FPN03-03

ITER Prospects Brighten

January 28, 2003

Prospects for construction of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) have brightened with the announcement that China has offered to pick up a 10% share of project and the expectation that an announcement is imminent that the U.S. will rejoin the ITER negotiations. Canada, which was the first country to offer to host ITER, has also announced that it is revising its offer, with the aim to make it more even attractive to the other parties

According to an article in the Jan 23 issue of the British science magazine Nature, China has formally asked to join the ITER project and has offered to contribute about 10% of its costs.

The request was made during a visit to China by Robert Aymar, the project's head. A letter confirming the offer has been sent to the project's partners: Japan, Russia, the European Union and Canada. "China intends to provide a substantial contribution in kind or in finance to the project," the Chinese science minister Xu Gusnhua said in the letter.

The United States also has been considering rejoining the project, from which it withdrew in 1999. It is widely rumored that a positive decision has been made within the Bush Administration and that an announcement to rejoin is imminent. The revised site offer from Canada is expected "early in 2003."