NEW DELHI, Nov. 16 (UPI) -- India said it received a positive response to its desire to join the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor Project.
"I have taken up the matter with world leaders. I am very happy that we are eliciting a positive response," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said, according to The Hindu newspaper Wednesday.
The comments were made Tuesday in Bombay, now Mumbai, at the 16th annual conference of the Indian Nuclear Society.
ITER was conceived by the United States, the European Union, Russia, Japan and South Korea for hot fusion.
Singh emphasized the need for international cooperation to meet the challenge of India's future energy needs.
"We must create the space for quantum jump in nuclear energy production in the coming decades in a manner that is consistent with our national policy of maintaining the integrity of our three-stage nuclear energy program," he said.
India's three-stage nuclear program progresses along the uranium plutonium route toward thorium, relying heavily on reprocessed fuel.
