Ceilidh

Michael Zey
futurist3000@aol.com

Takeo Kawamura said Sunday that Japan will continue to make maximum efforts to host the world's first prototype nuclear fusion reactor.

On Saturday at a minister-level meeting near Washington, representatives from six parties -- Japan, China, South Korea,
Russia, the United States and the European Union (EU) -- failed to strike a deal on the venue for the $12 billion, 30-year energy project due to a sharp division over two rival sites in Japan and France.

"It was regrettable that we could not get desired results at the latest meeting after intensive discussion," Kawamura said in a statement.

"We'd like to continue utmost efforts to have Japan become the host of the project," he said.

The six parties agreed to make efforts to work out a compromise by the end of January.

Tokyo has proposed hosting the project in the northeastern Japanese village of Rokkasho, while the EU has selected the southern French town of Cadarache as its candidate venue.

Under the project, the construction of an experimental nuclear fusion reactor will start in 2004 with its operation scheduled to begin in 2014. After operating for 20 years, the reactor will be dismantled.
12/20/03 20:36 EST

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