On August 3rd, Executive Director Dr. Thawatchai Onjun of the Thailand Institute of Nuclear Technology(TINT) visited the Korea Institute for Fusion Energy(KFE) with a delegation to discuss Korea-Thailand cooperation in fusion energy research. Board Chairman Dr. Weerapong Pairsuwan of PMU-B(Program Management Unit for Human Resources for Institutional Development, Research and Innovation)-a funding agency under Thailand’s Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation of Thailand(MHESI)-also joined with a delegation, allowing for a deeper discussion into possible areas of cooperation between the two nations.

A researcher from TINT provided an introduction to Thailand Tokamak-1(TT-1) which was recently completed. KFE and TINT explored various ways to utilize each institute’s experimental fusion reactors KSTAR and TT-1 to conduct cooperative research projects and engage in personnel exchanges. In good spirits, both institutes agreed to sign an MOU to form a basis for future research cooperation.

TINT has invited researchers from KFE to the ASEAN School Workshop which is planned for January 2024. The ASEAN School is a workshop that invites overseas experts to provide lectures to 100 young researchers from ASEAN countries and has been ongoing for 10 years. 

Towards the end of the discussions, both institutes agreed to seek out a cooperative framework that will allow for more efficient cooperative projects in the future with further plans to include Japan and China into the framework.