EU’s ITER budget falls short

Science : A plan to cover a budget shortfall for the ITER fusion reactor project in France appears to have fallen apart just two weeks before the end-of-year budget deadline, writes Daniel Clery for Science. The plan was for the European Union to use €1.4 billion ($1.9 billion) in unused 2010 budget funds to fill a gap in 201213 caused by the project’s ballooning costs. ITER is a global project supported by seven partners: the EU, China, India, Japan, Korea, Russia, and the US. Now the European Commission, the EU’s executive agency, must go back to the drawing board.