Council president renews his commitment to ITER
13 Jul 2012
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Robert Arnoux
Amidst a forest of microphones and TV cameras, Mr Gu茅rini, president of the Bouches-du-Rh么ne Council, communicated his enthusiasm for the ITER Project.
Ten years ago, as Cadarache was considering an early bid to host ITER, the local governments of the Provence-Alpes-C么te-d'Azur (PACA) region proposed to participate in the financing of the project. The Regional Council PACA, the six 诲茅辫补谤迟别尘别苍迟蝉 that form the Region, and the Greater Aix-en-Provence Community agreed to allocate in total EUR 467 million to the construction of ITER over a period of ten years.
Jean-No毛l Gu茅rini, president then and now of the Bouches-du-Rh么ne Council (Conseil g茅n茅ral), was among the local politicians who believed ITER was, in his own words, "a unique opportunity to boost the economic development of our region." In 2002, the assembly he presided voted an envelope of EUR 152 million for the construction of the ITER Project.
The trigger for this decision was an address by Ren茅 Pellat, French Commissioner to Atomic Energy at the time, to the Bouches-du-Rh么ne Council on 22 June 2002 in Marseille. "Without you," he told Mr Gu茅rini and the assembled councilmen, "we won't be able to have ITER."
On the occasion of Mr Gu茅rini's visit to ITER on Friday 13 July, Director-General Motojima chose to feature a picture of the 2002 meeting in the presentation he gave to the president, the 17 councilmen that accompanied him and a party of some twenty journalists.
The photo of the 2002 meeting that Director-General Motojima included in his presentation brought back strong memories ...
For Mr Gu茅rini, it was a charged moment emotionally. Ten years have passed but his commitment to ITER remains as strong as it was then. And the figures of the economic benefits for the Region that J茅r么me Pamela, director of Agence Iter France, presented to him confirmed the accuracy of his conviction: since work began on the ITER site in 2007, companies based in the Bouches-du-Rh么ne 诲茅辫补谤迟别尘别苍迟 have been awarded EUR 454 million worth of contracts鈥攁 serious boost, as Mr Gu茅rini had anticipated, to the local economy.
As the visitors stood in the Tokamak Seismic Pic amidst a forest of microphones and TV cameras, Mr Gu茅rini strongly expressed his enthusiasm for the project. "I know you are working for the benefit of the future generations and I hope that the media that have gathered here will be able to convey this message. As for me, I will continue to support your fantastic project as I have done, tirelessly, for the past ten years."