Fusion for Energy (F4E) is the EU agency responsible for the European contribution to the construction of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). F4E is responsible for the preparation of the European-made components of ITER, the management of the related industrial supply and research contracts, the implementation of the Broader Approach (BA) with Japan, and the management of the research and design work for the post-ITER demonstration fusion power plant (DEMO).| Short name | ITER/F4E |
| Name | International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor/ Fusion for Energy |
| Official website |
https://www.iter.org/ http://fusionforenergy.europa.eu/ |
| Year of foundation | 2006 |
| ESFRI project/landmark | Not related to ESFRI |
| Headquarters | France, Cadarache |
| Number of member countries | Seven-party cooperation |
| Participating countries | China, EU, India, Japan, Russia, South Korea, USA |
| Hungary’s accession | 2007 |
| Partner institutions in Hungary | Centre for Energy Research |
| Public administration representative |
András Siegler F4E Governing Board, Hungarian policy delegate Email: andrassiegler@hotmail.com |
| Professional representative |
Gábor Veres laboratory manager Centre for Energy Research, Fusion Technology Laboratory |
| Membership payments | 2017: EUR 33,200 (≈ HUF 10.5 million) 2018: EUR 37,400 (≈ HUF 12.2 million) 2019: EUR 34,400 (≈ HUF 12 million) 2020: EUR 41,500 (≈ HUF 15 million) |
Benefits of the membership:
Hungarian fusion research and industrial supply currently employ around 80 people, with around 40 FTE human resource allocation. About one third of them are scientific researchers, two thirds are graduate development technicians. 65% of the work is carried out at the Centre for Energy Research (which is a member of the EUROfusion consortium and coordinator of the Hungarian fusion research programme from 2021, and can also perform research on most of the European fusion equipment), with the remaining 35% carried out by domestic SMEs. The work focuses mainly on plasma metrology (diagnostics), plasma physics and certain aspects of reactor technology.
It is important to underline that the volume of domestic industrial, i.e. non-research, supplies has expanded significantly in recent years. In 2018-2019, the country received around EUR 800,000 from co-funded R&D funding schemes through the F4E agency and EUR 1,800,000 under direct ITER industrial contracts.