OREANDA-NEWS. September 10, 2008. The managers of the ITER Organization and the ITER domestic agencies are holding a coordinating conference at Kurchatov Institute (Russia) on Sept 8–10 2008.

The ITER Organization is represented by Principal Deputy Director General Norbert Richard Holtkamp. Representatives of all the parties to the project – Russia, Japan, China, Korea, India, the EU and the United States – are taking part in the meeting. Russia is represented by Deputy Director of Kurchatov Institute V.Smirnov and the head of the Russian ITER Domestic Agency (headquartered at Kurchatov Institute) A.Krasilnikov.

The parties are discussing how to improve the management of the project by adopting new management mechanisms.   

Holtkamp said that after five years of negotiations they had decided to change their management structure in order to make their work more efficient. So, now the parties have to decide who will be responsible for what in the new structure and how the project will be financed.

Holtkamp said that the ITER Council required that the ITER Organization and the ITER domestic agencies be maximally effective in their managerial and financial decisions. The ITER project is a vivid example of cooperation: several countries are making their contributions to one project. So, they must give up their personal interests and ambitions and focus on the general cause. This is very important for an international project: each party gives something but it also takes something. In a successful project this is called an equal distribution of shares.

The heads of the domestic agencies pointed out that almost all the parties to the project were facing one and the same problem: the growing prices of the basic materials, particularly, steel and niobium. ITER-2001 and ITER-2008 are one and the same project but the cost has substantially risen. The ITER Council has instructed the management to reduce the costs as much as possible with no damage to the scientific and technical components.

Participation of so many developed countries is a guarantee that any technical problem can be resolved. For example, two years ago the parties faced a serious problem: they might fail to build the magnet system of the reactor because of poor work of the super-conducting cable. But they found the solution: in Feb 2008 the ITER Organization signed an agreement with the Russian Domestic Agency on the supplies of super-conducting cable for the magnet system of the reactor’s toroidal field. Russia has pledged to produce, deliver and test the equipment.

Holtkamp said that recently some countries, particularly, Australia and Brazil, expressed wish to join the project as full or associate members. The parties are negotiating with Kazakhstan. Monaco has agreed to finance training programs under the project.