Washington, D.C. – Representatives of the United States today joined representatives from the European Union, India, Japan, China, Korea and Russia to craft an agreement to build ITER, an international burning plasma fusion project that holds the promise of new energies from nuclear fusion.

EPAct05 outlined the terms of the U.S. participation in the project, including the mandate that United States have full access to the data, the requirement that the United States pay only its fair share of the costs and the assurance that the share of high-tech components manufactured in the United States is proportional the U.S. financial contribution to the project.

Chairman Domenici’s statement:

“I am pleased the United States is moving forward with ITER. I think this research is sowing a harvest of new energies I hope America and the world can reap in the decades to come. This agreement marks a new and exciting era of international cooperation into new energy that could some day have remarkable global consequences.

However, I recognize that this research may not yield useable, commercial energies for several decades. In the meantime, Congress has been concerned that this partnership not become a financial black hole for the United States. To that end, we outlined in the energy bill the terms of U.S. participation in this project.

“I look forward to seeing the agreement when it is sent to Congress for our review. I believe we are making an investment that will yield promising scientific insight in the near-term and new clean and safe energies in the long-term. I’m particularly pleased that we are being financially responsible about this investment.”