France, Spain both have chance as site for thermonuclear reactor

BRUSSELS (AFP) Sep 05, 2003
Experts charged with assessing rival sites in France and Spain contending for the vast new ITER international thermonuclear reactor project refused Friday to make a choice, saying both were equally good.

Cadarache in southern France and Vandellos in northeastern Spain "are both serious competitors" and "both in a position to win," the experts' report said.

The report, delivered to the EU executive the European Commission, turned the final decision over to industry and research ministers from the 15 European Union states.

They are to meet September 22 and 23 to decide in principle between Cadarache or Vandellos. Though the European Commission and most EU states wants only one European candidate, Spain has been pressing its neighbors to allow both sites to run in the international competition.

The European contender will compete against two other locations, Clarington in the Canadian province of Ontario and Rokkasho-Mura in Japan, to become the home of the reactor, which is scheduled to start running in 2013.

The multi-billion euro (dollar) project, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor or ITER, is billed as the biggest international science project since the space station and expected to bring a windfall for its final location.

Launched in 1985, the project's cost is estimated at 4.7 billion euros (dollars) to be financed by Canada, China, Europe, Japan, Russia and the United States -- who together will choose the final site.

The experts' report said Cadarache -- which is located a few kilometers (miles) from a seismic faultline that was responsible for stopping production of nuclear fuel at a 1960s-era plant there that was deemed not up to modern safety standards -- had the advantage in terms of an existing infrastructure thanks to the old plant.

But Vandellos would ultimately involve less direct cost to Spanish authorities than Cadarache would to French authorities.

The ITER project aims to build a huge experimental fusion reactor "to demonstrate the scientific and technological feasibility of fusion energy for peaceful purposes," according to the project's website.

If all goes well, it will be the first fusion device "to produce thermal energy at the level of an electricity-producing power station", according to the site.

WAR.WIRE