He stated this in the interview given to RIA Novosti on Tuesday after the end of the first World Scientific Forum held in Kyoto city with the participation of more than 500 representatives of about 40 states.
"Russia is interested in drawing both Japan and the European Union in this project, and in taking a common decision. We also believe that this project must be started in the foreseeable future. We cannot wait for years," Andrei Fursenko said.
In his opinion, both Japan and the European Union have a stake in Russia's constructive participation so that agreement could be reached as soon as possible.
"The project must be a joint one. The scientific knowledge of Russia, Japan, Europe and other countries in this sphere supplement each other. Russia is exceedingly interested in the project and will certainly participate in it," the Minister believes.
Japan earlier categorically denied its readiness to reconcile itself to a compensation in exchange for giving up the intention to place the reactor in the Rokasho area in the north-east of the main island Honshu and a consent to construction of the first thermonuclear reactor at the French town of Cadarache.
As Minister of Education, Science and Technology Yasufumi Tanahashi stated, "such information is altogether groundless."
So far the representatives of the European Union, Russia, Japan, the USA, the PRC and South Korea working on a joint project of the reactor on which it is planned to spend $13 billion within the next 30 years have made no progress from the time of the latest meeting last June. A regular attempt to take a decision on the place of the reactor's construction was made in Vienna at the beginning of last week.
TheUSA and South Korea back the desire of Japan to have the reactor on its territory while Russia and China consider the European Union's territory to be more suitable for it.
Some representatives of the European Union voiced the view on a possibility to start building the reactor in France on its own if the Vienna talks produce no results.
One more attempt to find a way out of the situation obtaining will be made during the meeting of the European Commission on November 25-26, RIA Novosti was told by Academician Yevgeny Velikhov, member of the Council for Science, Technologies and Education under the president of Russia and head of the Kurchatov Institute, who together with Andrei Fursenko participated in the Forum's work.
