Council meets in Paris, recognizes external validation of Project's progress
2 May 2016
Convening for an Extraordinary Meeting in Paris on 27 April, the ITER Council received the assessment of the Independent Review Group and discussed its findings.
The tip of the Eiffel Tower, to the left, provides an unusual backdrop to the group picture of high-level representatives from the seven ITER Members who met in Paris for an extrordinary ITER Council. Photo Arnaud Calais
The high-level representatives of the seven ITER Members acknowledged the external validation of the project's progress, declaring that the findings confirmed "that the project is now going in the right direction, in a way that will allow for a sound, realistic and detailed proposal for schedule and associated cost up to First Plasma."
The proposal will be tabled for the regular meeting of the Council in June.
Among the key findings that the Extraordinary Council was pleased to note are: "substantial improvement in project performance" resulting from the major restructuring of ITER; the quality of "the preparation of the ITER Organization and Domestic Agencies on a new schedule and associated resource estimate"; and the efficiency of the "ongoing additional integration work" being carried out project wide.
The Extraordinary ITER Council acknowledged that these "converging elements" provided a solid basis for the establishment of the Resource-Loaded Updated Integrated Schedule up to First Plasma along with a high-level paper detailing the schedule from First Plasma to Deuterium-Tritium operation in time for submission to the ITER Council in June 2016 (IC-18).