05/02/2007 (Agence Europe) - Japan's foreign minister, Taro Aso, and the delegate from the European Commission, Hugh Richardson, initialled a cooperation agreement in Tokyo on Monday 5 February relating to implementation of the “energy approach” that had made it possible to untangle the negotiation on the proposal for an international Thermo Nuclear Energy Reactor (INTER). In exchange for Japan's agreement that the ITER should be built on the French site of Cadarache, Japan will host three projects. The town of Rokkasho - Cadarache's unlucky competitor - will host a centre for the validation of material and design linked to the future reactor, as well as a centre for computer simulation and long-distance experimentation. The Nakra research centre will also be at the heart of the project thanks to expertise that it has developed in the field of plasma control. Its plasma confinement chamber, or Tokamak (JT-60), will be perfected for testing ITER exploitation scenarios. (oj)