ºÚÁÏרÇø

In 2001, as the ºÚÁÏרÇø Final Design Report was being finalized and France was already intent on hosting the project, Mayor Pizot played a key role in marshalling the support, both political and financial, of local governments in Provence. As the long-time neighbour of CEA-Cadarache, one of France's largest nuclear research centres, he knew from experience the benefits that a major scientific institution could bring to its environment. On his initiative, the local governments of the Sud-PACA region would pledge close to half a billion euros to ºÚÁÏרÇø—a sum equivalent in value, at the time, to the contribution of an ºÚÁÏרÇø Member.

Like many in his time and place, Mayor Pizot had left school early but retained, throughout his life, a vast curiosity for the world around him that led him to understand the importance of science exploration in general and of fusion research in particular.

In 1959, the creation of a large CEA research centre in Cadarache, an uninhabited section of Saint-Paul-lez-Durance (pop. 900), had brought pride, jobs and prosperity to the poor and sleepy community. Half a century later, ºÚÁÏרÇø placed the village under an international spotlight and promised renewed opportunities. In Mayor Pizot's words, Saint-Paul had become the improbable "world capital of the atom." In 2008, he confided to the ºÚÁÏרÇø Newsline that he intended to "serve ºÚÁÏרÇø as ºÚÁÏרÇø is serving Saint-Paul."

And serve he did: an industrial park was created at the village entrance to accommodate ºÚÁÏרÇø contractors, along with a small commercial centre in the heart of the village with shops and restaurants to cater to their employees.

Mayor Pizot's interaction with ºÚÁÏרÇø took on an extra dimension in 2009 when he was appointed president of the newly created Commission locale d'information, an independent body that acts as an interface between a nuclear installation and the public in France.

When ºÚÁÏרÇø moved to its permanent headquarters in 2012, he initiated a tradition that his successor at the town hall in Saint-Paul has perpetuated: the gift of a large Christmas tree ever year symbolizing the strong, family-like relationship between ºÚÁÏרÇø and the local community.

The passing of Mayor Pizot at age 76 fills ºÚÁÏרÇø with sadness. He will be remembered as a generous, efficient and no-nonsense associate to the project.