New Delhi
1 December 2005
India is expected to become a regular partner of
the ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) fusion
energy project next week. The final negotiation meeting on the joint
implementation agreement of ITER has begun in South Korea and an
announcement to this effect could be made by the negotiators by
December 6.
Sources said the five-day meeting, which got underway on Thursday in
Jeju, South Korea, involves the last meeting of the subgroup working on
all detailed issues of the agreement, "in particular the procurement
allocation between the future ITER Members (including India), intellectual
property rights, and staffing and resource management regulations."
"The Negotiators will meet on 6th December to consider progress and
future planning, as well as to formally admit India to the negotiations
(which they are presently observing)," the sources added. A Preparatory
Committee meeting will also take place on December 5 and 8 to officially
recognise the director-general nominee and to consider the Transitional
Project Team preparations.
On November 7, the fifth preparatory meeting held at the International
Atomic Energy Agency headquarters in Vienna has asked India to write to
the participating countries "officially requesting to join ITER". The
decision was taken at the high-level meeting among the ITER member-
countries, which included China, European Union, Japan, South Korea,
Russia and the United States.
In that meeting, all the parties had "expressed positive views" and
"encouraged India to take the next step towards accession by providing a
letter to the parties officially requesting to join ITER." The members had
said they were working with India to review the necessary adjustments to
be made to the provisional allocations of responsibilities for procuring of
components.
Earlier, a fact-finding team led by ITER Interim Project Leader Dr Yasuo
Shimomura visited India. Later, the 11th ITER negotiations meeting at
Chengdu in China between October 19 and 25 discussed the team's report
and identified "a series of steps for the near future leading towards a
possible agreement among all the parties to India's accession."
No comments:
Post a Comment