A planning study for virtual DEMO development in Korea

•The Virtual DEMO planning study proposes an integrated framework, on which a fusion power plant is virtualized and simulated in support of the fusion energy development in Korea and particularly the K-DEMO design activities.•Strategies and directions for the development of Virtual DEMO are proposed considering the Korean national plans to invest on the 4th industrial revolution technologies such as digital twin, artificial intelligence (AI), big data etc.•The Virtual DEMO roadmap consists of 4 development phases (V-KSTAR, V-ITER, V-BBS, V-DEMO) in close connection to the K-DEMO design activities.•The Virtual DEMO project consists of 5 technology groups (tokamak simulations, blanket-BOP simulations, accelerated fusion simulations, enabling technologies, fusion big data) and 1 overarching technology to coordinate and integrate them into a design code of a DEMO reactor.