An international agreement to build the world’s first fusion power reactor has been signed in Paris. The second most expensive scientific project after the International Space Station ($12.1 billion) will be launched in January 2007.

is expected to produce clean and safe energy by 2016 for 20 years in Caradache, in the south of France.

The idea of ITER began when the Soviet Union suggested that the four most advanced nuclear nations - the U.S.S.R., the U.S., Europe and Japan - create a “tokamak” reactor, a doughnut-shaped chamber to confine in a magnetic field incandescent plasma that no material can withstand. Thermonuclear fusion of the hydrogen isotopes deuterium and tritium then proceeds in the plasma.

In mid-June, Russian President Vladimir Putin awarded three researchers the prestigious Global Energy prize for their work on an experimental nuclear fusion reactor.

Japan’s Masaji Yoshikawa, France’s Robert Aimar and Russian Academician Yevgeny Velikhov won the prize for developing the scientific and technical foundations for the ITER project.

Established in 2002 on Russia’s initiative, the international prize has been granted for outstanding theoretical, experimental and applied research, development, inventions and discoveries in the field of energy development and power generation.

In 2006, the prize was worth $1.1 million and was shared among the scientists.

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