Towards Fusion Energy in the Industry 5.0 and Society 5.0 Context: Call for a Global Commission for Urgent Action on Fusion Energy

This article provides a high-level review of the geopolitical status quo of nuclear fusion energy and outlines a vision for the future against the backdrop of Industry 5.0 and Society 5.0. In 2020, the year of the 75th anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, ITER, the world’s largest fusion experiment, began its machine assembly, and next year, the DEMO (fusion power) stage of ITER planning is formally due to begin. With several countries now engaged in the design of DEMO-phase machines, we stress that a “burning plasma” self-sustaining fusion reaction event will be a critical juncture similar in status to the Trinity Test. In response, urging the need for US geopolitical engagement, we call for a “Global Commission for Urgent Action on Fusion Energy,” to be backed by the International Atomic Energy Agency and International Energy Agency (IEA), along the lines of the existing IEA “Global Commission for Urgent Action on Energy Efficiency.” We see the Commission serving a similar, this time international, role to the 1946 “Acheson-Lilienthal” report for fission and involving a global External Independent Review of the state-of-the art of fusion energy technologies. We suggest major “soft power” co-chairs from the Global West and North and from the Global South, thereby providing a geopolitical pivot which can unlock tens of billions of dollars in funding for multiple technology pathways, create a global regime to safeguard Intellectual Property, accelerate the transition from fossil fuels to a “Future Fusion Economy,” and prevent the geopolitical polarization of fusion energy.