Multi-year delay to Iter fusion facility to cost extra €5bn

International demonstration facility’s new construction and operations plan involves finding “shortcuts” in schedule, says leader

The international nuclear fusion research facility Iter has been delayed by several years in various elements of its operations, at an estimated extra cost of €5 billion.

The scale of the challenge facing the facility was laid bare in a ‘baseline’ schedule presented to the governing board in June and detailed to the media by Iter’s director general, Petro Barabaschi, on 3 July.