Record participation in a changing landscape

ITER Business Forum in Marseille

Record participation in a changing landscape

28 Apr 2025

The International Business Forum, which aims at connecting ITER and industry, was established in 2007 when preparation work was just beginning on the ITER platform in southern France. In the nearly two decades since, the event has expanded its reach, bringing together more companies and featuring greater diversity in terms of company size, geographical origin and expertise. Organized by Agence Iter France (AIF), an agency of the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), the eighth edition on 23-25 April in Marseille, France, attracted record attendance: 1,200 participants representing 630 companies.

Following a six-year interruption due, among other causes, to the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, the eighth edition of the ITER Business Forum held in Marseille, France, on 23-25 April attracted record attendance: 1,200 participants representing 630 companies. Large or small, European companies accounted for 20% of the total.

For different reasons, foremost among them the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, the ITER Business Forum (IBF) had not convened for the past six years. “We missed you,” said AIF Director Fabrice Raynal in his welcome address to the participants. The 2025 edition intervenes at a critical juncture in project history. “In 2022, the project was in serious difficulty,” acknowledged ITER Director-General Pietro Barabaschi to the crowd. “Today, the outlook is different. We had a record rate of execution in 2024, the faulty components are now repaired, a new matrixed organization has been set up, and by assembling a sector module in 6 months instead of 18 previously we have made the impossible possible.” The revised project Baseline promises to “rapidly deliver substantive research.” All of this, he insisted, thanks to “all the people that use their hands and turn financing into reality.”

“In 2022, the project was in serious difficulty,” acknowledged ITER Director-General Pietro Barabaschi in his opening presentation. “Today, the outlook is different.”

And there is still a lot of work to be done: ITER presently has 1,300 ongoing contracts with more than 600 companies for a total value of EUR 2.7 billion. Since January, 90 new contracts have been signed for a cumulative value of EUR 180 million. “Massive systems, such as tooling and diagnostics, are still to be delivered,” says Mack Stanley, the head of the ITER Procurement Division.

IBF is the place where long-time ITER partners can keep abreast of the latest project developments, rub shoulders with prospective contractors from different horizons, share experience and establish partnerships. “Most people in the industry world know about us and our present status,” says Stanley. “I think we have been pretty successful in removing the ‘mystery’ that surrounded the project.”

IBF is also an opportunity for companies to engage in the longer-term. For one recently established startup, the hope is to contribute to ITER’s procurement of helium, which is presently supplied by Qatar. Nuclear Valley, a French industrial hub, has established a “Tritium Club” that aims to be part of the great tritium challenge that conditions the future of fusion.

Whether planned or impromptu, “Business to business,” person-to-person meetings are at the core of the business forum’s dynamics.

The international event reflected one of the major changes that has affected the fusion landscape in recent years. Six years ago, when the last IBF was held in Antibes, France, private fusion ventures were unheard of; this year in Marseille their participation was significant. ITER had deliberately scheduled the second edition of the Private Sector Fusion Workshop back-to-back with IBF so that participants could attend both events. “Embrace and engage,” is how Pietro Barabaschi described ITER’s approach to the private ventures. “The benefit is mutual,” he said. Public-private collaboration will help “document dead ends” and avoid “slipping on the same banana peels…”

Another important feature of the 2025 edition of IBF was the strong presence of small- and medium-sized businesses. “These companies have strong and sometimes very specific expertise in niche technologies,” explains Eve-Mary Ries, the head of the ITER Industrial Committee and organizer of the event. “Small companies have often felt that it is difficult to connect to ITER. What is happening here proves that this perception is a thing of the past.”

Whether held in Nice, Manosque, Toulon, Washington, Antibes, Avignon or Seoul, the ITER Business Forum has been instrumental in creating mutual understanding between ITER and industry, and in establishing, over 18 years of existence, a truly global “fusion ecosystem.”

Local authorities and representatives of Agence Iter France, the World Nuclear Exhibition, ITER Organization and the ITER Domestic Agencies are on stage following the opening of the event.

Meeli Otsa, technical executive assistant to the ITER Director-General, was invited to share her experience as an Estonian living in Provence.

The heads or representatives of the ITER Domestic Agencies are pictured seated during a presentation made by DeLeah Lockridge, head of the ITER Engineering Services Department.

The eighth edition of the ITER Business Forum , held in Marseille, France, on 23-25 April, attracted record attendance: 1,200 participants representing 630 companies.

Mack Stanley, head of the ITER Procurement Division, thinks the project “has been pretty successful in removing the ‘mystery’ that surrounded it.”

The ITER Business Forum is also an opportunity for companies to position themselves for the future. At Nuclear Valley, a French industrial hub, they have recently established a “Tritium Club.”

The Korean Fusion Innovation Alliance was launched last year to achieve the early realization of fusion energy.

The stand of ITER-Japan.

Narinderpal Singh (left), senior project manager at ITER India, and ITER’s Biswanath Sarkar (from the back) are at the ITER India stand.

In the exhibition area, visitors stopped by Fusion for Energy’s booth to learn more about the European Domestic Agency’s upcoming calls.

For ITER global logistics provider DAHER, the presence at IBF of the representatives from all ITER Domestic Agencies offered an opportunity to celebrate the collective accomplishment of transporting and delivering strategic ITER components. Fourth from right is Patrick Daher, the group’s president.

Assystem has been an ITER partner since 2008.

Switzerland, whose companies have earned important contracts with ITER in the past, will be back in Euratom on 1 January 2026 and eligible once again to compete.