CERN–ITER cooperation

Officials for the ITER international fusion energy prototype reactor and CERN have signed an agreement to cooperate on technological and administrative matters. The five-year pact will allow the €5 billion fledgling fusion project to tap the managerial expertise of the 54-year-old European center for particle physics as ITER prepares to increase its workforce from its current 260 full-time staff to as many as 700 permanent employees when experimental operations get under way about 10 years from now in Cadarache, France. Finance, human resources, and purchasing are potential areas of cooperation. Representing 20 nations, CERN is an obvious prototype for the 7-party ITER, although the partner nations of ITER are drawn from across the globe. The agreement also facilitates collaborations on technologies that are common to both projects, such as superconducting magnets, cryogenics, controls, data acquisition, and civil engineering.

CERN director general Robert Aymar, who hosted the signing ceremony in March, knows both projects well, having served as the ITER director general until moving to CERN in 2004. An ITER spokesman described the pact as an umbrella legal agreement with no spending levels specified. If funds change hands between the two organizations, it will be in the form of consulting fees.