From March 2 to 6, 2026, IRFM organized the second edition of its training program for tokamak operators (also known as “Session Leaders”), open to its international partners. This program aims to recruit future Session Leaders for WEST, while also contributing to the training of operators for other fusion devices around the world.
This edition brought together 20 participants from various countries: the United Kingdom, China, Thailand, Italy, and the United States, as well as representatives from ITER, the CNRS, and internal candidates from the IRFM.
The five-day training was organized around two complementary components:
- theoretical lectures in the morning, covering the entire operation of a tokamak:
magnetic systems, heating, cryogenics, wall components, and plasma physics - practical exercises in the afternoon, in the control room, allowing participants
to familiarize themselves with plasma preparation tools, magnetic configuration design, and plasma event analysis.
The training mobilized a large team from the IRFM, consisting of about fifteen instructors and eight expert operators.
The participants’ commitment, combined with the quality of the instruction, was unanimously praised. Feedback was very positive, with several participants choosing to extend their stay at the center to further explore the exercises offered.
The WEST tokamak is a major asset for this type of training. Unique in Europe, it enables the creation of long-duration plasmas in an all-tungsten environment, with a divertor using technology identical to that planned for ITER. These characteristics make it a benchmark platform for training future tokamak operators.
