Europe puts France up for reactor (world's 1st fusion reactor will cost $5bil, revolutionize energy)

BBC News ^ | Wednesday, 26 November, 2003 | Dr David Whitehouse

[Aquinasfan]

Wonder what the froggie word for ''boondoggle'' is...

That's what I thought. EU and "boondoggle" kind of go together.

[SAJ]

Provided someone can make a commercially viable technology within, say, the next half-century. Fusion has been posited since at least the late 1940s, with absolutely no practical result to date.

Type I? Type II? Hey, why not just go straight to Dyson spheres and ringworlds? Why fool around?

[Two_Sheds]

Provided someone can make a commercially viable technology within, say, the next half-century. Fusion has been posited since at least the late 1940s, with absolutely no practical result to date.

What do you mean "provided"? You mean, like have someone pull it out of their a$$, so we wouldn't acutally have to expend effort and money to do it?

IOW, I guess it's just too hard, so let's give up. Nice.

[presidio9]

Wonder what the froggie word for ''boondoggle'' is... Please not that this is neither a "French" nor a "EU" project. It is exciting technology and it falls under the jurisdiction of the ITER. I would rather see more private financing of this research, but I am glad to see it moving forward.

[Zathras]

FYI: At the moment, the only way to create a functional fusion reactor is by using some amount of Tritium.
To create Tritium, you need a neutron source (ie fission reactor) and processing is similar to Plutonium (other than the toxic problems).

As they said when they were creating the first H-bomb, "We can create 100 lbs of Pu239 or 100 oz of Tritium."

[ffusco]

"THE OPTION TO OVER-RIDE AUTOMATIC DETONATION EXPIRES IN T-MINUS 5 MINUTES........."

[boris]

"Is this experimental, or has this technology already been demonstrated to work?"

Still experimental; no conclusive demonstrations of "above break-even" to my knowledge.

--Boris

[RightWingAtheist]

somebody is on the edge of fusion power, and the D@mn Luddite moron Democrats won't let us drill in Anwar

As long as they let us drill in this Anwar, I'm happy:

Now that's the type of fusion power I want to be involved with <8-a

[Ichneumon]

Exclusive look at the new technology:

[freeangel]

Perhaps france was chosen because if something goes wrong, well,after all, it is only france and not much worth saving.

[InterceptPoint]

Advocates say commercial fusion plants of the future could be cheap to run and environmentally friendly, with much less radioactive waste produced.

Let me then be the first to predict: The Environmental Wacko Community, AKA the Watermelon Crowd will be violently against it.

They are against all energy production since it is the availabilitiy of energy that produces improvements in the human condition, a movement they are firmly opposed to.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

There's an experimental fusion reactor in the heart of Cambridge, MA and the greenies there are oblivious.

But their safety office has a website, so there's nothing to worry about.

[cogitator]

What about crystallic fusion? (This has been repeatedly described by space ranger Buzz Lightyear and is instrumental to the vibrant economy in sector 12.)

[RightWhale]

Explain this to me

You shifted gears so hard from fusion to oil, like pulling into low gear while doing 100 you gave us whiplash. A single tanker truck of fusion fuel would be equivalent to the energy of ANWR AND Saudi AND Iraq AND Russia AND North Sea AND Gulf of Mexico AND Texas, Louisiana, and California, both oil and natural gas AND all the coal on earth and there is a lot of coal.

[50sDad]

...Comparison made is only political, not scientific. Application problems for fusion on a "local" scale, unless the solution would be electric cars running on regionally produced electricity from fusion power.

[RightWhale]

Oh, okay, the political aspect makes total sense. You know, I'm still steamed that they cancelled the superconducting supercollider even though it was being built in Texas rather than Alaska. It's a definite sign that America lacks the necessary political ingredients to remain pre-eminent in the world in science and technology much longer, or so it has seemed since the end of the Apollo program.

[Old Professer]

Charade.

[Bernard Marx]

You know that we arew footing tem percent of the bill for this, maybe even more?

That's what boggles my mind. Why?

[50sDad]

I am one of those who thinks R&D always pays off. We pi$$ away billions on social programs that don't actually produce any measurable improvement, we pour money down the hole to produce "performance art" that does little more than offend me, and yet we can't get fusion power to work. I am not an "electric car" guy, but if we could run them for a dollar a day from fusion plants, I'd buy one. (And can you imagine the furor in the Mideast if the Shieks were suddenly sitting on worthless and obsolete black goo?)

I still can't decide if we should keep the patent and tell the world to go to hell, or if we should publish the plans on the internet and get the hell out of the way. Hummmmm....

[RightWhale]

America could be so far ahead in almost every area of science and technology that the rest of the world would need to hire scouts to see which way we went. But instead we are keeping just barely ahead. Got to wonder why. Maybe there is a good reason.