It was announced that all details of the ITER Joint Implementation Agreement (JIA), including 15 associated documents, had been agreed to by technical representatives of the 7 ITER Parties at meetings in Barcelona February 7-11 and in Paris February 27 - March 1. A meeting is planned April 1 in Tokyo where Heads of Delegations from the Parties will review and confirm the texts and declare the negotiations "complete." A ministerial meeting is planned for May 24 in Brussels at which representatives of the Parties will formally initial the agreement. Official signing of the agreement will be delayed until late in the year due to a requirement in the U. S. Energy Policy Act of 2005 that Congress be given 120 days to review the agreement.

U. S. ITER Project Manager Ned Sauthoff indicated that a new web site has been established at http://www.usiter.org. Persons wishing to apply for senior management positions either with the international team or the U. S. team can apply via this web site. The web site will also be used to provide information on procurement opportunities and interested vendors will be able to register at this site.

Sauthoff announced the new U. S. hardware allocations, which were revised following the entry of India into the venture, and also described a reduced U. S. ITER budget "cap" that was provided to the U. S. team by DOE Office of Science Director Ray Orbach.

The U. S will no longer provide superconductor for the Central Solenoid magnets but will provide 8% of the conductor for the toroidal field magnets. The U. S. will wind all 7 Central Solenoid magnets, however. The U. S. will no longer provide antennae, sources or power supplies for the ion cyclotron resonance heating (ICRH) system or the startup gyrotrons or power supplies for the electron resonance heating (ECRH) system, but will provide the ECRH transmission lines. U.S. contributions to the Blanket/Shield system will be increased from 10% to 20% and contributions to the cooling system for the divertor and vacuum vessel will increase from 70% to 75%. Other planned U. S. hardware contributions remain unchanged, including port-based diagnostics, pellet injector, tritium exhaust processing system and various steady-state power supplies, roughing pumps and standard components. All procurements will be oveseen by a centralized management office based at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Sauthoff indicated that he had been given a cost "cap" for ITER of $1.122 B. Previously a range between $1.115 to $1.4 B had been allowed for planning purposes. Sauthoff said that a recent DOE review had recommended "completion of the U. S. contribution on a schedule within the control of the U. S. and as independently as possible of the overall ITER project schedule." He acknowledged that there were many "uncertainties that present cost and schedule risk." These included "incompletely defined component and system interfaces, potential new requirements or design changes by the ITER Organization, commodity price fluctuations, and potential delays in delivery of needed components by other ITER Parties."

Despite the above uncertainties, DOE has established and sent to Congress the following planned U. S. ITER (Fiscal Year $M) spending profile:

2006 19.3
2007 60.0
2008 160.0
2009 214.5
2010 210.0
2011 181.3
2012 130.0
2013 116.9
2014 30.0
Total 1122.0

For further information, contact sauthoff@pppl.gov