Dutch Fusion Day, Friday 9 May 2025
1 hour
Walk-in
2.5 hours
Presentations
Presentations covering the business, research and governmental perspective. Speakers include:
- Dr. Alex Creely, Director of Tokamak Operations at Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS).
- Twan van Erp, Policy Officer at the European Commission.
- Klaas de Boer, Chairman of the Board of General Fusion.
1 hour
Networking lunch
2.5 hours
Parallel sessions
Three interactive parallel sessions, where you delve deeper into either Materials in Extreme Conditions, System and Control Engineering, or Fission-Fusion Synergies. The sessions will be led by:
- Dr. Thomas Morgan (DIFFER), will lead the Materials in Extreme Conditions session
- Prof. Maarten Steinbuch (TU/e), will lead the System and Control Engineering session
- Dr. Beata Tyburska-Pueschel (DIFFER), will lead the Fission-Fusion Synergies session
1 hour
Closing
We close this second Dutch Fusion Day with a panel discussion and plenary feedback from the parallel sessions.
1 hour
Drinks
Throughout the day, there will be ample of opportunities to network, during lunch, breaks, and closing drinks. During these networking moments, you can also get acquainted with eight selected support organisations at our Market Square that help to speed up the realisation of fusion.
Join the Dutch Fusion Day 2025: engage, explore and innovate!
Speakers
Alex Creely - Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS)
Alex Creely is the Chief Engineer of the ARC conceptual design project at Commonwealth Fusion Systems, leading technical aspects of the design of the world’s first fusion power plant. Creely also leads the Tokamak Operations groups within the SPARC project, preparing the tools and team for operation of SPARC and optimizing the path to net energy production. Creely earned a Bachelor of Science and Engineering in Mechanical Engineering from Princeton University and a PhD in Applied Plasma Physics from MIT before joining CFS.
Title of presentation: Commonwealth Fusion Systems and the Path to Commercial Fusion Energy
Commonwealth Fusion Systems, a commercial fusion company based in the US, is currently building the SPARC tokamak demonstration plant, aiming for net fusion energy in 2027, and is in the early stages of designing the 400 MWe ARC fusion power plant, aiming for operation in the early 2030s.
Twan van Erp - The European Commission
Twan works as Directors’ assistant in the European Commission, in the department for Research and Innovation, in the office of the director for Clean Planet. His files include the Euratom Research and Training Programme, which supports research and innovation on fission and fusion. He has an active role in delivering the first EU Fusion Strategy.
Title of presentation: Towards an EU Fusion Strategy
The European Commission is preparing an EU Fusion Strategy. This presentation will focus on all the current initiatives at EU level to support the development of fusion energy in the EU, that are leading to the first EU Fusion Strategy.
Klaas de Boer - General Fusion
Klaas de Boer is the independent chairman of General Fusion. As a physicist by training, he was one of the first venture capitalists to invest in a private fusion company in 2009, when he was Managing Partner of Entrepreneurs Fund. Over the 15 years since that first investment, initially as investor director and since 2020 as independent chair he has seen the private fusion industry emerge and evolve. After nearly 25 years in venture capital and entrepreneurship, Klaas currently holds a portfolio of board and advisory roles as well as several angel investments. He started his career with McKinsey & Company, and holds an MBA from INSEAD and a MSc in Applied Physics from Delft.
Title of presentation: Investing in Commercialising Fusion
The talk will cover three main topics: 1. Personal perspective on investing in commercialising fusion starting from the early days of General Fusion. 2. General Fusion’s unique approach to commercialising fusion. 3. Ways to think about investing in fusion today.