Strasbourg, 16/11/2004 (Agence Europe) - As anticipated, the Commission on Tuesday adopted a proposal modifying its negotiation mandate for the future international experimental nuclear fusion reactor, ITER. "We wanted the agreement of all six", said Commissioner Louis Michel, presenting the proposal to the press. Describing himself as "rather optimistic", the Commissioner added: "I think that we can conclude before the end of the year".
Louis Michel pointed out that the "privileged partnership" proposal made to Japan at the meeting which took place in Vienna on 9 November went down well with both Japan and the United States (see EUROPE of 10 November, p.10). He explained that the new negotiation mandate, which will be submitted to the Council for adoption at its meeting in its "Competitiveness" configuration on 26 November, provides: 1) the identification of all potential partners to achieve ITER at Cadarache; 2) setting at 50% (40% maximum for the Community budget) the upper limit of the share of the construction costs to be taken on by the EU; 3) an enlarged approach, including other research activities which could be carried out in Japan; 4) confirming the possibility for the EU to continue with construction under a more limited partnership. The Commissioner stressed that the first three points aim to boost a consensus on the part of all six, and that the last is to "avoid our hands being tied" should negotiations fail to reach any conclusion. However, he added, "our first priority is to reach an agreement between all six" on building the reactor at Cadarache.
The project is likely to cost around 10 billion EUR over 35 years, including 4.570 billion just to build the reactor. The EU, supported by Russia and China, and Japan, supported by the United States and South Korea; have been at loggerheads over the choice of site for almost a year. The Europeans are in favour of Cadarache in the south-east of France, and the Japanese would like to see the installation of the experimental reactor in Rokkasho-Mura. The latest European proposal would allow Japan to host a material-testing plant. The supraconductor reactor JT60 planned in Japan could take over for the JET (Joint European Taurus installed in Culham in the United Kingdom) and included in the ITER project.