August 1, 1996

According to the presentation of the Special Working Group (SWG) to the ITER Council (see FPN-6), the following are the anticipated costs of ITER (Given in 1989 US $):

Assumes: start of construction directly after the end of the EDA, timely licensing process and regulatory approval about two years after the end of the EDA, and first plasma about 10 years after start of construction.

CONSTRUCTION PHASE

Construction Cost: $5.85 billion, with uncertainty of +0.77/-0.80 billion$

In addition, it is estimated that there will be management, engineering and R&D costs during construction over an assumed 10 year construction of about $1.1 to $1.2 billion.

OPERATIONS PHASE

It is assumed there will be two periods of operation, a Basic Performance Phase and an Extended Performance Phase, each lasting about a decade.

Operating Costs are estimated to be, on the average, about $350 - $400 million per year, broken down roughly 25% for personnel and overhead, 25% for energy and fuel, and 50% for materials and other items. The estimate is based on an assumption of 300 professionals and 600 support staff, and the purchase of 2-3 kilograms per year of tritium at a cost of $10 million per kilogram.

DECOMMISSIONING PHASE

A rough estimate of eventual decommissioning costs was given as $300 - $900 million, based on experience with fission plants, i.e., between 5% and 15% of construction cost.

For more information, contact: Stephen O. Dean