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Lucia A Keegan  11/30/2006 10:38:10 AM  From  DB/Inbox:  Lucia A Keegan

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UNCLAS        PARIS 07581

SIPDIS
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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 PARIS 007581 
 
SIPDIS 
 
WHITE HOUSE FOR OSTP AND CEQ; DEPT FOR G, STAS, OES, IO, EUR; DOE 
FOR OFFICE OF SCIENCE; EMBASSIES FOR SCIENCE AND ENVIRONMENT 
OFFICERS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ENRG TRGY SENV KPAO FR
SUBJECT: ITER JOINT IMPLEMENTATION AGREEMENT FOR $10 BILLION FUSION 
EXPERIMENT SIGNED IN PARIS, NOVEMBER 21, 2006 
 
¶1.  Summary: On November 21, representatives of the European Union, 
China, Russia, India, the Republic of Korea, Japan, and the United 
States signed the agreement creating the ITER international 
organization charged with building, operating and dismantling, at a 
cost of some $10 billion, a first-of-its-kind fusion science 
project.  Essentially, ITER's purpose is to demonstrate the power of 
fusion as a future energy source.  The project will be built in 
Cadarache in France's south.  Operations should begin by 2015, 
continue for some 20-25 years, and take several years to dismantle. 
Following the signing, the ITER parties also convened at the first 
interim ITER Council Meeting to activate the interim, provisional 
ITER organization while the Joint Implementation Agreement is 
ratified by the Japanese Diet.  (DOE had transmitted to Congress in 
May 2006 the final initialed text to satisfy the 120-day review 
period required by the Energy Policy Act of 2005.)  Below are 
included background on ITER, highlights of the signing ceremony, and 
local press reaction.  End Summary. 
 
------------------------ 
ITER's Background 
------------------------ 
 
¶2.  The ITER experiment is designed to demonstrate the technological 
feasibility of fusion energy - magnetic confinement of high 
temperature plasma, the power of the sun on earth - for peaceful 
purposes.  The research, if successful, should provide the know-how 
to enable the building of a prototype power plant based on fusion 
energy.  Although ITER was first conceived in the 1980's, an 
acceptable engineering design was only produced in 2001.  Early 
collaboration on ITER began between the then Soviet Union, the U.S., 
Europe (through EURATOM), and Japan.  In 2003, the People's Republic 
of China and the Republic of Korea joined project talks and in 2005, 
India joined the group of interested parties. 
 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
Attractions of fusion as an energy source 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
 
¶3.  The key advantages of successful fusion would be: 
 
- It could provide a large-scale energy source with basic fuels of 
lithium, the most abundant element on earth, and deuterium, found in 
sea water. 
 
- Environmentally benign - no long-lived radioactivity, or CO2 
emissions. 
 
-Day-to-day operation of a fusion power station would not require 
the transport of radioactive materials.  The plant itself would not 
be subject to 'meltdown' or 'runaway reactions.' 
 
(More about ITER can be found at 'www.ITER.org.') 
 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
Signing - Before French President Chirac 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
 
¶4.  The signing that occurred on November 21 of the ITER Joint 
Implementation Agreement permits the establishment of the ITER 
international organization (following ratification by Japan's Diet, 
a process expected to take several months).  The ITER international 
organization will be responsible for and technically oversee all 
aspects of the project, from application of construction licenses 
from French nuclear authorities through hardware procurements, 
mostly provided 'in-kind' by the Parties.  It will manage the 
operation of the experiment and finally decommissioning and 
dismantlement.  ITER Parties will send engineers and scientists to 
participate in each phase of the project. 
 
¶5.  For the United States, Dr. Raymond Orbach, DOE Under Secretary 
for Science, signed the ITER joint implementation agreement.  Other 
senior U.S. officials attending the signing ceremony included U.S. 
Ambassador to France, Craig Roberts Stapleton, and Dr. George 
Atkinson, Science and Technology Adviser to the Secretary of State. 
Signers for other Parties included: Vladimir Travin, Deputy Head of 
the Federal Atomic Energy Agency (Rosatom), Russia; Takeshi Iwaya, 
Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs, Japan; Xu Guanhua, Minister of 
Science and Technology, PRC; Woo Sik Kim, Vice Prime Minister, 
Ministry of Science and Technology, Korea; Anil Kakodhar, Secretary 
to the Government of India, Department of Atomic Energy; and Janez 
Potocnik, European Commissioner for Science and Research.  The 
signing ceremony took place before French President Jacques Chirac 
and Jose Manuel Barroso, President European Commission. 
 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
Remarks - A truly international project 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
¶6.  In his opening remarks, President Chirac highlighted the 
international nature of the project: "Exceptional for its 
international scale: the unprecedented association of seven major 
partners from the North and South...."  He also put the prospects 
for the project in the context of the need to find clean energy 
technologies to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.  He noted, "We 
are duty bound by the stakes.  If nothing changes, humanity will 
have consumed in two hundred years most of the fossil resources 
accumulated over hundreds of millions of years, triggering at the 
same time a climatic upheaval.  The depletion of these resources and 
action to combat global warming call for a revolution in our methods 
of production and consumption."  Importantly, Chirac also committed 
France to the success of ITER. 
 
¶7.  The Head of the U.S. Delegation, Dr. Orbach, stressed the 
importance of ITER to the United States in remarks following the 
signing.  He said, "ITER is a central component of President Bush's 
Advanced Energy Initiative to develop abundant, environmentally 
benign, and cost effective energy sources.  ...  The President's 
initiative in joining ITER allows the United States to share, as 
well as to contribute to, the combined experience and knowledge that 
will result from the design, construction and operation of this 
vital project."  He emphasized that the United States will work to 
achieve the success of ITER, "to provide succeeding generations a 
source of unlimited environmentally benign energy.  There is no 
greater contribution to world security and prosperity...."  Finally, 
Dr. Orbach also underscored that ITER is "the first stand alone, 
truly international, large-scale scientific research effort in the 
history of the world.  It will serve as a model for future 
collaborative large scale science projects."  This last point was 
made repeatedly by Dr. Orbach in his discussions with other 
delegations and the press. 
 
------------------- 
Media Reaction 
------------------- 
 
¶8. Print media reports surrounding the signing of the ITER project 
were largely factual and tended to emphasize that the signing 
represents the culmination of "twenty years of diplomatic, financial 
and scientific negotiations" (left-of-center daily Le Monde 
11/22/06).  The majority of the print press reports stressed the 
economic advantages for France: "3000 indirect and direct jobs in 
the region will be created" (Agence France Presse).   For left-wing 
daily Liberation: "France's leading role in ITER is a result of the 
Old Continent's scientific preeminence on the subject [of nuclear 
energy]... but translates into a significant financial commitment, 
reinforced by the choice of Cadarache." An Associated Press wire 
report in French quoted Under Secretary Orbach as saying that "this 
energy represents a hope for the world." On November 22, 
right-of-center daily Le Figaro cast doubts about the involvement of 
countries such as India (that had not signed the NPT) in a project 
where "the resulting technology will belong to all of the partners." 
 
 
¶9.  Comment: As Dr. Orbach mentioned in his presentation, the 
signing ceremony for ITER represented not only the final closure of 
long and sometimes difficult negotiations, but also the beginning of 
the ITER International Organization and the construction phase of 
the ITER project.  It also represents an enormous commitment to 
solve the world's energy problem by scientists representing more 
than half the world's population.  Embassy Paris greatly appreciated 
the efforts by the U.S. Delegation in participating in media 
outreach during their stay.  We also appreciate Dr. Orbach taking 
time while in Paris for the signing to give a presentation on the 
'U.S. Advanced Energy Initiative: Transformational Energy and 
Environmental Science" which was warmly received by a large and 
diverse French audience.   End Comment. 
 
STAPLETON