History was made on 12 February 2025 at ITER, as the heads of state of France and India were welcomed on site for a joint visit celebrating scientific and technological collaboration. The long motorcade arrived in front of the Assembly Hall just after 12:30 and with it, a new page of ITER history was written. In the 20 years since the ITER Members had decided to site the project in Cadarache, France—an announcement that resulted in French President Jacques Chirac making a brief visit in June 2005 to meet the team that would be initiating the first project activities—none of the heads of state from the seven Members or the host party France had personally visited the project underway¹.  Greeting President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the entrance of the ITER Assembly Hall, Director-General Pietro Barabaschi said he was proud to welcome them to a “centre of technology innovation,” spurred by the engineering and scientific savoir-faire of the ITER Members.  ITER is also a “model of science diplomacy even in challenging times,” an example for the world “of which we are particularly proud,” he said.In the dramatic setting of the Assembly Hall, approximately 100 people—comprising the official delegations, ITER senior managers, journalists, and security personnel—made their way along a narrow path that led them past massive steel components in various stages of readiness and a jungle of purpose-built tools, some standing over seven stories tall. An order had gone out for a temporary work stop in the building—or it would have been too hard to converse—and the assembly teams stood at attention all along the trajectory.As the heads of state greeted the teams and expressed encouragement, the Director-General and other specialists explained the machine assembly activities visible in the Hall and the scale of the challenges. Director-General Barabaschi also made it a point to stress that during the past year at ITER, the project has systematically met all of its objectives, executing repairs on major components, achieving milestones, and meeting cost performance index targets. “You have come at a good time,” he quipped. “I’m glad you are here.” Prime Minister Modi, President Macron, and National Security Advisor of India Ajit Doval listen to Director-General Pietro Barabaschi's explanations about ITER. In the second row, in the blue hardhat, is Marc Lachaise, Director of Fusion for Energy (F4E). Credit : G. Lesénéchal/ITER Organization India contributes approximately 9% of ITER construction costs, nine-tenths of which is delivered in the form of “in-kind” procurement (components and systems). India’s largest package is the ITER cryostat—a nearly 4,000-tonne stainless steel vacuum pressure chamber. The Indian manufacturer Larsen & Toubro fabricated the segments of the cryostat in India and then shipped them to the ITER site for subsequent assembly into four large sections. Described to Prime Minister Modi as a “magnificent structure” by the ITER Director-General, part of the cryostat was visible during a stop at a viewpoint looking into the tokamak pit. A second part of the cryostat—the top lid—served as a backdrop to the photo taken with 200 members of Indian staff before the heads of state were ushered back into the car by their aides, seeking to keep the visit on schedule.On social media a few hours later, Prime Minister Modi complimented the team working on the ITER project, calling it “a commendable step toward sustainable and limitless clean energy for the future.” The ITER visit came on the heels of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Action Summit, co-hosted in Paris by President Macron and Prime Minister Modi on 10 and 11 February. The two heads of state continued on to Marseille, where together they paid tribute at the Mazargues War Cemetery to Indian soldiers who had lost their lives during World War I, they jointly inaugurated the new Indian Consulate of Marseille, and they visited the control room of CMA CGM, a French shipping and logistics company. A joint statement of Prime Minister Modi’s three-day visit to France was issued on the Elysée website (in French) here. Â¹In July 2020, during ITER’s virtual start-of-assembly celebration, President Macron had delivered an address from Elysée Palace in Paris, while Prime Minister Modi had sent a statement that was read by the Indian ambassador at that time. See the press release issued by the Government of India.See a video of the visit here.See the gallery below for photos of the historic visit.

The visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week brought attention to the vital contributions that India is making to the ITER project, both in terms of industrial expertise and skilled personnel. From early contributions to the field of mathematics—India gave us the number zero and the modern decimal system, for example—to the first conceptualization of the atom … from the invention of chess 1,400 years ago to the first spacecraft to land in the Moon’s south polar region … India has a long and distinguished record in maths, science and engineering.When it joined other nations with fusion programs as part of the ITER project in 2005, it had been operating its first tokamak, Aditya, for six years at the Institute for Plasma Research (IPR). Aditya—now upgraded to Aditya-U—routinely conducts experimentation in support of ITER operation.  India’s domestic fusion program lay the foundation for its participation in ITER and, in turn, participation in ITER over the past 20 years has helped India to advance its expertise in fusion science and technology, as well as in a variety of engineering disciplines, and to train a skilled workforce—all important constitutive elements for a domestic nuclear fusion industry that is capable of supporting nuclear fusion power plants in the future. Major Indian companies—Larsen & Toubro (L&T), Inox India, Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Consulting Engineers, HCL Technologies and others—are supplying ITER components and systems through contracts signed with the Indian Domestic Agency. The cryostat, in-wall shielding for the ITER vacuum vessel, significant contributions to cooling water and cryogenic systems, the diagnostic neutral beam and diagnostics are all part of these in-kind deliveries to the project. Increasingly, Indian companies are also winning direct contracts with the ITER Organization for critical machine assembly activities. Last year Larsen & Toubro, for example, was awarded a contract for port positioning alignment and welding—a scope that includes engineering, qualification and tools, and in-pit welding of vacuum vessel ports and bellows. Aditya is a medium-sized tokamak that has been in operation at the Institute for Plasma Research in Gujarat since 1989. India also makes a significant contribution to the human resources behind the implementation of the ITER project. Some 200 people—staff and ITER Project Associates—are currently working on site, and many more have been trained at ITER over the years through 3- to 5-year assignments. During a previous visit to France in 2019, Prime Minister Modi spoke of signature projects in atomic energy, aerospace and tech that link his country with France, and included ITER in the list. “The only fusion project under construction in the world is in France and India is part of it. A highly capable Indian team is involved in this major scientific venture, one of the most important of this century. When fusion technology becomes available, providing immense quantities of energy for future generations, this achievement will bear the mark of your contribution. Think of the pride that will be felt by every Indian!”On 12 February, Prime Minister Modi was able to address the team members in person, encouraging them in their work and thanking them for their dedication.India news outlets ANI, Radio India and DD News were on site to cover the Prime Minister’s historic visit, which was widely reported across India. When asked in an interview with DD News about the value of India’s input into ITER, Director-General Pietro Barabaschi had the following comment. “What I see from India is a lot of valuable contributions in terms of new ideas. I am very happy with Indian suppliers so far—they are serious and reliable—and such companies will continue to remain engaged and work with us closely because this work of assembly requires not only the workforce but also the ingenuity and the organization of existing large industrial suppliers like the ones you have in India.”India, like other ITER members, is exploring concepts for a demonstration reactor, DEMO, that will test technologies for a fusion reactor. India’s participation in ITER, said the head of the Office of the ITER Director-General KR Sriram to DD News “will help lay the foundation for how the Indian nuclear fusion industry, both private and public, could be foreseen in the future.” Watch the "DD News" interview here.See photos of Prime Minister Modi’s visit to ITER here.

Save the Date! The FuseNet PhD Event 2025 will take place at ITER from 4 to 6 November 2025. The annual PhD Event is organized by the European Fusion Education Network, FuseNet, as a network event. Meet and greet fellow fusion researchers from Europe and expand your network. The event features high-profile keynote speakers, a top-notch scientific program and the much anticipate PechaKucha contest, where students present their research in 20 slides, 20 seconds per slide.  All information will be posted on this page in the coming months.