ITER council approves fusion power project baseline

The ITER Council, the governing body of the ITER Organization, approved Wednesday the baseline of overall schedule and cost for the international scientific project aiming to produce commercial energy from fusion experiment in France.

Representatives of the seven ITER members -- China, the European Union, India, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the United States, attended the meeting in Cadarache, south France, where the reactor units would be constructed.

The ITER project with a designed capacity to produce 500 megawatt (MW) of fusion power fixed a goal to achieve the First Plasma in November 2019, the council declared in a statement.

The organization has planned to start Deuterium-Tritium operation in March 2027, the ITER Council, however, proposed in new document of Overall Project Schedule to advance the beginning of Deuterium-Tritium operation in 2026.

Another document agreed at the meeting to fix a capping to foster cost control over the "ambitious scientific program," the statement said.

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