France has been chosen as the site for the US$12 billion International Thermonuclear Experiment Reactor (ITER). The six member consortium, which includes the United States, Russia, China, Japan, South Korea and the European Union, agreed to construct the facility in Cadarache, near Aix-en-Provence, France. The decision was reached last week following a long and contentious competition between France and Japan. ITER will be designed to test the feasibility of fusing atomic nuclei together to produce virtually limitless supplies of clean energy. The physics of nuclear fusion has been long been understood but researchers have found it difficult to engineer a facility capable of withstanding the high temperatures and enormous pressures that are produced during the process.