The six partners of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) on Tuesday chose France as the site for an experimental nuclear fusion reactor that is designed to mimic the way the sun produces power.

"After long discussions and a great deal of work, the participants chose the site of Cadarache in France," Russia's atomic energy chief Alexander Rumyantsev told reporters.
   
The 10-billion-euro (US$12.18 billion) project, backed by China, the European Union (EU), Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States, is based on the theory of generating energy by combining atoms.
   
Previously, the EU and Japan proposed two candidate sites, Cadarache in France and Rokkasho-mura in Japan.
   
France won the bid after a closed-door meeting of the project's six partners. The reactor, according to technology backers, opens the way for producing an endless supply of low-cost clean energy using seawater as fuel.
   
"This is a great success for France, for Europe and for all the partners in the ITER," French President Jacques Chirac said in a statement issued shortly after the announcement was made in Moscow.
   
"The international community will now be able to take on an unprecedented scientific and technological challenge, which holds great hope for providing humanity with an energy that has no impact on the environment and is practically inexhaustible," Chirac said.

(Xinhua News Agency June 29, 2005)