Following the last (8th) meeting of the Negotiators in February, ITER negotiations have now entered a critical phase. The timetable of February 2003 indicates "Higher/Political Level Discussions Leading to Site Decision". These were originally envisaged to take until mid-May, with the next meeting of Negotiators (N9) scheduled for May 2003 with a final meeting before the summer. In practice, due to the war in Iraq as well as the practical difficulties imposed by SARS, the process of higher level discussions is starting later and taking longer than planned.

There is currently no date scheduled for N9. However a preparatory meeting was held in April to reach a common understanding on each Party's decision-making process and to identify the necessary input for the higher-level discussions. Input is intended to be provided by the Parties for a second preparatory meeting in Vienna on June 19th 2003.

In the meantime, negotiations are continuing at the working level through the NSSG (Negotiators Standing Sub-Group) which met in May and will meet in July to continue to thrash out the details of the Joint Implementation Agreement and cost sharing.

At the end of May, South Korea indicated its intentions to the current ITER Participants that it would like to join in the ITER Negotiations on Joint Implementation. It proposed making a contribution to the costs comparable to that proposed by some existing ITER Participants, and requested permission to join in time for the preparatory meeting on negotiations in June.

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

• Eighth Negotiators Meeting - February 20th, 2003.
• US announces joining ITER negotiations - February 3rd, 2003.
• China applies to join ITER - January 24th, 2003.
• Seventh Negotiators Meeting - December 16th, 2002.

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 June 16th, 2003