Saturday, November 20, 2004
Japan threatens EU over nuclear fusion site
Reuters London, November 20
Japan would walk away from a partnership with the EU to build the world's first nuclear fusion reaction if work begins on a site in France without its agreement, Japan's chief negotiator has said.
Talks between Tokyo and the European Union over where to build the $12 billion International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) -- which would try to replicate the way the sun generates energy -- ended in deadlock earlier this month.
The EU wants the project to be based in Cadarache, near Marseille, while Tokyo is hoping it will be built in Rokkasho, a remote fishing village in northern Japan.
"If Europe maintains its hard line and if France starts building without any agreement from us, we will never join," Satoru Ohtake, head of nuclear fusion at Japan's Science and Technology ministry, said in an interview published in London's Financial Times newspaper on Saturday. "That would be a miserable result. That would split the world in two." Nuclear fusion has been touted as a long-term solution to the world's energy problems, as it would be low in pollution and use limitless sea water as fuel. However 50 years of research have failed to produce a commercially viable fusion reactor.
Talks between the EU, South Korea, Russia, the United States, Japan and China in Vienna last week to decide ITER's location ended in stalemate. China and Russia are said to support France while South Korea and the US favour Japan.
On Tuesday, the EU offered Japan incentives if it were to drop its bid, such as allowing Tokyo to be involved in building the site in Cadarache.
However, the offer has angered Japan which believes the EU's attitude has been insulting.
"They are treating this like a king and servant relationship, where the king throws small things to the beggars," Ohtake told the paper. "It is bad manners. We have our pride."
Ohtake added the ideal solution would be to reduce the differences between the two sides so the loser could climb down gracefully.
He suggested the final decision could then be taken using a method put forward by David King, the scientific adviser to the British government -- by tossing a coin.
© HT Media Ltd. 2004.