PARIS, Nov 21: The European Union and six nations on Tuesday signed a treaty launching a multibillion-dollar experimental nuclear fusion research project, aimed at emulating the power of the sun to provide limitless, clean energy.

“This is a new step in an exceptional adventure,” French President Jacques Chirac said after leading the signing ceremony in Paris that ended decades of negotiations.

Representatives from the European Union, China, India, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States signed the pact on the construction of the $12.8 billion reactor.

Originally called the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor but now known officially by its initials ITER (or “the way” in Latin), the facility is to be built in Cadarache, in southern France, over a decade starting 2008.

The project aims to research a clean and limitless alternative to dwindling fossil fuel reserves by testing nuclear fusion technologies.

Instead of splitting the atom-- the principle behind current nuclear plants-- the project seeks to harness nuclear fusion: the power of the sun and the stars achieved by fusing together atomic nuclei.

If it is successful, a prototype commercial reactor will be built, and if that works, fusion technology will be rolled out across the world.—AFP