Ángel Ibarra, center, at the fourth meeting of the executive committee, last fall in Granada.
A new country is set to join the IFMIF Dones project in the coming weeks. While the final details of the agreement are being finalized, the Consortium—comprising Croatia and Spain, with Italy’s collaboration—will sign an agreement with a new state on May 19.
This signing will coincide with the groundbreaking ceremony of the major scientific infrastructure, an event that will be attended by the Minister of Science, Innovation, and Universities, Diana Morant. The following day, May 20, will mark the fifth meeting of the particle accelerator’s executive committee, a biannual gathering that will bring together delegates from 17 countries and international organizations.
Negotiations are ongoing to finalize the new member’s inclusion, with several countries in the final stages of the process. The two most advanced candidates, with whom intensive work has been conducted in recent months, are Germany and Japan. All indications suggest that one of these two states will become the project’s new member. “Work is underway” to finalize the incorporation, Aguilar emphasized.
The executive committee meeting on May 20, the fifth edition held in Granada, will be attended by representatives from 17 countries: Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine, and Spain, which will host the event this time.
Croatia and Spain are partners in the project, with Italy also collaborating. Representatives from the European Commission—expected to make a significant investment in the project—and international organizations in the field of fusion energy, such as Euratom, Eurofusion, and Fusion for Energy, will also be present.
The committee will allow the partners—Croatia and Spain—to showcase the project’s progress to the other participants and welcome the new country that will have signed its collaboration with IFMIF-DONES the day before. The groundbreaking ceremony for the building that will house the particle accelerator in Escúzar will also be significant. Auxiliary buildings are already under construction in the area.
New Materials
The infrastructure will feature a large-scale liquid lithium circuit and a high-irradiation testing area, along with auxiliary systems. All of this is designed to test new and innovative materials that will be used in future fusion power plants, where the process that occurs in stars to generate energy will be recreated. This is one of the key initiatives aimed at overcoming the current dependence on fossil fuels.
The IFMIF-DONES — short for International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility – Demo Oriented Neutron Source — is a unique neutron source in the world, which, in addition to facilitating the development of materials for future nuclear fusion plants, will also benefit other scientific, technological, and industrial sectors. It is expected that the Granada-based accelerator will pave the way for a new generation of high-power accelerators for multidisciplinary R&D, according to a recent written statement by the Government of Spain to Congress.
The same document notes that companies participating in tenders for equipment and facilities like IFMIF-DONES “gain highly valuable knowledge to develop their own capabilities”, which, in the government’s view, allows them to expand their business lines in a field like fusion — a sector that, in the medium to long term, will see high demand for such technologies.
IFMIF-DONES is an international facility currently involving Spain (covering 50% of the construction cost and 10% of operational costs) and Croatia (5%), along with Italy, which has signed a memorandum of understanding. The European Union is expected to formally join in the coming months through Fusion for Energy, which plans to contribute €200 million once the major contributions are confirmed, according to the organization. Germany and Japan are anticipated to become the next partners in this major project.
Currently, the UGR-DONES building, owned by the University of Granada, is already operational. In 2024, the offices previously located on Gran Vía were moved to this facility. Several key milestones in the construction of the accelerator are expected in 2025. One will be the laying of the first stone of the large hall that will house the accelerator. Another major step will be the launch of administrative buildings and upcoming procurement processes planned for the coming months.
The estimated construction and commissioning budget for IFMIF-DONES — which occupies a 100,000 square meter plot in the Industrial, Technological, and Innovation Area (Citai) in Escúzar — is around €700 million, a figure from a couple of years ago that may vary once construction begins. Additionally, the operational cost will be €50 million annually over the lifetime of the facility. The project is expected to create more than a thousand jobs in Granada alone, 400 of which will be highly skilled scientific and technical personnel from around the world.
Also in May
In addition to the executive committee meeting and the groundbreaking ceremony, May will also host the third R+DONES forum, scheduled for May 29 and 30. It is presented as a “meeting point for all stakeholders in the Spanish R&D&I system” interested in investing in innovative technologies that will help make the construction of the accelerator possible.