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The Broader Approach (BA) activities aim to complement the ITER project and to promote the early realization of fusion energy through research, development, and tests of technologies supporting the future demonstration fusion reactor (DEMO). These activities are implemented under the BA agreement, which was signed and ratified in 2007 between Euratom and the Government of Japan. In essence, the BA activities consist of three projects: a) The Satellite Tokamak Programme Project JT-60SA, the world's largest superconducting tokamak until ITER starts, aims to support the assembly, commissioning and preliminary operation of ITER, and carry out demonstration and optimisation of steady-state operation of advanced plasma configurations for DEMO; b) The International Fusion Energy Research Centre (IFERC), which comprises three different sub-projects: the DEMO Design Research and Development Coordination Centre to coordinate design and R&D on materials and components for DEMO, the Fusion Computer Simulation Centre for the simulations of fusion plasmas, the analysis of experimental data, modelling of ITER operation, and contribution to the design of DEMO, and the Remote Experimentation Centre to allow scientists to participate remotely in fusion experiments from its control room in Japan; c) The Engineering Validation and Engineering Design Activities for the International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility (IFMIF/EVEDA) focused on the design and validation of key components needed for the future Fusion Neutron Source facilities to characterize materials envisioned for DEMO. After 13 years of fruitful collaboration, Euratom and Japan launched the second phase of the BA activities in 2020. It is focused on exploiting and enhancing the facilities that have already been built and on working more closely than ever with ITER as the latter advances towards the first plasma. This paper will present a synthesis of the achievements already obtained thanks to the three BA projects and will address the future developments planned in 2023 and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a fusion reactor, the plasma based on a deuterium-tritium reaction generates high energy neutron flux interacting with the materials of the plasma facing components. In order to study the irradiated behavior of these materials, the International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility (IFMIF) was conceived to generate these fusion relevant neutrons through d -Li stripping source. IFMIF is presently in its Engineering Validation and Engineering Design Activities (EVEDA) phase under the Broader Approach agreement signed between EURATOM and Japanese Government in 2007. This agreement mandates the IFMIF/EVEDA project to validate the design of the different systems of IFMIF and to produce an integrated engineering design of IFMIF, together with the data necessary for future decisions on its construction and operation. While the Engineering Validation Activity (EVA) of the Lithium Target Facility and the Test Facility was completed by constructing prototypes, the EVA of the Accelerator Facility with the Linear IFMIF Prototype Accelerator (LIPAc) is still on-going at the Rokkasho Fusion Institute, Japan. This paper overviews the achievements in the previous phase ended on 31 March 2020 and the progress in the current phase to complete the commissioning of the LIPAc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

LIPAc is the Linear IFMIF Prototype Accelerator developed within the framework of the IFMIF project under the Broader Approach (BA) agreement signed between EURATOM and the Japanese Government in 2007. The IFMIF accelerator aims to provide an accelerator-based D-Li neutron source to produce high intensity neutron fluxes with appropriate energy spectrum in order to characterize materials envisioned for future fusion reactors. Because the IFMIF accelerator has to reach unprecedented performances, the feasibility is being tested through the design, manufacturing, installation, commissioning and testing activities of a 1:1-scale prototype accelerator, namely LIPAc, from the injector to the first cryomodule together with the High Energy Beam Transport line and the High Power Beam Dump. After outstanding results obtained in 2019, the LIPAc project has entered 2020 in the preparation of the third commissioning stage, i.e., validation in continuous-wave mode of the complete accelerator up to 5 MeV with its final beam dump. The validation until the nominal energy of 9 MeV will be made after the completion of cryomodule assembly. After a brief overview of the goals already achieved in the framework of the IFMIF/EVEDA program, this paper will present a synthesis of the results that have been obtained so far with the LIPAc accelerator as well as the future developments planned beyond 2020. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]