Advanced Fusion Materials

The Loop
Rydbergs torg 4, 224 84, Lund, Skåne County, Sweden

This workshop, hosted by Big Science Sweden and the European Spallation Source (ESS), will be the founding event to create a European community for Advanced Fusion Materials.

The aim of this workshop materials roadmap initiative is to investigate material technologies with potential use in fusion power plants. The path forward is to work together with industry, labs, big science organizations and academia to identify critical technology gaps. Setting priorities for innovation driven development in the most critical areas to provide guidelines and support to stakeholders setting up funding and investment schemes for fusion materials projects.

The scope of this workshop will cover the design, processes, fabrication, and testing of advanced materials for nuclear fusion reactors, as well as solutions and opportunities in this field.

The main objectives of this workshop are to:

Identify R&D opportunities for future fusion reactors,
Facilitate the exchange of knowledge,
Foster collaboration and partnerships.

During the event, several break out rooms will be set-up for discussion, with the following topics:

Materials testing and test facilities – Emphasis on testing and evaluation of materials that will be exposed to neutrons, gamma, heat fluxes and various cooling media.
High temperature materials for Tritium breeding – Baseline vs innovations. What concepts for test reactors are realistic for fusion power plants (also next generation fission). Liquid metals or liquid salts containing lithium with low TRL but interesting material combinations.
Plasma facing materials – Materials challenges to survive plasma generated particles and thermal shocks. Alternative materials and configurations.
Structural materials – New composites, ceramics, multilayer materials that can survive decades of operations at relatively high temperature and exposure to variants of coolant medias (synergies with fission).
Heat sinks and shielding materials – Challenges to select shielding materials (and coatings) to protect functional materials and heat sinks providing thermal transfer to coolant median and power generation.

More information can be found in the Advanced Materials Workshop brochure.

The workshop will consist of an in-person meeting in Lund (Sweden) on May 5-6, 2026 (2 days).

There will also be the unique opportunity to visit the European Spallation Source (ESS) in the morning of the 7th of May.

The agenda of the event will be the following:

5 May 2026

08:30-09:00: Registration

09:00-10:30 Plenary 1

Welcome! Big Science Sweden and F4E (Amelie Hallin – Samina Shamsie)
Introduction to the Materials Workshop – Stefan Wikman, Javier Serrano – F4E
ESS Future Capabilities Relevant to Fusion Materials Research - Rikard Linander, Head of Target Division, ESS.
DONES and Fusion Materials Development & Testing – Angel Ibarra, DONES/CIEMAT, Professor Emeretius

10:30-11:00: Coffee “fika”

11:00-12:30: Break out session 1 (5 rooms): Assessment of materials gaps in 5 technical disciplines

12:30-13:30: Lunch

13:30-14:00: Networking session 1

14:00-15:30: Plenary 2 (Facilitators: Amelie Hallin – Samina Shamsie)

EUROFUSION Materials Development Programme – Gerald Pintsuk, FZJ
CERN Materials Development and Qualifications – Ignacio Aviles, CERN
Generation IV – Development and Challenges with Liquid Lead Cooled Reactors, Jakob Oscarsson, Blykalla

15:30-16:00: Coffee “fika”

16:00-17:30: Break out session 2 (5 rooms): Assessment of materials gaps in 5 technical disciplines

6 May 2026

09:00-10:30: Plenary 2 (Facilitators: Amelie Hallin – Samina Shamsie)

Materials exposed to operational conditions (Irradiated EUROFER97, coolant interfaces & corrosion assessment) – Ian McKinley, Martin Bjurholm, Johan Ojerholm, Studsvik
Materials Engineering at ESS: From Verification to Post-Irradiation Examination (PIE) – Hossein Sina
Rapid Design and Development of Metals for Fusion Applications -Moritz Greifu, Jörg Kaspar, Fraunhofer

10:30-11:00: Coffee “fika”

11:00-12:30: Break out session 3 (5 rooms): Assessment of materials gaps in 5 technical disciplines

12:30-13:30: Lunch

13:30-14:00: Networking session 2

14:00-15:30: Break out session 4 (5 Rooms): Prioritization of technology development actions

15:30-16:00: Coffee “fika”

16:00-17:30: Plenary - Presentation of outcome (Facilitators: Amelie Hallin – Samina Shamsie)