Reply To: Set up a holding company

[Brian H]

Just as an historical note, ITER got the political nod originally because it was so “simple”: just make the donut big enough, no big new physics hurdles.
But as the tripling of estimated costs already demonstrates, containment is a beotch. And, IMO, always will be. Note that the wee “short-term hole” in the 1-yr. budget is equal to ¼ of the TOTAL projected cost at the beginning.

As an interesting political side-note, observe that the “member states” (? their legislatures, or bureaucracies?) had approved the plan, as had the EU Council of Ministers — but the Parliament rejected it. I am actually somewhat heartened to see that said Parliament is more than a toothless rubber-stamper. Since it cannot propose or legislate anything, only opine and approve (or not), I guess this is the only way it can have any actual influence.