For their economical viability, fusion power plants based on a D-T fuel cycle will have to breed their own tritium in-situ. Yet, tritium breeding blankets are one of the most important and novel technical components in any planned next step devices to follow ITER. Many nations are embarking on dedicated R&D programmes to select tritum breeding blanket concepts which overcome issues, such as feasibility and attractiveness. 

Against this backdrop, the IAEA is launching a series of Technical Meetings on the topic of tritium breeding blankets and associated neutronics.

The objectives of the first Technical Meeting in the series are threefold: 

• Provide a forum for exchanging and discussing technical issues associated to the development and nuclear qualification of tritium breeding blanket technologies;

• Contribute to the establishment of specific guidelines for the qualification of tritium breeding blankets as part of fusion nuclear installations;

• Contribute to harvesting the return on experience from the ITER TBM Program to inform and support the development of breeding blankets for next step fusion facilities.