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“The beauty of international cooperation”

17 Nov 2025 - Jeremy Mercer

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

It was standing room only in the auditorium for Director General Grossi's talk at ITER on 13 November.

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 ITER 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 ITER project.”

From left to right: Takayoshi Omae, head of the ITER Construction Project Office; KR Sriram, head of the ITER Office of the Director-General; Toshio Kaneko, special assistant to the IAEA Director General; DeLeah Lockridge, head of ITER's Department of Engineering Services; Sergio Orlandi, head of the ITER Construction Project; Rafael Grossi, IAEA Director General; Pietro Barabaschi, ITER Director-General; Massimo Garribba, Chair of the ITER 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 ITER 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, ITER Council Secretary.

Director General Grossi made these comments on a visit to ITER on 13 November that included meetings with ITER Director-General Pietro Barbaschi, a tour of tokamak assembly, a talk to ITER staff, and an announcement that ITER 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.” 

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

IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi’s visit to ITER was the occasion to champion women in the nuclear sector with the announcement that ITER 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 ITER 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 ITER auditorium alongside Director General Grossi and ITER 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 ITER for having successfully navigated the technical problems that led to the adoption of the new baseline and said international organizations like ITER 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 ITER 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 ITER has an important function in providing concrete scientific and engineering expertise and in facilitating dialogue between the different approaches to solving the fusion puzzle. “ITER 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 ITER Director-General's explanations inside the tokamak pit.
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