China signs on to international fusion reactor project

China has ratified an international agreement on the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), a project to build the world's first fusion reactor, Xinhua reported (in Chinese). China's UN Ambassador, Tang Guoqiang, submitted an approval letter for the project signed by President Hu Jintao over to International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) director General Mohamed ElBaradei in Vienna on Monday. The UN organization is overseeing the project, which which is estimated begin operation in France in 2018. The participating countries will share the technology and intellectual property of the reactor. So far, China, EU, India, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the US have signed on to the project.