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Decision on nuclear fusion plant delayed France or Japan? Sponsors say they need more time The Associated Press Updated: 7:12 p.m. ET Dec. 20, 2003 WASHINGTON - International sponsors of a project to generate energy by reproducing the sun's power source failed Saturday to agree on whether to build the world's first large-scale nuclear fusion reactor in France or Japan. Representatives from the European Union, the United States, Russia, South Korea, China and Japan said in a statement after meeting for more than three hours that they need additional time to pick a site. When asked to elaborate, the deputy director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, who moderated the talks, explained that the development of fusion power means more than building the reactor and involves scientific and technical activities. France vs. Japan France and Japan are the finalists in a bidding war for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor project, which is expected to cost $12 billion over 35 years. The stakes are high because the project means jobs, government subsidies and prestige. Scientists at the Princeton University Plasma Physics Laboratory in Plainsboro, N.J., one of 10 national labs funded by the Department of Energy, are expected to help lead U.S. research on the project. The Princeton lab is considered the country's premier center for research on magnetic fusion. Its staff has been conducting energy experiments for about four years on its latest generation of experimental fusion reactor, a huge device called the National Spherical Torus Experiment. The promise of fusion The international energy project, first proposed more than a decade ago, is designed to study the potential of fusion power as a cleaner alternative to fossil fuels, such as coal and oil. By some estimates, fossil fuels may run short in about 50 years. Fusion power produces no greenhouse gas emissions and only low levels of radioactive waste. The reactor would run on an isotope of hydrogen, an abundant source of fuel that can be extracted from water.
This would mean 10,000 of high paying jobs, technical leadership of the world, and less dependence on fossel fuels
I think it was the less dependence on fossel fuels that got them
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