A leading plasma physicist testified Friday on international collaboration for building the world's first experimental fusion reactor at the Chinese legislature.

The National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee started over the weekend to discuss the international agreement on implementing the world's first experimental fusion reactor tabled by the government for approval.

Huo Yuping, China's chief coordinator in the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project, explained to the about 150 legislators on prospects for commercialized utilization of fusion energy.

The largest ever scientific research program under the multinational collaboration, the 11 billion-euro ITER project is aimed at incubating a sustained solution of energy production.

The participation in the ITER project is part of China's systematic plan for developing fusion technologies, Huo said.

"The international collaboration will lay a solid basis for our own efforts to building bigger experimental reactors at home," said Huo, a Zhengzhou University professor and academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

The Chinese government in November 2006 signed the Agreement on the Establishment of the ITER International Fusion Energy Organization for the Joint Implementation of the ITER Project, together with the European Union (EU), India, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Russia and the United States.

The NPC Standing Committee is expected to vote on the agreement on Thursday.

While briefing the legislators on the agreement, Minister of Science and Technology Wan Gang said the ITER project "bears vital significance in promoting Chinese scientists' capability in fusion scientific research and technological development."

The ITER project will cost roughly 11 billion euros in 35 years in four stages of constructing, operating, exploiting and deactivating the ITER facilities.

China is to take a share of 9.1 percent of the total ITER budget, which is equal to the financial burden shared by other five participating countries, Wan said. The EU will pay 45.4 percent of the budget.

Wan said China will have an equal footing with all participants on deciding key issues of the ITER Organization, sharing construction, operation as well as research and development activities, obtaining equal opportunities with the rest parties on intellectual property licensing.

After the negotiation, Wan explained to the legislators, nearly 80 percent of the Chinese share in the ITER construction budget will be fulfilled equipment supplies instead of monetary funding.

China is also required to dispatch scientists and engineers to the ITER Organization in accordance with its investment proportion.

Nuclear fusion reaction is the process by which multiple atomic particles join together to form a heavier nucleus, which is accompanied by the release or absorption of energy.

The ITER, designed to use abundant resources of deuterium and tritium collected from sea water to produce energy and, subsequently, electricity.

Plasma physicists said the ITER is an enlarged equipment like "Tokamak," a Russian word referring to a machine producing a doughnut-shaped magnetic field for confining a plasma. "Tokamak" is one of several types of magnetic confinement devices and the leading candidate for producing fusion energy.

Representatives from participating parties agreed in June 2005 to choose Cadarache, France, as the first ITER site. The interim ITER International Fusion Energy Organization, with the headquarters at St Paul lez Durance, France, was kicked off on December 1, 2006.

(Xinhua News Agency August 25, 2007)