This week in St. Petersberg, Russia, the Eighth ITER Negotiators Meeting has been taking place, for the first time with Canada, Europe, Japan and the Russian Federation joined by China and the United States of America.

The Negotiators approved a Joint Assessment of Specific Sites (JASS), which confirms that all four potential sites meet the criteria established for the location of the ITER project, although there are different strengths and weaknesses for each site.

The Ninth Negotiations Meeting will be held on 20-21 May 2003, in Vienna.

Previous versions of this "What's New" page are also available:

• US announces joining ITER negotiations - February 3rd, 2003.
• China applies to join ITER - January 24th, 2003.
• Seventh Negotiators Meeting - December 16th, 2002.

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 February 20th, 2003