On site

Open Doors for ITER families

19 Sep 2022

In a first at ITER, the gates of the monumental worksite opened on Saturday 17 September for a family-only Open Doors Day event, reserved for the families of staff and contractors employed on site by the ITER Organization and the European Domestic Agency.

More than 700 people attended the first-ever ITER Family Open Doors Day event on Saturday 17 September, where sunshine, ice cream and smiles were widely distributed.

Since October 2011, the ITER Organization has been inviting the public in for a closer look at ITER construction.

Organized in association with the European Domestic Agency Fusion for Energy, the traditional Open Doors Days attracts a combination of members of the public at large and ITER staff and contractors eager to share their work environment with families and friends.

But whereas in 2011, the ITER Organization had 471 direct employees, that number has more than doubled since. Adding staff employed on site by Fusion for Energy, as well and construction and assembly contractors, the number of people active daily on the ITER site is now close to 5,000.

It is no wonder, then, that during the last Open Doors Day event in June the 800 available places filled up in less than two hours.

This semester, thanks to a large number of willing volunteers and management support from both organizations, two events were planned—one exclusively for staff and contractors' families, and a second (coming up in October*) for members of the public.

The day was a success. The weather was perfect, the food trucks never ran out of crepes and ice cream, and the "plasmagicians" distributed smiles all around.

See a few scenes from the ITER Family Open Doors Day in the gallery below.

*The date of the public Open Doors Day in October 2022 will be announced soon on the ITER website.

The most impressive view

Of all the impressive vistas that the visitors could take in, the view of the assembly pit was the most remarkable. In this photo, we see that the ITER Tokamak is progressively taking shape, with one massive "sector module" (out of 9) already in place.

Le futur Bâtiment tokamak occupera la plus grande partie du Complexe tokamak. A gauche, l'emplacement du Bâtiment tritium, à droite, celui du Bâtiment diagnostic. Photo: F4E

Fusion made simple and fun

"Plasmagicians" and vacuum experts have developed simple experiments that help explain some of the physics principles at work in the ITER machine. Using marshmallows, commercial plasma lamps, a microwave oven and candles, they make fusion simple and fun.

Physicist or engineer?

Watching a video animation in the Visitors Building, this young boy ponders an existential question: What is the most exciting way to be part of the great fusion quest? Engineering or plasma physics?

Some visitors are also experts

On an Open Doors Day for the families of staff and contractors, chances are that visitors will also be experts, unformally contributing their own personal experience to explain "how things work." Like in this image, with a quick lesson on coil winding in the gallery overlooking the "ring-magnet factory."

International friendships

International projects make for international friendships. These two young girls seem particularly happy to visit the ITER installation together.

And this is how coils are wound ...

The process of winding 12 to 14 kilometres of jacketed cable into a functional superconducting coil is a long and complex one. It takes talent to summarize it and make it accessible to the lay person.