directorWashington, Dec 7 (AFP) The head of the multinationalnuclear fusion project known as ITER, in Washington for talkswith President Donald Trump's administration, has warned USbudget cuts could delay completion of the experimentalreactor.
Launched a decade ago by seven partners -- the EuropeanUnion, the United States, China, Russia, Japan, India andSouth Korea -- the project has been plagued by delays andbudget overruns.
ITER Director-General Bernard Bigot has been in the UScapital since Tuesday to urge top administration officialsincluding Energy Secretary Rick Perry to uphold America'scommitment.
Washington has so far spent some USD 1 billion on theproject, and had pledged to contribute a further USD 1.5billion by 2025, the first test date for the InternationalThermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), which is located inFrance and currently half-finished.
But its annual contribution was reduced by around 50 percent in the 2017 and 2018 budgets, from USD 105 to USD 50million and USD 120 to USD 63 million respectively -- as aresult of cuts to the overall Energy Department's budget.
Bigot told AFP late yesterday he hoped to secure "a cleardecision on American commitments, at least in the short term,on the supply of components, and to be sure that they willarrive in time for assembly." (AFP)NSA.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.