The four parties to the Agreement on Go-operation in the Engineering Design
Activities for the international Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER)
have successfully completed 6 years of collaborative work, the results of
which are encapsulated in the ITER Final Design Report, Cost Review and Saf
ety Analysis, (FDR) and supporting technical information, including the out
put from ongoing major technology R&D projects. The FDR provides a detailed
, complete and fully integrated engineering design of ITER, including the l
atest assessment of ITER plasma performance and safety characteristics and
of its cost which remains as originally agreed. The technical results provi
ded should have been sufficient to allow a construction decision by the par
ties who have now found the investment too large to be affordable. Further
development of the project, aimed at enabling a future possible decision on
construction, includes design work to achieve cost reduction by reducing p
erformance in ways that will still allow to meet ITER overall programmatic
objectives; to adapt the design to specific site characterisations; and to
prepare for regulatory procedures. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science S.A. All right
s reserved.