Index Introduction The Research at Rijnhuizen Results in 2008 Education, Training, Outreach and Public Information Output Appendix website Rijnhuizen 2.6 | Public Information Division: Fusion Physics Group leader:  M.T. Westra / G. de Vries Members: E. Min, G. de Vries, M.T. Westra Funding*: Missionbudget, FP-74, EFP, EFDA The Public Information group at FOM-Rijnhuizen focuses on public information on fusion as a future sustainable energy source. The group actively promotes fusion energy in outreach activities such as the Fusion Road Show, and in more general presentations for students, politicians, the general public and for energy specialists. After the summer, Gieljan de Vries followed up Mark Tiele Westra as group leader. The group has produced several educational products, such as the booklet “Energy, powering your world”, which is now available in English and Dutch, with further translations planned, the 7-language CD-ROM “Fusion, Power for Future Generations”; and the website www.fusie-energie.nl, which receives up to 300 visitors a day. The PI group developed an educational module for Dutch secondary schools in collaboration with science teachers, in which students design their own fusion reactor. The module was recently approved by the Ministry of Education and is scheduled for English translation and use throughout Europe. Each year, the institute organises two open house days in October, one for students and one for the general public. The PI group is strongly involved in the organisation and realisation of these days. In 2008, FOM-Rijnhuizen received over 1000 visitors during these two days. Throughout the year, many other groups visit Rijnhuizen, including students from secondary schools and universities. The continued succes of the Fusion Road Show is one of the most important highlights of the PI group. This interactive show with many live demonstrations familiarises the audience with nuclear fusion as an energy source of the future. Niek Lopes Cardozo developed the show in 1999. It was presented for the first time to a general audience during the 26th European Physics Society Conference on Controlled Fusion and Plasma Physics in Maastricht. Currently, the show is presented over thirty times per year at secondary schools, and as part of the FOM activities on science communication. The show has been performed around 260 times since its premiere in June 1999. The show is suitable for a large range of audiences. The contents and level of interaction can be easily adapted to the audience and the occasion: secondary school classes, general public, physics students, politicians, and energy specialists. Whichever the audience, the Fusion Road Show is always received with great enthusiasm. The most important performances of the Fusion Road Show in 2008 included its showing for over 1000 participants of the UNIS-UN student conference in the New York UN-General Assembly in March; a performance during the FOM-conference Physics@Veldhoven in January, attended by Steve Chu, the new US Secretary of Energy; a non-stop version of the show at the Fusion For Energy (F4E) stand at the ESOF-conference in Barcelona; and a Fusion Road Show-performance during the celebration of 200 years of KNAW, the Dutch Royal Academy of Sciences. The PI group is intensively involved in the outreach and PR-activities of the Dutch consortium ITER-NL, a cooperation between the research institutes FOM, NRG and TNO. ITER-NL aims at preparing Dutch companies and industry for tenders from the ITER-organisation and the Rijnhuizen PI group supports the consortium by writing press releases, visiting conferences and by lectures for specialist audiences. Finally, the year featured the kick-off of a new Rijnhuizen-initiated project called FUSENET, aiming at unifying and streamlining the Masters’, graduate and postdoctoral fusion education in Europe. The PI group of FOM-Rijnhuizen was the focal point that organised the project and managed to secure the participation of 36 benificiaries in 18 different countries in this 2 Million Euro, 3 year period Euratom-funded project. * supported by the European Fusion Programme (EFP)