European Institutions

COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION

l scroll

ITER Site Decision Delayed to February

- Meanwhile the US Backs Rokkasho & Canada Quits

A decision on where to build the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) is now likely to be made at a ministerial-level meeting in mid February. This follows the failure to reach consensus on the part of ministers negotiating ITER’s construction in December last year – and their call for candidate host parties to answer, by the end of January, additional questions they had tabled.

In the meanwhile, January has seen two further developments on ITER. The United States announced, on 13 January, that it is backing the Japanese bid for siting the reactor at Rokkasho. Canada formally confirmed its withdrawal from both the negotiations and the transitional arrangements for the project on 14 January, thus making it official that its candidate site, Clarington, is no longer a contender. This now leaves only the European Union (EU) candidate site, Cadarache (France), and Rokkasho as serious contenders.

Although Canada only went public with its decision in January, this had already been stated in a letter dated 23 December. In it, Canada’s minister for natural resources, John Efford said that owing to “present priorities and other demands,” the country “is not in a position to table a competitive package that would lead to Canada becoming the host to the ITER project.”

The specific details regarding the funding of ITER depend on which site is eventually chosen. A number of scenarios have been posted on the ITER website (http://www.iter.org).

Sources: NucNet / ITER