Students in the 1st and 2nd years of upper secondary high school at IES Federico García Lorca – Churriana de la Vega, Granada – were able to learn first-hand about the IFMIF-DONES project, thanks to a talk given by two of the team members, Antonio Moreno, project integration engineer, and Jorge Maestre, lithium systems engineer. The activity, organised by the centre as part of its Science Week under the theme “New technologies for the society of the future”, took place on 8 April.

The teaching staff involved in the organisation of the Science Week decided to include the IFMIF-DONES project in the event, with the aim of making students become conscious about the relevance and the need to search for clean energies for the future of mankind.

Maestre and Moreno made the most of their time, and in an entertaining way they first summarised what the international ITER Project consists of and the experimental production of fusion energy, which will serve as a guide for future fusion energy plants. They then continued by describing the IFMIF-DONES Project, a scientific facility which aims to generate a source of neutrons in order to study and test them to be used in future fusion reactors.

The speakers also stressed the importance that this project will have in Granada as a point of technological innovation. They also gave a brief overview of their professional careers and highlighted the training and employment opportunities available for the school’s science and technological baccalaureate students in the coming years.

On her part, Irene Pérez, teacher at the school and main organizer of the activity, was delighted with the participation and interest showed by the students. “Question time went on so long that they even continued into their break time,” she said. In general terms, she pointed out that “it has been a spectacular week in which 1000 students have participated”, proud that the work done by the IES serves to encourage new vocations in the field of science.

The Churriana de la Vega Town Council ceded the facilities of the Palacio de las Artes Escénicas y de la Música for the talk, where Maestre and Moreno counted with the support of technical audiovisual material and a large-capacity auditorium.