As you may know, fusion energy is an important component of the President’s Advanced Energy Initiative, given its potential to become an attractive long-range option for the U.S. clean energy portfolio. The Department of Energy’s Fusion Energy Sciences program also contributes to President Bush’s American Competitiveness Initiative, which commits the Administration to doubling Federal spending on the most critical basic research in the physical sciences over the next decade.

ITER is a Presidential Initiative that ranks number one on the U.S. Department of Energy’s list of approximately 30 large-scale research facilities for the future, and the Bush Administration’s commitment to ITER and basic scientific research is unwavering.

As we mark the transition from negotiation to execution of the ITER Agreement, I would like to take a minute to reflect on how important this international fusion research effort is. The ITER Agreement, which had its origins in diffusing international conflict of the second half of the 20th Century, will likely be an important milestone for peace and prosperity in the 21st Century and beyond.

ITER was first officially proposed at the U.S.-USSR Geneva Summit in November 1985, when it was recognized that joint activities were needed that would help defuse the tension of the arms race of the Cold War. Upon his return from Geneva, President Reagan told the American people that, “…as a potential way of dealing with the energy needs of the world of the future, we have…advocated international cooperation to explore the feasibility of developing fusion energy.” Immediately following the standoff over nuclear disarmament at the Reykjavik U.S.-USSR Summit in October 1986, a proposal to implement the concept of a fusion experimental research facility was made and led to the 1988 start of the ITER Conceptual Design Activities.

President Reagan sent a message to the United States Congress that remains true to this day. He said, “It is becoming increasingly important that we all reach beyond our borders to form partnerships in research enterprises. There are areas of science, such as high energy physics and fusion research, where the cost of the next generation of facilities will be so high that international collaboration among…nations may become a necessity. We welcome opportunities to explore with other nations....” On behalf of President Bush, the United States Government, and its citizens, I would like to reaffirm our desire to work with the international community on this and other important research projects.

We are about to converge, from a rich spectrum of talent and perspectives, on an unprecedented scale, for the betterment of the world in which we live. It is quite striking that, through our multilateral framework, more than half of the global population will be supporting an international team of some of the world’s finest scientists, engineers—even a few policymakers—working in unison toward a common research goal.

My colleagues at the Department of Energy in Washington, DC have a favorite saying about the importance of basic research to creating transformational solutions to the problems facing humankind. We like to remind each other that “the transistor was not developed through continuous improvement of the vacuum tube.” While we are working to make existing energy technologies cleaner and more efficient, we must find entirely new methods to put power on the grid for inventions—like the transistor—that elevate the human condition.

ITER has the potential to free the quickly growing global economy and population from the looming constraints of decreasing energy supplies and the unfortunate effects of environmental degradation.

It is for these reasons of international peace, prosperity, and environmental security that President George W. Bush led the United States to once again participate in ITER. As you may know, President Bush recently announced plans for the United States Government to double its strategic financial commitment to the most critical basic research programs in the physical sciences over the next 10 years and to pursue radical new technologies for the secure utilization of environmentally sound and economically efficient energy sources.

As we now complete the signing of the ITER Agreement, the United States thanks our international partners for their strong and continued leadership on this important multinational endeavor at the forefront of science, and looks forward to the collaboration itself as well as the benefits of our shared labor.

Thank you.