ITER Members Reach ‘Baseline’ Deal On Financing And Timetable
Written by NucNet
Thursday, 29 July 2010
The European Union and six states backing the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project said today they had reached a deal on the financing and timetable for the unit.
At an extraordinary council of ITER, held at the Cadarache Nuclear Research Centre in southern France where the project is based, the ITER members China, India, Japan, South Korea, Russia the United States and the EU adopted an agreement that allows for construction of the reactor to begin this summer.
ITER’s governing council reached the deal, the so-called ITER Baseline, after a two-day meeting in Cadarache at which the EU pledged to provide additional financing of a maximum 6.6 billion euro (EUR) (8.5 billion US dollars), it said in a statement.
It also formalised a decision to abandon its goal of 2018 to obtain the first plasma and set November 2019 as its new target. The start of Deuterium-Tritium operation is planned for March 2027.
The meeting also named Japanese physicist Osamu Motojima as ITER's new director-general, to replace his compatriot Kaname Ikeda. Mr Ikeda had earlier said he would step down once the Baseline was approved.
The total estimated bill for the EU has increased to EUR 7.2 billion, with the overall cost for the project now at EUR 16 billion.
ITER will be the world’s largest experimental facility to demonstrate the scientific and technical feasibility of fusion, the process which powers the sun and the stars.
