Greater Aix Community Council visits

For many years, Maryse Joissains-Masini has been an ITER fan. As a member of the French Parliament, the Mayor of Aix-en-Provence and President of the Greater Aix-en-Provence Community Council (CPA) she was instrumental in mobilizing political and financial support for the project.

On Wednesday 13 May, Mayor Joissains-Masini and a party of some 60 CPA officials visited the ITER site and attended several presentations given by Kaname Ikeda, ITER Organization Director-General; François Gauché, Director of Agence Iter France (AIF); Jean Therme, Head of CEA-Grenoble and CEA Director for Research and Technology; and Serge Kovacs, Deputy Director of CEA-Cadarache in charge of development.

"ITER's economic benefits have come faster than we expected," said Mayor Joissains-Masini after listening to Director-General Ikeda's and AIF Director Francois Gauché's presentations.

The participants were then introduced to the "Energy Valley" project, a prospect project for CEA-Cadarache presented by the CEA Deputy Director Serge Kovacs, and also to the highly successful experience conducted in the Grenoble area where collaboration between research, universities and local governments has been stimulating industrial development for more than 40 years.