BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Fusion reactor decision must wait 11/10/04 1:47 AM

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News Front Page Last Updated: Tuesday, 9 November, 2004, 23:45 GMT World E-mail this to a friend Printable version UK Fusion reactor decision must wait England The six nations planning to build the Northern Ireland ITER - NUCLEAR FUSION PROJECT FROM OTHER NEWS SITES: world's biggest nuclear fusion Scotland reactor ended their latest meeting Reuters UK Talks on Nuke Fusion Plant End Without Decision - 10 Wales with no agreement on a site for the facility. hrs ago Business CNN EU may go it alone on Officials had gathered in Vienna at the Politics nuclear fusion - 14 hrs ago International Atomic Energy Agency to Health discuss the project, which will be based IHT France to be host to global Education in either France or Japan. fusion effort - 29 hrs ago Science/Nature The parties are deadlocked over the MSNBC France favored for Technology decision - and neither Japan nor the EU futuristic fusion facility - 34 hrs Entertainment will back down in favour of the other. ago ------The project is estimated to cost Reuters France to Host Nuclear Europe has warned it could go it alone Have Your Say if the matter is not resolved soon. $10bn and will run for 20 years Fusion Project - EU Source - 38 It will produce the first hrs ago Magazine Outside support sustained fusion reactions About these results In Pictures Iter is the final stage before a The BBC is not responsible for the commercial reactor is built Week at a Glance The decision to break away could come content of external internet sites Country Profiles later this month when Europe's Council of Ministers is expected to discuss the issue. The EU would look to other nations In Depth outside the Iter consortium to come in and help fund the work at Cadarache in SEE ALSO: Programmes the south of France. Nuclear fusion decision 'urgent' 02 Jul 04 | Science/Nature These might include India, Switzerland and Canada, which itself recently withdrew from the Iter process. EU 'confident' of star power site 23 May 04 | Science/Nature Japan has been irked by comments in the media over the past day that it was Fusion project decision delayed about to concede. This will not happen, its delegation in Vienna has said. 20 Dec 03 | Science/Nature

It is adamant that its candidate site at Rokkasho-mura in the north of the US and China join fusion project country is the best - and it has the support of the US and South Korea. 25 Feb 03 | Science/Nature

The other two Iter parties, Russia and China, back Cadarache on the French RELATED INTERNET LINKS: Mediterranean. Iter "There was no agreement but there was no breakdown either. On the contrary, Cadarache, France we have done good work and made good progress," European Commission Rokkasho-mura, Japan spokesman Fabio Fabbi told the Reuters news agency. Jet "The two countries least enthusiastic about the European option - Japan and the Kurchatov Institute United States - weren't very warm but they were no longer firmly against it," he International Atomic Energy said. Agency

Challenging concept The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites After the International Space Station, the reactor would be the largest international research and development collaboration. TOP SCIENCE/NATURE STORIES NOW In terms of the physics and huge amounts of energy involved, the project would US top of supercomputing charts be akin to building a star on Earth. Fusion reactor decision must wait

In a fusion reaction, energy is produced when light atoms - the hydrogen Satellites track albatross flight isotopes deuterium and tritium - are fused together to form heavier atoms. Polar people 'will need to adapt'

This is quite different to nuclear fission in which atomic nuclei are split to release energy.

But to use controlled fusion reactions on Earth, it is necessary to heat a gas to temperatures exceeding 100