India-EU agreement to seal Indian participation in ITER project
05 Nov 2009
New Delhi: The European Union and India are likely to sign a civil nuclear energy agreement dealing with India's participation in the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project in course of the India-EU summit which takes place this week.
''An agreement on civil nuclear energy, focusing on India's participation in the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor project is expected to be signed,'' Daniele Smadja, ambassador, head of the European Commission's delegation to India, told reporters.
The agreement will facilitate India's participation in the project. India was inducted into the ITER project as its seventh member in 2006. ITER is an international fusion research project with seven participants, including the European Union, Japan, China, the Republic of Korea, Russia, India and the US.
It is one of the costliest and largest scientific projects in the world.
The project, coming up at Cadarache in France, has been running behind schedule with EU countries, which have to provide 45% of the cost, still debating how they will pay their share.
The first leg of the construction is now expected to start in 2010 and the reactor itself is expected to be operational by 2016.
