50 years of controlled nuclear fusion in the European Union

The author presents the history of fusion energy since its official birth in 1955 during the first conference on the peaceful uses of atomic energy to the expectations put on the ITER project. Nuclear fusion became a major component of the newly created European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM). The milestones that were: magnetic mirror machines, pinch versions, stellarators and tokamaks are examined. The construction of the first fusion machines were decisive and gave fusion energy enough momentum to overcome greater and greater technological difficulties. At the scale of the world, major machines that were built like TFTR, Princeton (1974), JET, Culham (1977) or JT60, Tokai (1977), appear like a scientific and necessary strategy towards the demonstration reactor. The ITER project is detailed