The 8th Meeeting of the ITER Preparatory Committee took place 26/27th April in Goa, with India hosting and chairing for the first time.

The meeting addressed how to prepare for the practical implementation of the ITER Joint Implementation Agreement, to be initialed by the Parties' Government representatives on May 24th in Brussels.

It discussed how to smoothly integrate existing staff working at multiple joint work sites into a new project team to be built in Cadarache. It also agreed to ask the IAEA to act as trustee of a joint fund for shared expenses prior to the establishment of the new ITER Organisation next year.

It considered the status of the current project, the work plan up to March 2007, urgent staff needs, and how to handle future work on test blanket modules, one of the key reactor-relevant elements to be tested on ITER.

IPC-8 in Session