Funding
As of 13 July 2010 (2010 -07-13), the total price of constructing the experiment is expected to be in excess of € 15 billion, an increase of € 5 billion from the 2009 estimate. Prior to that, the proposed costs for ITER were € 5 billion for the construction and € 5 billion for maintenance and the research connected with it during its 35 year lifetime. At the June 2005 conference in Moscow the participating members of the ITER cooperation agreed on the following division of funding contributions: 45% by the hosting member, the European Union, and the rest split between the non-hosting members – China, India, Japan, South Korea, the Russian Federation and the USA. During the operation and deactivation phases, Euratom will contribute to 34% of the total costs.
Although Japan's financial contribution as a non-hosting member is 1/11th of the total, the EU agreed to grant it a special status so that Japan will provide for 2/11ths of the research staff at Cadarache and be awarded 2/11ths of the construction contracts, while the European Union's staff and construction components contributions will be cut from 5/11ths to 4/11ths.
It was reported in December 2010 that the European Parliament had refused to approve a plan by member states to reallocate 1.4bn euros from the budget to cover a shortfall in ITER building costs in 2012-13. The closure of the 2010 budget required this financing plan to be revised, and the European Commission (EC) was forced to put forward an ITER budgetary resolution proposal in 2011.
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