ITER Organisation

(ITER Organization)
The ITER International Fusion Energy Organisation (IIFEO), also referred to as the ITER Organisation, is an entity similar to the organisation created for the international space station project. The ITER Organisation is governed by an international treaty that lays down the rights and obligations of all the project partners, China, South Korea, the USA, Europe, the Russian Federation, India and Japan. This international body is responsible for designing the research facility, building it over a 10-year period, operating it for 20 years and then safely decommissioning it. The Director-General, Kaname Ikeda, is accountable for the project’s progress to a Council formed from representatives of each partner.






French organisations

The Cross-ministerial ITER Commission
A cross-ministerial commission has been set up. Its role is to coordinate and oversee the involvement of the French organisations (central ministries, Prefecture of the PACA region, ITER France Agency) and to represent France within the international bodies.




Regional ITER support board
The ITER support board, accountable to the Prefect of the Region, is responsible for supporting the project in the fields of property and development, building accommodation units, adapting existing roads to form a corridor for transporting the large-scale components from the port at Fos to the Cadarache site, offering training and job creation, establishing an international school, promoting economic development and managing the environmental impacts.

The ITER France Agency
The ITER France Agency, established as part of the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), has twenty staff. In particular, its responsibilities are:

supporting ITER staff and their families as they settle in

site preparation work (utilities etc.) prior to the launch of construction work on the facility in 2009

• drafting the safety files and decommissioning the facility at the end of its operating life




As project host country, France has created two bodies to honour the commitments made under the international agreements. The ITER support board, accountable to the Prefect of the Region, is responsible for ensuring the regional infrastructure is put in place. Examples of this work include the international school, funded and owned by the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur Regional Council or the construction of the ITER road corridor for transporting large components, funded by the Bouches-du-Rhône Council.



ITER work packages distributed between the seven partners
Work packages for ITER have been distributed between the seven project partners, India, the European Union, the USA, South Korea, Japan, Russia and China. Under the international agreements, each partner will provide services in kind to the ITER Organisation, which is the international project owner. This work breakdown scheme means that the responsibility for manufacturing the various components and equipment items is delegated to individual countries. Each partner will therefore set up a Domestic Agency to place and manage the relevant work contracts. Some of the work packages related in particular to maintenance and to the facility itself will be directly managed by the ITER Organisation.