By Henrietta Billings - 4th May 2005
The EU and Japan are set to thrash out details of the international nuclear fusion reactor - a step towards clinching a deal over where the project will be built.
France and Japan have been vying to host the €10 billion International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), a project designed to test the feasibility of nuclear fusion as a future clean energy source.
Thursday's working level meeting in Geneva, will according to a European Commission spokeswoman, clarify the "roles of the host and non-host countries" involved with the project, although no formal announcement of where the site will be built is expected.
Under a deal due to be agreed today, Japan is set receive preferential treatment in the procurement of materials for the site, in return for France hosting the reactor.
Both sides are expected to agree that Cadarache, France will host the site and make the official announcement by the end of June, according to Japanese newspaper Nihon Keizai Shimbun.
The US and South Korea back Japan's bid to build the ITER in Rokkasho-mura, in the north of the country, while the EU, China and Russia support France's site in Cadarache.
Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura told reporters in Paris on Wednesday that he was aiming for a deal over the ITER site that would be mutually beneficial to both Japan and France.
"We want to reach an agreement in May or June - a mutually acceptable solution for both Japan and France," Machimura said following his meeting with French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier.
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