A broad industrial procurement

Although the details of arrangements for implementing ITER are still subject to discussions between the ITER parties, the main features can already be illustrated. The items to be purchased can be divided into three categories:

  • Those that can only sensibly be purchased by the hast country.
  • Those which are of minor technical interest or size, and whose cost burden must therefore be shared by all parties.
  • Items of interest to all the parties due primarily to their high technology content. To ensure each party obtains its fair share of these items, the parties must agree beforehand ores each will contribute. Each party will contribute its agreed items "in kind". using the purchasing procedures and funding arrangements it prefers.

To arrive at the "evaluated cost" or valuation of ITER, construction has been broken clown into about 85 "procurement packages" each defined at the level of detail appropriate for an actual procurement contract. Half of these are for the tokamak hardware in the "pit', the remainder for peripheral equipment. Industrial companies or large laboratories with relevant experience were invited by the Home Teams to analyze the manufacturing processes and to generate from these procurement packages their estimates of the physical quantities to be supplied, including manpower, materials, and tooling and other costs pertinent to their normal industrial practices, to fit a given delivery schedule.