FPN10-19

ITER Schedule to Slip by One Year, to 2019

March 9, 2010

U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science Director, Dr. William Brinkman, told a March 9 meeting of the DOE's Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee that the "ITER Heads of Delegations" at a February 23-24 meeting had approved a ten months slippage of the ITER construction schedule, to November 2019. The original ITER schedule of 2016 had previously been slipped in June 2009 to 2018. The Heads of Delegations had been asked previously to approve a slip to 2020, but many resisted such a lengthy delay. Brinkman said that the Domestic Agencies of the seven ITER Parties were being asked to prepare new cost and schedule profiles to accommodate the change.

Brinkman also said that the Heads of Delegations (he is Head of the U.S. delegation) had received a "very negative" report on the ITER management structure. That matter is currently being reviewed by the ITER Management Advisory Committee. Brinkman said he expected that there would be "significant" changes in the ITER management structure aimed at giving more control to the ITER central organization over the procurements of the Domestic Agencies. Brinkman said, "If I could get my hands on the person who proposed the current management structure I would strangle him."

A final decision on the ITER schedule and managment structure is expected at the June meeting of the ITER Council, but Brinkman said that the Council could meet earlier than that.