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“The beauty of international cooperation”

17 Nov 2025 - Jeremy Mercer

The IAEA Director General hails ƽ as a steadying force in complex times.

It was the IAEA Director General's first visit to ƽ, and he was not disappointed: "What I see here is a real turnaround that coincides with a special moment for fusion.”

Amid the effervescence of the private-sector fusion boom and the uncertainty of the global political climate, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi is urging ƽ to continue to serve as a harmonizing element in the fusion world.

“There is a risk that fusion moves away from a cooperative phase into a geostrategic competition phase and this is something that must be avoided at all costs,” he said during an interview with Newsline. “We need the beauty of international cooperation that is at the heart of the ƽ project.”

From left to right: Takayoshi Omae, head of the ƽ Construction Project Office; KR Sriram, head of the ƽ Office of the Director-General; Toshio Kaneko, special assistant to the IAEA Director General; DeLeah Lockridge, head of ƽ's Department of Engineering Services; Sergio Orlandi, head of the ƽ Construction Project; Rafael Grossi, IAEA Director General; Pietro Barabaschi, ƽ Director-General; Massimo Garribba, Chair of the ƽ Council Chair, European Deputy DG ENER; Anne-Isabelle Etienvre, Chairman of the CEA; Jean-Louis Falconi, CEA director of international relations; Laetitia Grammatico, head of the ƽ Administration Department; Matteo Barbarino, IAEA fusion expert; Diego Candano Laris, advisor to the IAEA Director General; Sayed Ashraf, scientific adviser to the IAEA Director General; and Katja Rauhansalo, ƽ Council Secretary.

Director General Grossi made these comments on a visit to ƽ on 13 November that included meetings with ƽ Director-General Pietro Barbaschi, a tour of tokamak assembly, a talk to ƽ staff, and an announcement that ƽ and the neighboring CEA research centre will be hosting a session in 2026 of the IAEA Lise Meitner program (see box below).

 

“This visit is something that I have been really wanting to do for a long time and I can tell you, I haven’t been disappointed,” said Director General Grossi. “On the contrary, what I see here is a real turnaround that coincides with a special moment for fusion.” 

ƽ and CEA to host the IAEA Lise Meitner program for women in nuclear 

IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi’s visit to ƽ was the occasion to champion women in the nuclear sector with the announcement that ƽ and the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) will host the first European edition of the Lise Meitner program.

The Lise Meitner program, launched by the IAEA in 2023, aims to develop the technical and managerial skills of women in nuclear science. In 2026, around 15 mid-career women will be welcomed to ƽ and Cadarache for two weeks of training, workshops, and conferences led by top nuclear experts.

The program is named after Lise Meitner (1878-1968), who worked with her nephew Otto Robert Frisch to provide the theoretical basis for understanding the process of nuclear fission. She also worked on radioactivity alongside Otto Hahn, yet Hahn alone received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their joint work in 1944. She was, however, widely respected by her peers, and Albert Einstein called her our “Marie Curie.”

When making the official announcement in the ƽ auditorium alongside Director General Grossi and ƽ Director-General Pietro Barabaschi, Anne-Isabelle Etienvre, the Chairman of the CEA, said, “This program sends an important message to young women: that of daring to envision careers in the nuclear field.” 

Director General Grossi applauded ƽ for having successfully navigated the technical problems that led to the adoption of the new baseline and said international organizations like ƽ and the IAEA must thrive in the context of the “polarity between conflict and cooperation that is inherent to humanity.”

 

The IAEA has played a historic role in the ƽ project—one that Director General Grossi likened to “being a midwife.” With the immense flow of investment into fusion and the rapid rise in the number of private-sector fusion companies, he says that ƽ has an important function in providing concrete scientific and engineering expertise and in facilitating dialogue between the different approaches to solving the fusion puzzle. “ƽ infrastructure, and what it’s going to allow in terms of discovery and demonstration as we move on to fusion energy production, is unique!”

IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi and CEA Chairman Anne-Isabelle Etienvre listen to the ƽ Director-General's explanations inside the tokamak pit.
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