Following the visit of an administrative delegation of the ITER Negotiators to Beijing in November 2002, and the visit of a technical delegation to ITER in Garching in December 2002, last week an official technical delegation from the ITER International Team and Participant Teams visited China's plasma physics laboratories and relevant industries in Beijing, Hefei, Cheng-du and Xi'an.

They were impressed by the dynamism and optimism shown by all the scientists met, their strong wish to see their doors opened to international cooperation and therefore to participate in ITER.

Equipment and methods in use in the laboratories and industries visited were similar to those in the more developed countries. In particular, QA programmes were implemented, in a manner which already satisfies their European and Japanese customers. It was clear that the Chinese would be able to make an in-kind contribution of satisfactory quality to ITER construction.

The delegation were also impressed by the speed with which the Chinese authorities had made their decision to participate in ITER negotiations. The Prime Minister and the State Council had already confirmed their decision to apply to join ITER as soon as possible, and the Vice Minister of Science and Technology, Lin Yanhua, indicated that a letter had been sent to the ITER Parties.

In this letter, Mr Xu Guanhua, Chinese Minister of Science and Technology, wrote on behalf of his government, on 10 January 2003, to the four heads of delegation in the ITER negotiations, requesting that China participate in the present ITER Negotiations and pointing out that China intends to provide a substantial contribution to the Project, comparable to what is currently envisaged by some of the participants in the present negotiations.

The previous version of this "What's New" page (December 16th, 2002) can be viewed here. Further information on the proposed sites can be found below:

• Cadarache
• Clarington
• Rokkasho
• Vandellòs

As always, regular reports on the progress of ITER are given in the IAEA ITER Newsletter.

Further general news about fusion (with a US emphasis).

updated January 24th, 2003