TOKYO, June 22 (Xinhuanet) -- Japan plans to give up its bid to have the world's first nuclear fusion reactor built in Aomori Prefecture, paving the way for the multibillion dollar project to go to the European Union, Kyodo News reported Wednesday. Japan will continue negotiations until the six-party ministerial meeting next Tuesday in Moscow, which will decide the location of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, but would back down if the European Union stands firm on bringing the project to Cadarache
, southern France, Kyodo said. Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Seiken Sugiura effectively admitted that Japan has decided to give up the bid, saying
, "It is not that 100 percent (of the project) goes to the other party and we relinquish 100 percent." The government spokesman told a press conference that negotiations are still going on in terms of sharing "various aspects" of the project between Japan and the European Union. Japan has been negotiating for more than three years in a bid to build ITER in Aomori Prefecture but was recently considering forgoing the proposal due to the huge financial burden of building the reactor. The northeastern prefecture
, which spent a total of about 572 million yen (5.3 million US dollars) from fiscal 1995 to 2004 for activities in connection with Japan's bid, had estimated an economic ripple effect of some 1
,200 billion yen (11.1 billion dollars) from the ITER project. The project also involves the United States, South Korea
, Russia and China. The ITER plant is an experimental facility for thermonuclear fusion, at which nuclear fusion reactions that occur on the sun are to be produced by fusing the nuclei of heavy hydrogen and tritium at temperatures of more than 100 million C. The construction of the reactor is expected to take 10 years, after which researchers will conduct experiments over a period of 20 years. The total cost of the project is estimated at 1
,300 billion yen (12 billion dollars). Enditem
