Brussels, 10/05/2005 (Agence Europe) - During Commissioner Janez Potocnik's visit to Japan from 11 to 13 April this year, Japan's deputy minister for science and technology, Nariaki Nakayama, hoped a solution would be reached on the issue of the international thermonuclear experimental reactor, ITER (see EUROPE 8926). Dialogue between the two partners has allowed technical discussions to be resumed and allowed an agreement to be reached on 5 May in Geneva on the breakdown of the roles between the future reactor's host country and the country that, although playing a major role in the project, does not host ITER on its territory. Compensation for the partner that does not have the reactor on its territory includes a number of elements that derive from European proposals, but EUROPE has reason to believe that they contain nothing about possible research on materials in the “non host” country, although Japan is interested in such a possibility.
Although the technical details are now settled, the key issue, that of location, has still not been resolved - at least not officially. This subject is a highly sensitive one in Japan and the excessive intervention at the end of last week in France - mainly declarations, some of which were tainted with premature triumphalism, by President Jacques Chirac on 2 May, UMP member Pierre Lellouche on 5 May and the Minister for Research, François d'Aubert - showed yet again how easy it is to upset the Japanese authorities that must be able to present the result of technical negotiations and officially take a decision about the choice of location for ITER. They promised to do so by the G8 Summit scheduled for 6 July this year. The Japanese decision can therefore come at any moment between now and then and the European Commission plans in the meanwhile to avoid all public debate that could jeopardise the conclusion of the international six-party agreement (EU, United States, Russia, Japan, China, South Korea), allowing for ITER to be built.