Europe hopes to be site of fusion reactor

PARIS, Nov. 26 (UPI) -- The European Union is hoping that France will be selected as the site of the world's first fusion reactor next month, the BBC reported Wednesday.

Participants in the project, known as the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, will pick a location for the reactor next month.

In conventional nuclear power plants, heavy atoms are split to release energy. But in a fusion reactor, energy is harnessed by forcing the nuclei of light atoms together -- the same process that takes place at the core of the Sun and makes it shine.

The EU's candidate is Cadarache, in southeastern France, but it is likely to face stiff competition from Rokkasho in Japan.

The reactor is expected to cost $5 billion over the next 10 years and will produce the first sustained fusion reaction, in what scientists hope will be a demonstration of the viability of commercial nuclear fusion power generation.

International partners in the immense engineering project include the United States, China, Japan, Russia and South Korea.

A final decision on the siting of the project should come in December at a meeting of officials involved in its planning.