DAEJEON < invest Korea

According to Yonhap News,

(Daejeon = Yonhap News) Reporter Park Ju-young — On the morning of the 26th, Daejeon City signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Korea Institute of Fusion Energy (KFE) and Daejeon Techno Park at City Hall to "develop extreme materials for fusion energy and establish related infrastructure."

The agreement was established to facilitate close cooperation between the city and the "Global TOP Strategic Research Group" (Strategic Research Group for Innovative Fusion Divertors in Extreme Environments), a project led by KFE and under the Ministry of Science and ICT.

The project, which has been underway since last year, is set to receive KRW 100 billion in government funding through 2030.

The goal is to secure original manufacturing and material technologies to drastically improve the performance and lifespan of the "divertor," a key component of KSTAR—KFE's fusion device often referred to as the "Korean Artificial Sun."

KSTAR is a domestically developed superconducting fusion research device designed to produce energy by recreating the same fusion reactions as the sun here on Earth.

The divertor is a critical component of KSTAR that enables the stable maintenance of ultra-high-temperature plasma—the fourth state of matter beyond solid, liquid, and gas—for extended periods.

Through this project, infrastructure capable of uating and analyzing divertor performance at an actual scale is expected to be built in Daejeon.

Under the agreement, KFE will carry out national strategic tasks related to the divertors of innovative Korean fusion reactors. Daejeon City will provide administrative support to expand the use of extreme and advanced materials in strategic industries such as fusion, aerospace, defense, and semiconductors. Daejeon Techno Park will provide the site for the infrastructure and support corporate testing, analysis, and uation using its existing material synthesis equipment.

"Innovative divertor technology is a core original technology that determines the stable operation of fusion devices," said Oh Young-kook, President of KFE. "Through this strategic research group project, we will go all out to solidify our technological leadership and lead the global fusion market."

Mayor Lee Jang-woo stated, "Through this agreement, I will provide support so that Daejeon can leap forward as a global outpost for extreme materials research and establish itself as the center of the nation's nuclear fusion industry."

jyoung@yna.co.kr



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Source Text

Source: Yonhap News (March 26, 2026)

** This article was translated from Korean.