WASHINGTON - The US government on Tuesday applauded the selection of Cadarache, France as the site of an experimental nuclear fusion reactor, in an ambitious multibillion-dollar international program aimed at finding a clean and sustainable source of energy.
"It boded well for ITER that there were two serviceable sites and six parties committed to this important fusion project," Raymond Orbach, who represented the United States at a key ministerial meeting in Moscow Tuesday, said in a statement.
The six partners in the 10-billion-euro (12-billion-dollar) research project -- China, the European Union, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States -- signed an agreement Tuesday in Moscow declaring that the ITER international fusion reactor would be located at the EU's site in southeastern France.
The other site that had been under consideration was in Japan.
"Now that the partners have agreed on a site, the ITER negotiations must also resolve an agreed-upon financial and procurement arrangement, together with a satisfactory management and oversight arrangement," said Orbach, director of the US Department of Energy's Office of Science.
ITER was conceived at an international summit in 1985 as a test to see whether fusion can be taken out of the lab and help meet the world's energy needs from the mid-21st century.
06/28/2005 14:59 GMT