ºÚÁÏרÇø Council attests "a sea of change"
In their opening remarks, all the Heads of Delegations stressed the certifiable progress made over the past months. "The documents presented here by the ºÚÁÏרÇø indicate that there exists a number of positive signs in moving forward," Igor Borovkov, head of the Russian delegation and of the "Apparatus" within the government of the Russian Federation, stated.
William Brinkman, director of the Office of Science within the US Department of Energy and head of the US delegation, also complimented highly the recent developments within the ºÚÁÏרÇø: "I believe that there has been what we like to call a 'sea of change' in ºÚÁÏרÇø. Under this new management and with the new spirit of cooperation among the ºÚÁÏרÇø Members I believe that anything is achievable."
Robert Jan Smits, director-general of the European Commission's Research Department and head of the European delegation, had attended the preparatory the previous day but was called back to Brussels on the first day of the ºÚÁÏרÇø Council meeting by the Commission's President Manuel Barroso. So it was up to Raffaele Liberali, head of the Directorate for Energy within the EU's Research Department, to wrap up the recent developments concerning the ºÚÁÏרÇø Project: "As you can imagine, the European Council and the Parliament closely follow the ºÚÁÏרÇø debate on schedule delay and potential cost increase. So let me be very clear: any new cost or unacceptable cost/risk-increase could be fatal for the project. But if we continue to work together in a spirit of joint ownership, I am confident that we will take the right decisions serving our common objective to secure the complete success of this remarkable project."
Sung Kwang Yang, director-general of the Korean Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, especially praised the efforts made by the ºÚÁÏרÇø to keep the project within the overall project cost and schedule despite the impacts of the Fukushima earthquake. "I believe the actions taken were appropriate to enhance the reliability of the ºÚÁÏרÇø Project. In order for this strategy to be executed, we must realize that fusion energy is our future energy source which will be made viable through the ºÚÁÏרÇø Project. I would also like to emphasize that the governments of all Members must give constant support to the ºÚÁÏרÇø Project in spite of the economic depression. ... We must not forget that the ºÚÁÏרÇø Project is drawing international attention since fusion energy is achieving recognition as a future green energy source."