°ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¸ßÊÖ

Subscribe options

Select your newsletters:

Please enter your email address:

@

Your email address will only be used for the purpose of sending you the °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¸ßÊÖ Organization publication(s) that you have requested. °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¸ßÊÖ Organization will not transfer your email address or other personal data to any other party or use it for commercial purposes.

If you change your mind, you can easily unsubscribe by clicking the unsubscribe option at the bottom of an email you've received from °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¸ßÊÖ Organization.

For more information, see our Privacy policy.

News & Media

Latest °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¸ßÊÖ Newsline

  • Fusion supply chain | A glimpse into the future for commercial fusion reactors

    Most of the USD 7 billion in investment in private fusion initiatives has gone to companies that are building devices from the ground up. But recently, another [...]

    Read more

  • Outreach | °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¸ßÊÖ @ October science festivals

    Every October, before schools pause for two weeks of holiday, towns and cities in France open their municipal spaces to scientific experts of all stripes who ar [...]

    Read more

  • Image of the week | °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¸ßÊÖ Director-General visits Russia

    The °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¸ßÊÖ Director-General was in Russia last week, meeting with stakeholders and holding technical meetings with colleagues in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. As [...]

    Read more

  • Image of the Week | Sector 5 is on its way

    The first vacuum vessel sector produced in Europe travelled last week between Monfalcone, Italy, and the French port of Fos-sur-Mer. The 440-tonne component had [...]

    Read more

  • Anniversary | °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¸ßÊÖ Document Management system turns 20

    Whatever its nature, every large project generates huge numbers of documents. And when project collaborators operate from different countries, as was the case f [...]

    Read more

Of Interest

See archived entries

Award

A 30-year friendship with China

Some thirty years ago, HT-7, China's first superconducting tokamak, was entering operation and experiencing some issues with its ion cyclotron resonance (ICRH) antenna. As the fusion world was already one tight-knit family, the European Commission dispatched a young plasma physicist to Hefei, in Anhui province, where the Institute of Plasma Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (ASIPP) operated the machine.

Alain Bécoulet, in China in 2006, half-way into a 30-year relationship built on ''warm and confident relationships''. (Click to view larger version...)
Alain Bécoulet, in China in 2006, half-way into a 30-year relationship built on ''warm and confident relationships''.
For Alain Bécoulet, current head of °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¸ßÊÖ engineering (and former head of France's Institute for Magnetic Fusion Research, IRFM, which operates the WEST project), the mission¹ opened a new chapter in his life, marked by multifaceted collaborations, international agreements and, above all, long-lasting personal friendships.

In the Anhui province, friendships that are particularly meaningful are honoured by a special distinction, the "Huangshan Friendship Award." Last week, it was bestowed on Bécoulet in recognition of his 30-year relationship with ASIPP and the part he played in the development of scientific collaborations between the Chinese and European fusion communities.

For Bécoulet, who received another Chinese distinction earlier this year (the Scientific and Technological Cooperation Award of the People's Republic of China), the Friendship medal holds a special value. "It's not just about the formal collaborations we have established between Chinese institutions and the WEST tokamak, or the Sino-French agreement SIFFER, or the CEA-ASIPP partnership ... it is also, and maybe above all, the warm and confident relationships that we developed during these three decades."

In the early 1990s, when Bécoulet went to Hefei to lend a hand to his ASIPP colleagues, °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¸ßÊÖ was a four-partner project that China would not join before a full decade. But the seeds of understanding and collaboration were planted, and for the present °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¸ßÊÖ Engineering Domain Head this is a most precious asset.

 Â¹Bécoulet was accompanied by Bertrand Beaumont, a radio frequency heating expert, now head of the °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¸ßÊÖ Ion Cyclotron section.



return to the latest published articles