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November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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Latest News
A wave of new U.S.-U.K. deals ahead of Trump’s state visit
President Trump will arrive in the United Kingdom this week for a state visit that promises to include the usual pomp and ceremony alongside the signing of a landmark new agreement on U.S.-U.K. nuclear collaboration.
Lee C. Cadwallader
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 72 | Number 3 | October 2017 | Pages 461-468
Technical Note | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2017.1330639
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
As fusion researchers look toward the future, there have been discussions on what the plant operation goals should be for a demonstration fusion power plant (DEMO). The U.S. Research Needs Workshop (ReNeW) in 2009 stated that power producers (the companies owning power plants) could not expect an ultimate fusion power plant availability of 80% or more if a DEMO reactor cannot demonstrate a 50% or higher availability. The ReNeW panel also stated that achieving 50% availability with a DEMO plant would be a huge accomplishment. Other recent DEMO design studies have given goals for plant availability as well. This technical note presents historical plant availability values of new technology fission power plants to compare fission achievements with the suggested goals for fusion DEMO plant designs. Demonstration fission plants that met or exceeded 40% average annual availability were generally considered to be successful. These data help to support the goal values that have been put forward in various studies.