Accord signed in France on sun emulating nuclear reactor

PARIS: A seven-member international consortium including India on Tuesday signed a formal treaty to build a multibillion-dollar experimental nuclear reactor emulating the power of the sun, sealing a decade of negotiations.

"This is a new step in an exceptional adventure," French President Jacques Chirac said after leading the signing ceremony in Paris.

Representatives from India, China, the European Union, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States signed the pact on the construction of the USD 12.8 billion reactor.

Originally called the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, now known officially by its initials ITER (or "the way" in Latin), the facility is to be built in Cadarache, in southern France, over a decade starting 2008.

The project aims to research a clean and limitless alternative to dwindling fossil fuel reserves by testing nuclear fusion technologies.

Instead of splitting the atom -- the principle behind current nuclear plants -- the project seeks to harness nuclear fusion: the power of the sun and the stars achieved by fusing together atomic nuclei.

If it is successful, a prototype commercial reactor will be built, and if that works, fusion technology will be rolled out across the world.

Chirac said the experimental reactor was "a hand held out to future generations" and predicted that, if it proved successful, "we will be able to derive as much energy from a litre of seawater as from a litre of petrol or a kilo of coal."