Educating engineers for ITER
As preparations get under way to build the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) at Cadarache, in the south of France, a group of European nuclear-fusion research institutes has come together to create a high-level, specialized training program for the next generation of nuclear-fusion researchers.
The program is organized under the European Commission’s Euratom fusion training scheme, set up a to help to meet the shortage of engineers who specialize in nuclear fusion. Research institutes in Germany, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, the Netherlands and Britain have joined forces under the scheme, to create a training program named Engineering of Optical Diagnostics for ITER (EODI).
EODI will offer up to eight young engineers the chance to gain specialized skills by spending three years working on existing fusion experiments and following relevant training courses. At the end of the program, participants should be well placed to work in the nuclear-fusion field, either as part of the ITER team or in one of the local research and development teams.
The ITER reactor is due to become operational in 2016.
