F4E reaches out to French youth

They are the future citizens and taxpayers. Professionally driven, eager to challenge the status quo, willing to engage and play their part in solving Europe’s challenges. A group of 15 students from different schools located in Nantes, France, participated in this year’s BRIO programme and visited F4E to learn more about Europe’s energy strategy, the way fusion energy fits within the EU’s Strategic Energy Technology plan, the scope of the ITER project and its progress.

The BRIO programme, which received praise from France’s Ministry of Education and Research, aims to foster partnerships between public and private bodies in order to inspire students from modest backgrounds to pursue academic and business studies in France’s universities and its prestigious Grandes Ecoles.

The ongoing debate about our global energy mix and the EU’s objective to lead by example with the implementation of its 2020 Energy Strategy, generated an interesting discussion amongst all students and offered them the possibility to find out how much the average European consumes, which sectors consume most and what kind of investment is required in modernising our energy grid.

Aris Apollonatos together with Jesus Izquierdo and Marc Simon presented the different energy scenarios for Europe, elaborated on the fusion breakthroughs, explained the mission of F4E and unveiled with the help of clips the latest progress from the ITER site.

Apart from declaring their enthusiasm for fusion energy, the students expressed the wish to find out more about the ITER construction roadmap and the deployment of fusion technology in commerce.

Once the possibility of visiting the ITER site was also put on the table, a handful of them started considering the prospect of a career in the energy sector or in the field of research and development.