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1,300 visitors "at home" at ITER

2 Nov, 2014

Quand les travaux d'aménagement de la plateforme ont commencé, il y a un peu de plus de sept ans, ITER était encore un mystère pour la plupart des habitants de la région.

Depuis, plus de 70 000 visiteurs ont été accueillis sur le site. ITER n'est plus cet « Ovni », qui fascinait autant qu'il inquiétait : pour les habitants de la région, ITER s'inscrit désormais dans la réalité concrète et quotidienne.

jpo 10 2014
Whatever their age or their knowledge of science and technology, the 1,300 visitors to ITER during the Open Doors Day 4 October were able to measure the scale of the project, its challenges and its potential.

This change in the public's perception could be felt, last Saturday, as some 1,300 visitors flocked to the fifth Open Doors Day since 2009.

Visitors now seem "at home" at ITER, more comfortable when asking questions about the science, the technology, the delays and "chances of success" of the project.

Whatever their age or their background they also seem to share in the excitement of this unique scientific endeavour. "Do you really mean that fusion could one day provide an unlimited source of energy?" asked many a visitor.

Available to answer these questions and many others, to comment on the videos and the mockups in the Visitors Centre, and to take participants on a tour of the worksite were 22 ITER staff volunteers.

Explaining ITER to the public is always an enriching experience: physicists are often challenged to answer questions simpler than the ones they had anticipated ... and for this very reason that much more difficult to answer.

The Open Doors Day was also largely covered by the media: France Télévision aired a two-minute piece on the evening news locally and the daily newspaper La Provence ran a full page on the "project that could change the course of history."

On the front page, a large picture showed a young boy pressing his mouth to the display case containing a model of the ITER Tokamak. The title proclaimed: "The public embraces the ITER Project!"