The ITER reactor project is international in scope, including the United States, Russia, the European Union, India, Japan, China, and South Korea. The plan is to spend 10 years in construction and 20 years in operation. No electrical energy would be generated. That would require a more advanced reactor. Using 0.5 grams of deuterium-tritium fuel, it is designed to produce 500 megawatts of energy over 1,000 seconds. For the first time in a fusion reactor, more energy would be produced than needed to run the reactor. In May 2010, contracts were signed to construct the first buildings in the project that are sited in the south of France. Fusion reactions are scheduled to begin in 2018.