India to sign ITER project for tapping fusion energy

17 October 2006

Mumbai: India, the US, the European Union, China, South Korea, Russia and Japan will sign an agreement next month on the implementation of the 'international thermonuclear experimental reactor' (ITER) project, aimed at tapping fusion energy.

The agreement marks the formal launch of the multi-million dollar project, nominee director-general of the ITER International Fusion Energy Research Project, Kaname Ikeda, said.

The project, nicknamed 'artificial sun', aims at recreating sun-like conditions under which a nuclear fusion reaction can take place. The implementation of the project would offer people an opportunity to realize their dream of bringing nuclear fusion energy under control, deputy director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Werner Burkart, said.

The construction of the reactor, to be located in France, will take nearly 10 years and cost 10 billion euros, Xinhua quoted Ikeda as saying.

India, which has been running an experimental fusion programme since the mid-1980s with the indigenously built Aditya reactor, is a full member of the project. The financial cost of India's participation in the ITER project will be around Rs200 crore a year.