France secures site for 10 billion euro nuclear fusion research project/Brief

France secures site for 10 billion euro nuclear fusion research project

France has won a years-long battle to host ITER, the 'next step' in nuclear fusion research. Nuclear fusion is the process that powers our sun, and could potentially lead to almost unlimited energy available on Earth.

Under the terms of the agreement reached today, France will pay 50% of the construction costs of the 10 billion euro (£6.6bn) program costs, while Japan will gain 20% of the 200 research jobs that will be part of the project, but pay only 10% of the costs.