FILE PHOTO – A crane loads equipments at the construction site of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) in Saint-Paul-lez-Durance,Southern France, October 6, 2016. REUTERS/Jean-Paul Pelissier
March 26, 2018
PARIS (Reuters) – The United States has agreed to double its planned 2018 budget contribution to the ITER project to build a prototype nuclear fusion reactor, avoiding delays to the international project this year, its director said on Monday.
Washington cut the United States’ 2017 contribution from a scheduled $105 million to $50 million and had planned to cut its 2018 contribution from a scheduled $120 million to $63 million.
But in last-minute talks about the U.S. 2018 budget last week, the U.S. Congress approved a draft Omnibus Spending Bill with a $122 million in-kind contribution for ITER, which President Donald Trump signed into law on Friday, ITER said.
“This is a very positive signal … it will prevent ITER having to announce project delays in 2018,” ITER Director-General Bernard Bigot told Reuters in an telephone interview.
(Reporting by Geert De Clercq; Editing by Catherine Evans)
