China to contribute 1.4 billion dollars to ITER

0 Comments | AFP, January, 2008

BEIJING (AFP) — China will contribute 1.4 billion dollars to an international nuclear fusion project that aims to emulate the power of the sun to provide limitless clean energy, state press said Tuesday.

The 10 billion yuan (1.4 billion dollars) would make up about 10 percent of the cost of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) to be built in France and expected to go online by 2016, the China Daily said.

"The goal of the project is to find a shortcut to solve our energy shortages," the paper quoted Luo Delong, vice head of the ITER China Office, as telling a scientific forum in Beijing.

Half of China's contribution is expected to be spent during the 10-year construction phase of the project located in Cadarache, France, it said....