ITER - Participants

Participants

Currently there are seven parties participating in the ITER program: the European Union (through the legally distinct organisation EURATOM), India, Japan, People's Republic of China, Russia, South Korea, and the United States of America (USA). Canada was previously a full member, but has since pulled out due to a lack of funding from the federal government. The lack of funding also resulted in Canada withdrawing from its bid for the ITER site in 2003. The host member of the ITER project, and hence the member contributing most of the costs, is the EU.

In 2007, it was announced that participants in the ITER will consider Kazakhstan's offer to join the program.

ITER's work is supervised by the ITER Council, which has the authority to appoint senior staff, amend regulations, decide on budgeting issues, and allow additional states or organizations to participate in ITER. The chairman of the ITER Council is Evgeny Velikhov, initiator of the ITER project.