21st ITER Council affirms steady, measurable project progress

At its Twenty-First Meeting on 15 and 16 November 2017, the ITER Council reviewed a detailed set of reports and indicators covering both organizational and technical performance. Despite the extremely demanding construction and manufacturing schedule, and the challenging technical requirements of the ITER Tokamak and support systems, the ITER Project continues its strong performance, and remains on schedule for First Plasma 2025. The ITER Council commemorated the 10th anniversary of the entering into force of the ITER Agreement. 

— Project milestones: Since 1 January 2016, all 26 scheduled Council-approved project milestones have been achieved, maintaining strict adherence to the overall project schedule and critical path. For each occasion in which specific milestones have shown a small amount of slippage, mitigation measures have been put in place to recover and maintain the First Plasma schedule, stimulating confidence in the increasing maturity of risk management practices. 

— Measuring progress effectively: The Council was pleased by the ITER Organization’s adoption of strengthened project performance metrics to measure physical progress in construction, manufacturing, assembly and installation. Specific percentages of completion are now in hand for each major building, system, and component under fabrication. Using this approach, the ITER Organization assessed total component manufacturing through First Plasma to be 61% complete, and total construction work scope through First Plasma to be 49% complete, including ITER Organization assembly and installation activities. 

— Management Assessment 2017: The ITER Council noted the recently received report of the Management Assessor for 2017, focused on the preparedness of the organization to deliver the project successfully. 

— ITER Member support: The Council continued its candid discussions acknowledging continuing efforts made by each Member to overcome various challenges, which includes ensuring approval of the cost baseline, as concluded in IC-19.1 Council members reaffirmed their strong belief in the value of the project, and its mission and vision, and resolved to work together to find timely solutions to ensure ITER’s success. 

The Council expressed its gratitude to outgoing Council Chair, Professor Won Namkung for his leadership and dedication, and congratulated Mr. Arunkumar Srivastava on his appointment to the Chairmanship for the following year.

Reflecting on the continuing strong performance, the Council congratulated the entire One-ITER team—the ITER Organization and seven Domestic Agencies—on the commitment to effective collaboration that has put the project on the path to success. The Council will continue to closely monitor project performance, and to provide the support needed to maintain this pace of achievement.

¹As stated in the press release of IC-19 on 27 November 2016, at that time: “The overall project schedule was approved by all ITER Members, and the overall project cost was approved ad referendum, meaning that it will now fall to each Member to seek approval of project costs through their respective governmental budget processes.”

BACKGROUND TO THE PRESS RELEASE 

ITER—designed to demonstrate the scientific and technological feasibility of fusion power—will be the world's largest experimental fusion facility. Fusion is the process that powers the sun and the stars: when light atomic nuclei fuse together to form heavier ones, a large amount of energy is released. Fusion research is aimed at developing a safe, abundant and environmentally responsible energy source. 

ITER is also a first-of-a-kind global collaboration. Europe is contributing almost half of the costs of its construction, while the other six Members to this joint international venture (China, India, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation and the USA), are contributing equally to the rest. The ITER Project is under construction in Saint-Paul-lez-Durance, in the south of France. To see a gallery of pictures from the ITER Council meeting, follow this link. 

For more information on the ITER Project, visit: http://www.iter.org/

CONTACT

Laban Coblentz 
Laban.Coblentz@iter.org 
+33 6 14 16 40 85