Abstract
Last month, as expected, the four partners in the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project announced a three-year extension of the ITER engineering design activity (p7). Detailed design work on the next-generation fusion-energy device started in 1992 and has cost about $1 bn so far A decision to build the device, once scheduled to be taken this year, will now be made in 2001 at the earliest. The ITER council said that the extension would “provide the framework for undertaking jointly site(s)-specific and other activities with the aim of enabling future decision on construction and operation of ITER”. What the project is really doing is buying time as it tries to find a cheaper option that the partners will find acceptable. The US is keen to cut the project's cost by two-thirds.
Published Version
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