What is EFDA?

Magnetic confinement fusion research in Europe is aimed at demonstrating that nuclear fusion is a viable future energy option. Achieving this aim requires a sustained, long-term and large scale research effort, which would be impossible to sustain for any single European country. That is why all the Member states of the European Union collaborate in a single European research programme, which is coordinated by the European Commission. The Swiss Federation is also part of this programme.

At the European level, the so-called EURATOM Treaty is the international legal framework under which Member States cooperate in the fields of nuclear fission and fusion research. Fusion research organisations in the Member states have so-called "Contracts of Association" with the European Commission (which represents Euratom), in which the long-term commitments and work plans are laid down. This has lead to a research programme that is coordinated and integrated on a European level. Named after the Contracts of Association, the national fusion research organisations and institutions are known as Associations.

In 1999, the European Fusion Development Agreement (EFDA) was created to provide a framework between European fusion research institutions and the European Commission to strengthen their coordination and collaboration, and to participate in collective activities.

Between 1999 and 2007 EFDA was responsible for the exploitation of the Joint European Torus, the coordination and support of fusion-related research & development activities carried out by the Associations and by European Industry and coordination of the European contribution to large scale international collaborations, such as the ITER-project.

2008 has brought a significant change to the structure of the European Fusion Programme. The change was triggered by the signature of the ITER agreement at the end of 2006. The ITER parties had agreed to provide contributions to ITER through legal entities referred to as "Domestic Agencies". Europe has fulfilled its obligation by launching the European Domestic Agency called "Fusion for Energy", also called F4E, in March 2007.

With the appearance of F4E EFDA´s role has changed and it has been reorganised. A revised European Fusion Development Agreement entered into force on 1 January 2008 focuses on research coordination with two main objectives: to prepare for the operation and exploitation of ITER and to further develop and consolidate the knowledge base needed for overall fusion development and in particular for DEMO, the first electricity producing experimental fusion power plant being built after ITER.

EFDA activities

To reach its objectives, EFDA has the following group of activities:

. Collective use of JET, the world´s largest fusion experiment, which is located near Oxford (United Kingdom).

The interior of the Joint
European Torus

. Reinforced coordination of fusion physics and technology research and development in EU laboratories

The European Fusion Community

. Training and carrier development of researchers, promoting links to universities and carrying out support actions for the benefit of the fusion programme

. EU contributions to international collaborations outside F4E