On Nov. 7, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) Organization signed a supply agreement for the design of a steam-condensing tank with China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN). The agreement marks China’s first successful bid for an ITER project.

China joined the bidding in May, and eventually won the bid in September. CGN will take charge of the project. Previously, Chinese companies only joined ITER projects via subcontract bidding.

At the end of the ITER negotiations, the parties reached an agreement on cost estimates and the scale of assessments for the various stages of the ITER program. In the construction phase, China takes over 9 percent of the ITER manufacturing procurement package; currently, China takes 12 packages.

As one of the world’s largest scientific cooperation programs, 35 countries and organizations participate in ITER, including China, the E.U., India, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the U.S. Aimed at examining the feasibility of nuclear fusion to solve the problem of sustainable energy, ITER is working toward an ‘artificial sun.’

Energy obtained through controlled nuclear fusion is similar to that of the sun releasing heat, People’s Daily Online reported earlier in November.