Antonio Peña, Doctor in Physics and Professor at the University of Granada, meets secondary school students to talk about the energy issues and the importance of the particle accelerator in the race towards nuclear fusion

Why do planets move? How do microwaves heat food? Why can we see things? These were some of the warmup questions with which Antonio Peña, Doctor in Physics by the University of Granada, begun the informative session. This talk about IFMIF-DONES, organised within the framework of the DONES-PreP project, was addressed to students from the Ave María high schools in Granada.

In an interactive and educational tone, the role of energy in our everyday lives, how energy is generated, nuclear technology, and the differences between fission and fusion and their advantages and disadvantages were reviewed. Antonio Peña, former Director of the Office for the Implementation of IFMIF-DONES and leading researcher at the University of Granada for DONES-PreP, informed the 75 attendees about the importance of IFMIF-DONES in the race towards nuclear fusion and analysed the opportunities that this facility will generate in Granada.

‘IFMIF-DONES is key to study how to contain the neutrons resulting from nuclear fusion and how to build nuclear fusion power stations, which will produce clean and unlimited energy’. This shift in the energy paradigm entails ‘an important scientific and technological challenge’ which requires ‘the best physicians, engineers, lawyers, mathematicians… and they are all needed here’, explained Antonio Peña. If IFMIF-DONES is finally built in Escúzar (Granada), it will be an international benchmark where ‘the pillars of how to control nuclear fusion and humanity’s energy future will be defined’.

This session is part of the preparatory activities of IFMIF-DONES, which address crucial financial, legal, and organisational aspects for the construction and operation phases of the facility. In this context, DONES-PreP has the aim to inform about the project and disseminate the social and economic impact of this facility.