Fusion for Energy has released its fourth annual report, detailing the the activities carried out over year 2011. The report highlights the main construction works carried out over the year which have boosted the projects, as well as the agreements put in place with other projects, the budgetary and administrative elements of its functioning and the improvements in F4E's governance.

The the fourth Annual Report of Fusion for Energy (F4E) put forward by this European Joint Undertaking for ITER and the Development of Fusion Energy, reviews the main achievements carried out by F4E over the year and its contributions to the ITER and fusion for energy projects. Achievements within the ITER project as well as other actions such as the contribution to the satellite Tokamak, IFMIF/EVEDA or IFERC Programmes are also addressed by the report.

Chair of the F4E Governing Board, Mr Stuart Ward, highlights in this report that much has been achieved over year 2011. The ITER site in Cadarache (France) has been levelled, the initial buildings are under construction, the site for the Tokamak has been excavated and much of the foundations have been completed. Furthermore, a new organisation structure was introduced in F4E from the beginning of 2011 that reinforced a culture of project management and consolidated the financial service.

The agreement on the EU budget for the ITER construction, reached in December 2011, was another important milestone for the execution of the project. F4E managed its largest budget to date in 2011 which earmarked €500 million in commitments and almost €300 million in payments. The level of implementation of the payments budget improved in relation to the previous three years, achieving 85%

In the public procurement side, F4E has placed orders in 2011 for the site works, logistics and 36 other contracts with a total value of nearly €164 million. The report shows that these contracts have been awarded to a wide range of European companies through competitive tendering processes. Furthermore, over 2011 F4E has consolidated its its pre-procurement activities and tools interacting with the industry and associations to improve the efficiency in procurement.