Posted on 03/09/2005 7:04:18 PM PST by snowsislander
Japan said Tuesday it will maintain its bid to host a revolutionary nuclear project, despite fresh pressure from the European Union which threatened to build the reactor in France unless Japan compromised by June.
"There is no change in our position," Takahiro Hayashi, deputy director of Japan's Office of Fusion Energy, told AFP.
"We have been conducting technical discussions at the working level, and we believe the Japanese proposal about the project is superior to the EU proposal."
He said he has not officially heard from the European Union about a deadline on a decision over the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), a multibillion-dollar test project for clean, inexhaustible energy.
"We know there is talk about bringing this to the political level for decision-making. We believe it is still premature to do so," Hayashi said.
Talks are deadlocked among the six parties involved in the breakthrough science venture.
The United States and South Korea support Japan's offer to build ITER in Rokkasho-mura, a northern Japanese village near the Pacific Ocean, while the EU, China and Russia back the bid of the southern French town of Cadarache.
Research Minister Francois Biltgen of Luxembourg warned Monday that an agreement had to be reached by the end of June, when his country's presidency of the rotating European Union presidency ends.
According to the current plans "work on ITER should begin by the end of this year," Biltgen said at a meeting of European science ministers in Brussels. "That means a decision should be taken under the Luxembourg presidency."
Japan and the European Union reportedly have offered compromises to each other, proposing that one side get the main ITER reactor in exchange for the other hosting supporting research.
The project, which would emulate the sun's nuclear fusion, is designed to one day generate inexhaustible supplies of electricity, but is not expected to be operational before 2050.
ping
Not to familiar with this fusion project and bidding. I would trust the Europeans to make sausage let alone some type of fusion reactor. I hope the Japanese get it. I wouldn't know why they wouldn't do it by themselves though.
Pete
China/Russia/EU on one side
South Korea/Japan/United States on the other
I don't think EU will go it along despite their threat to do so. If they do, they'll be the only one contributing to funding it. China and Russia won't be able to contribute much.
South Korea/Japan/United States should just go alone. They have most of the money.
I agree.
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