A strategic plan of Korea for developing fusion energy beyond ITER

Since Korea joined ITER as Korea was developing a fully super-conducting tokamak, KSTAR, the national plan for developing fusion energy was renewed and focused on a clear mission – developing a technological self-reliant program for a fusion demonstration device. A new technical roadmap was developed toward self-reliant technologies for constructing a fusion power plant in a similar time window as in the EU, Japan and the US. This looks tough and formidable but Korea could take advantage of their well-established nuclear technologies in power plant design, construction, and operation. The government and the legislature recognized the importance of this effort by establishing a special law for supporting it practically and for giving it a high priority in their R&D agenda. Under this favorable environment, various scenarios for finding the most effective and efficient path to achieve the goal were reviewed and some of the features of this review will be presented.