French police chief takes in actual dimension of project
21 Feb 2014
Impressed by the ITER worksite, Director-General of the French police force Claude Baland, right (here with ITER Head of Communication Michel Claessens), confided that he would gladly apply for an internship at ITER if he had more time.
As Director-General of the French police force, Claude Baland oversees more than 145,000 active police officers throughout the national territory.
"I've been following the ITER Project closely for many years," he said after having visited the worksite on Thursday, 20 February. "It is a beautiful venture and it was very important for me to see it with my own eyes and take in its actual physical dimension."
Mr Baland's interest in ITER is not that of a national police chief only. As a geography professor, his original profession, he confides that he is fascinated by issues such as how ITER fits into its surrounding territory; what kind of cultural interaction the project generates within its local environment; and what kind of professional, social and cultural practices men and women coming from 35 nations develop.
ITER Director-General Osamu Motojima, Deputy Director-General Carlos Alejaldre and members of the Department for Safety, Quality & Security happily responded to these questions.
Although he is a very busy man, the Director-General of the French police force confided that he would gladly apply for an internship at ITER, if he had more time.