Report: Japan Neutrino Reactor in Doubt

Newsday ^ | October 18 2003 | Kenji Hall

[RightWingAtheist]

TOKYO -- A recommendation by a government panel not to fund an advanced physics research facility has drawn an angry outburst from a Japanese Nobel laureate and left the project's fate in doubt, media reports said Saturday.

The project, which calls for a state-of-the-art, $1.8 billion facility in eastern Japan, is the brainchild of Masatoshi Koshiba, an astrophysicist who won the 2002 Nobel Prize for his work on subatomic particles called neutrinos. Koshiba has sought the government's support, saying the facility would give Japan an edge over U.S. and European researchers.

But the Council for Science and Technology Policy -- headed by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi -- ranked the facility as the lowest priority for government spending next year, saying the price tag was hard to justify.

[RightWingAtheist]

The brains of politicians are like neutrinos-no substance, just spin.