Asia lose momentum in international reactor bid

Asia lose momentum in international reactor bid

Michael Richardson, The Straits Times, Asia News Network, Singapore

Six of the world's leading powers are due to meet in Russia at
the end of this month to try to settle a long-running dispute
over whether France or Japan should host a revolutionary energy
project known as ITER, the International Thermonuclear
Experimental Reactor.

Japan's Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported that the Japanese
government would announce at the meeting that it is giving up its
bid to build the reactor in Japan. But an official at the Science
Ministry has denied the report. Still, thanks to Chinese
opposition to siting ITER in Japan, it seems increasingly likely
that it will be constructed in France instead -- at a cost of at
least US$10 billion (S$16.7 billion), including operating
expenses over 35 years.

China is supporting France, apparently because Beijing
believes it can get more from Europe than from Japan in
scientific and technological cooperation. But if the outcome is a
victory for France, it will be a loss not just for Japan but for
big science in Asia as well.

ITER is due to start operating in 2014. If all goes to plan,
it will be the first large-scale demonstration of nuclear fusion,
the process that makes the sun such a prolific source of energy.
Some scientists say fusion is the best option for clean and
abundant power in the 21st century.

France -- backed by the European Union, China and Russia --
certainly seems confident it will win the long tussle for ITER,
leaving Japan, which is supported by South Korea and the United
States, out in the cold.

ITER would use sea water as fuel. Fusion would occur when
atoms of hydrogen collide and stick together to form the heavier
element helium, ejecting spare sub-atomic particles called
neutrons at very high energies. Capturing and converting this
energy into heat and then electricity promises a rich power
source for the future. But years of research have so far failed
to produce a commercially viable fusion reactor.

Unlike energy from coal, oil and other fossil fuels, fusion
produces no environmentally damaging emissions. Its fuel sources
-- like sea water -- are virtually limitless. In contrast to
nuclear fission -- the reaction that drives the world's existing
nuclear power stations -- fusion poses no known danger of weapons
proliferation or highly radioactive spent fuel.

China's opposition to Japan hosting the cutting edge ITER
experiment reflects the increasingly intense rivalry between the
two countries. They have been at loggerheads over interpretation
of history, Taiwan, offshore energy as well as maritime
boundaries. Japan has joined the U.S. in urging the EU not to
lift its arms embargo on China. Beijing, meanwhile, has said it
will block any plan for Japan to get a permanent seat on the
United Nations Security Council.

The EU is seeking to reach an accord with Japan by offering it
a 'privileged partnership' in the project, involving a bigger
role for Japan in building ITER, managing the venture and
receiving research contracts from it. Japanese media reported
recently that Tokyo had two conditions to benefit business at
home before giving up its bid to host the revolutionary project.

One was for some of the funds due to be poured into ITER to go
instead to upgrade an existing nuclear fusion research center in
Japan.

The Nihon Keizei Shimbun said that so far, Japan and EU have
agreed that Japan would receive over $500 million worth of
contracts to build facilities related to ITER and that a new
analysis unit for ITER would be built in Japan. Japan could also
be compensated with top jobs at ITER and additional construction
contracts.

But none of this can hide the heavy loss of prestige for the
world's second-largest economy and Asia's most advanced
scientific and technological nation. Nor will it help to ease the
ire that Japan must feel towards China for undercutting an Asian
bid to harness the power of the sun.

The writer is a visiting senior research fellow at the
Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. This is a personal comment.