The specific F4E workshop on “ITER: the way to fusion energy” counted with a high participation from industry and government representatives. Stavros Chatzipanagiotou, F4E Head of Communication, explained the basics of fusion energy, its potential contribution to the future sustainable energy mix and highlighted the important progress of the ITER project, now steadily on the path to commence first operations in December 2025. Leonardo Biagioni, F4E Head of Contracts & Procurement, presented the business opportunities in the short and medium-term and underlined the importance to exploit fusion technologies for other markets. In the longer-run, F4E aims at creating a European fusion supply chain to ensure that Europe is in a position to be the leader in the future fusion market.

The WNE is a business show par excellence and over the years has confirmed its standing as the “business-to-business” event for the international nuclear energy community. The steady progress of ITER and the great potential of fusion energy are now attracting high interest from companies looking for new business opportunities and for capitalising on the new fusion technologies.