A family reunion

In mid-January 2009, communication between the "old" ITER Headquarters (presently building B81) and the ITER offices located inside the CEA enclosure was made considerably easier by the opening of a Rotogate in the CEA fence—from that moment on, a driving distance of some two kilometres was transformed into a bucolic walk of a couple of hundred metres.

 

Last Friday 16 November, as the last offices on the CEA were being vacated by ITER employees who had been assigned new offices within the ITER site, the Rotogate rotated for the last time.

 

For ITER Director-General Osamu Motojima, the event was significant. "This last passage through the Rotogate is a great opportunity to affirm the ITER Organization's independent responsibility as a nuclear operator." It was also the occasion to express ITER's gratitude toward CEA Chairman Bernard Bigot, CEA-Cadarache Director Maurice Mazière, and Agence Iter France Director Jérôme Pamela, whose "great friendship, contribution and support" will not be forgotten.

 

As the Rotogate turned behind the last ITER staff member (CODAC network administrator Nicolas Pons), a new chapter opened in the history of the project. For the first time since the Joint Work Site opened in Cadarache in December 2005, the whole ITER family was "home at last."