Fort de Châtillon (Paris)

The Zoé reactor, or EL-1, was the first French atomic reactor. It was built in 1947 at the Fort de Châtillon in Fontenay-aux-Roses, a suburb of Paris. Design work for the heavy-water reactor was started in 1947 by Frédéric Joliot-Curie, who was at the time director of the French Commission for Atomic Energy (Commissariat à l'énergie atomique (CEA)). The project manager was Lew Kowarski, who had just returned from Canada, where he had supervised the construction of the Canadian ZEEP heavy-water reactor. Zoé was activated on 15 December 1948, reaching a power of 150 kW by 1953. The nuclear fuel was provided by Bouchet of Ballancourt-sur-Essonne, which reprocessed the irradiated fuel and extracted the first milligrams of French-produced plutonium. The reactor was shut down in March 1976 and containment of the reactor was completed in 1977. The choice of moderator and fuel was dictated by the undeveloped state of the French nuclear industry at the time, which could not manufacture the corrosion-proof equipment needed for a more advanced unit. The reactor was a pool-type design, with five tons of heavy water moderator surrounded by a two-meter-thick concrete wall. The core, immersed in the pool, consisted of 60 aluminum-cased vertical rods containing three tons of uranium oxide pellets, controlled by cadmium rods. The heavy water was purchased from Norsk Hydro. A cooling system was added after the reactor had operated for a time, allowing it to run at a heat release rate of 200 kilowatts.The name Zoé was an acronym, from Zéro de puissance (zero power, that is, very little capacity to produce electricity, which made it easier and faster to build); Oxyde d'uranium (uranium oxide), Eau lourde (heavy water). The Châtillon site was superseded for later nuclear research by a new site at Saclay. The reactor was also known as EL-1 (Eau Lourde); its successor at Saclay was EL-2.The building that formerly housed Zoé is now an exhibit space, the Museum of the Atom.

The Hôtel de Ville (French pronunciation: [otɛl də vil], City Hall) is a municipal building in Fontenay-aux-Roses, Hauts-de-Seine, in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, standing on Rue Boucicaut. It has been included on the Inventaire général des monuments by the French Ministry of Culture since 1993.

Robinson is a railway station serving Sceaux, a southern suburb of Paris, France. It is one of the terminuses of the RER B trains. The station is named after the nearby commune Le Plessis-Robinson (which itself is ultimately named after Robinson Crusoe).

The canton of Châtillon is a French administrative division, located in the arrondissement of Antony, in the Hauts-de-Seine département (Île-de-France région). Its borders were modified at the French canton reorganisation which came into effect in March 2015. Its seat is in Châtillon.

Fontenay-aux-Roses (French pronunciation: [fɔ̃tnɛ o ʁoz] (listen)) is a commune in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located 8.6 km (5.3 mi) from the center of Paris. In 1880, a girls school École Normale Supérieure was opened in the town. It was one of the most prestigious of Paris and even of whole France in term of scientific research. It became a mixed school in 1986, and was relocated to Lyon in 2000. Fontenay is the location of the Commissariat à l'énergie atomique, and former location of the first French nuclear reactor, Zoé, and the first French tokamak fusion experiment, TFR.

The Tokamak de Fontenay-aux-Roses (TFR) was the first French tokamak, built in a research centre of the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) in Fontenay-aux-Roses, a commune in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, France. Roughly the same size as the contemporary Soviet T-3 and American Symmetrical Tokamak, but had a larger internal plasma volume and a much more powerful power supply that drove plasma currents up to 400,000 Amps for as long as half a second. Completed in 1973, it remained the world's most powerful tokamak until 1976 when it was surpassed by the Princeton Large Torus. Among the major discoveries made on TFR was the concept of "disruptions", potentially damaging events that eject the plasma from the center and lead to an event known as "runaway electrons". In 1975, such an event burned holes through the vacuum vessel, requiring extensive repairs.It was followed by Tore Supra at Cadarache.

The canton of Clamart is a French administrative division, located in the arrondissement of Antony, in the Hauts-de-Seine département (Île-de-France région). Its borders were modified at the French canton reorganisation which came into effect in March 2015. Its seat is in Clamart.

Le Plessis-Robinson (French pronunciation: [lə plɛsi ʁɔbɛ̃sɔ̃] (listen)) is a commune in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located 10.5 km (6.5 mi) from the center of Paris. As of 2017, it has 29,100 inhabitants.

The Château du Plessis-Robinson is a municipal building in Le Plessis-Robinson, Hauts-de-Seine in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, standing on Rue de la Mairie. It has been included on the Inventaire général des monuments by the French Ministry of Culture since 1991.

The Hôtel de Ville (French pronunciation: [otɛl də vil], City Hall) is a municipal building in Châtillon, Hauts-de-Seine, in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, standing on Place de la Libération. It has been included on the Inventaire général des monuments by the French Ministry of Culture since 1994.

Fontenay-aux-Roses is a station on the line B of the Réseau Express Régional, a hybrid suburban commuter and rapid transit line. It is named after the town it is located in, Fontenay-aux-Roses.

The Hôtel de Ville (French pronunciation: [otɛl də vil], City Hall) is a municipal building in Clamart, Hauts-de-Seine, in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, standing on Place Maurice Gunsbourg. It was designated a monument historique by the French government in 1929.