Pascal Garin nominated IFMIF-EVEDA Project Leader

The Deputy Director of the Agence ITER France and former leader of the European ITER Site Studies, Pascal Garin, has been nominated Leader of the IFMIF-EVEDA project.

Dr. Pascal Garin

The Engineering Validation and Engineering Design Activities (EVEDA) of the International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility (IFMIF) is part of the Broader Approach Agreement between the EU and Japan. IFMIF will be an accelerator-based neutron irradiation facility that will focus on developing and characterising fusion reactor materials. The facility’s key aim is to provide intense high energy neutrons with a sufficient irradiation volume to enable the realistic testing (in terms of intensity and duration) of candidate materials and components for use in a demonstration reactor plant and in future fusion plants. IFMIF will thus play an essential role in the development of future fusion reactors.

The EVEDA phase of IFMIF will be jointly conducted by Europe and Japan, the location of the Joint Team being Rokkasho, Japan. The validation process consists of the design, manufacturing and test of three prototypes: the low energy part of one of the two accelerators, the lithium target and the test facilities, in particular to simulate in realistic conditions for the future materials samples. The budget for the project amounts to 150 million Euro for the EVEDA programme and one billion Euro for the construction of IFMIF. Thirty people (16 professionals and 14 support staff) will support Pascal Garin in getting the project started.

By May this year, the infrastructure in Japan should be ready for the team to take up work, and Pascal Garin plans to move in June. “Even though I am going away, it is like coming back”, the 50 year old physicist said. After having operated in the realm of politics in recent years, Garin says he is glad to finally come back to science and to have been chosen as leader of the IFMIF project.

Until he leaves CEA in sunny Provence, Pascal Garin is eagerly learning Japanese. The language - one of the many challenges Pascal Garin will have to face.