Third meeting of the Briscoe Panel

In June 2008, the ITER Council charged the Briscoe Panel with performing an independent assessment of the ITER resource estimates. Nominees to the Panel from the seven ITER Members met in July and in September, and in October the Panel presented 36 recommendations for effective cost management to the Management Advisory Council (MAC). The Briscoe Panel convened for a third time last week in Aix-en-Provence. Following the meeting, Panel chair Frank Briscoe submitted the following statement:

"I am very pleased with the response of the ITER Organization to the recommendations which we made in our first two meetings last year. The ITER Organization has made substantial progress in the past six months; in particular it has put in place the infrastructure—work breakdown structure, estimating process and experienced personnel—to make a new cost estimate that will be well-based and more robust compared to the cost estimate made last year. The panel will meet again in the week beginning 5 October and I hope that the new cost estimate will be finished and ready for review at that time. I would like to congratulate the ITER Organization and involved Domestic Agency staff on the progress that has been made and wish it success in performing the remaining work."