After 15 years of IAEA support for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) the project's six partners, the European Union, the People's Republic of China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation and the USA, today announced France has been chosen to host the $10 billion project.
"The IAEA is pleased, in the last 15 years to have assisted in providing support for the ITER process as it was in transit towards this important stage of implementation, and also to have supported recent complex negotiations," Werner Burkart, Deputy Director General and Head of the IAEA Department of Nuclear Sciences and Applications, said at the signing ceremony in Moscow today.
He said that the IAEA will continue to offer its support for the project whose aim is to demonstrate the scientific and technological feasibility of fusion energy, the source of energy that powers the sun.
» Read Joint Declaration of ITER Parties
» Read Dr. Burkart's Statement