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FR
ITER Open Doors Day

“Even better in real life”

30 Mar 2026

One of the ways ITER shares knowledge about science and fusion is to welcome the general public to the site twice a year to take tours with experts and see the tokamak.

ITER welcomes visitors to the worksite as part of its mission to promote an understanding of fusion energy.

Driven by his love for physics and engineering, 17-year-old Jake Makarov decided to use his programming skills to make a series of interactive web simulations and games so people could learn more about fusion energy and the ITER tokamak. But even though he had spent dozens of hours creating virtual fusion adventures, it didn’t prepare him for seeing ITER.

“The scale of the place is just insane,” says Jake, who is in his final year of high school at Lycée Saint-Cricq in Pau, France, and hopes to attend the INSA Toulouse engineering school for university. “I had seen the pictures of ITER on TV when I was designing my computer simulations, but this was very different. It’s even better in real life.”

Jake was one of nearly 700 visitors who toured ITER on Saturday 28 March for the latest edition of Open Doors Day, the free event that has been organized since 2011. Guests were able to explore the visitor centre and participate in experiments and presentations given by members of ITER staff. There were also activities organized by fusion and science enthusiasts from outside ITER, including the RadioVolts amateur fusion community and the local chapter of the Les Petits Débrouillards tech education association.

Jake Makarov applied his programming skills to create educational games about virtual tokamaks; here, he sees one in real life for the first time.

But the big event was the tour of the ITER Assembly Hall and the opportunity to see the tokamak itself from a special visitor viewpoint. With four of the nine sector modules now installed in the tokamak pit, the view was especially spectacular for visitors to this edition of Open Doors Day.

“This event helps fulfil our mission to share news of our progress and it builds people’s trust and enthusiasm for fusion,” says Julie Marcillat, ITER’s Local Outreach Coordinator who has been organizing Open Doors Day since 2013. “It’s also a good opportunity for the ITER staff members who volunteer as guides to share their passion for fusion. It’s really rewarding to see people with stars in their eyes after their visit.”

This same spirit of sharing knowledge is what inspired Jake Makarov to create his web simulations. You can try Fusion Forge, Fusion Reactor Simulator, or Tokamak Core Assembly for yourself.

See some scenes from the day in the gallery below.

Watch a short video of the day here.

2026-03-28 - Fourteen bus tours were organized during the day, in English and French. Here the guide is pointing out the cryostat lid, stored in a protective cocoon on the platform.
2026-03-28 - The guides positioned along the way are specialists in their field, able to answer any visitor question.
2026-03-28 - One of the highlights of the walking tour is walking through the Assembly Hall, which is filled with giant tools and strangely shaped pieces of steel. Guides, as well as posters and videos, make the incomprehensible comprehensible.
2026-03-28 - Workers look on as visitor's tour ITER; even on Open Doors Day, assembly moves forward.
2026-03-28 - An ITER guide directs visitors' attention to one of the two sector sub-assembly tools in the Assembly Hall where sector modules are being prepared to be transferred into the tokamak pit.
2026-03-28 - ITER Director-General Pietro Barabaschi helps a young visitor get closer to the interesting things to see.
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