How IAEA databases help advance research towards the commercial use of fusion

The promise of harnessing nuclear fusion's abundant energy potential through commercial fusion requires a better understanding of plasmas — superheated ionized gases — and the development of high-performance reactor materials. By supporting scientists studying plasma behaviour, and modelling the properties of materials used in fusion energy research, IAEA databases are helping to advance research towards eventual energy production on a commercial scale. Central to developing fusion energy is achieving and then maintaining the extreme conditions needed for 'fusion ignition' — the point at which a fusion reaction is sustained by its own generated energy. This requires the reaction's plasma fuels to be confined in a space for long enough to allow fusion to develop and heat itself to self-sufficiency.