[presidio9]

The International Thermonuclear Energy Reactor (Iter) is an international collaboration between the EU, USA, Canada, Russia, China and South Korea.

The aim is to design and build a fusion reactor in about a decade at a cost of $5bn. Iter will bridge the gap between current fusion reactors and a commercial plant.

Iter will be based on Jet - the Joint European Torus. In Jet the plasma is shaped like a doenut and confined by a magnetic field.

Coming into operation in 1983, Jet achieved a world record for fusion achieving 12.9 MW output in a 1997 experiment.

The European candidate for the Iter site is situated inland from Marseille on the Mediterranean coast.

Operated by France's Atomic Energy Commission, Cadarache is already the site of extensive fusion research including the Tore Supra tokomak experiment.

[Born Conservative]

Somebody better let Martin Sheen know about this so that he can get his protest signs printed in advance...

[js1138]

This could be as revolutionary as Japan's 10 billion dollar fifth generation computer language that revolutionized data processing a decade ago.

[ken5050]

Forget Japan..as long as Kim is in control of DNK, with its missiles..the plant is a target...

[RS]

"Spain had initially put forward its own choice of Vandellos but then fell in line with its EU partners ...."

Fell inline with it's EU MASTERS is more like it ...

With the big bosses skimming off the cream of the "Union" how long will it be until some country needs to figure just how to unscramble the EUROmess ?

[AngryJawa]

The European Union has chosen France as its preferred location for a nuclear reactor...

France is preferred because, if the reactor goes Chernobyl, nothing important will be destroyed. 8^)

It seriously ticks me off that the Greens have managed to kill reactor construction here, yet France can build as many as needed.

[Semper Vigilantis]

I hope they build better reactors than cars. Remember "LeCar"?

[finnman69]

[ameribbean expat]

shouldn't they be required to display an ability to send their lone aircraft carrier on a sustained deployment first? talk about letting the kids run with scissors.

[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."

[Ichneumon]

Exclusive look at the new technology:

[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.

[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.)

[Poohbah]

The European Union has chosen France as its preferred location for a nuclear reactor

"Because everybody hates the (deleted) French, anyway, so we don't care if they have FLKs."

[greasepaint]

Everyone should keep in mind that the
total (not just the US's contribution)
cost is comparable to ten space shuttle flights.
The Physicists seem confident that this big
machine will have a 'power gain' (Q) of at least ten.
If that term means thermal-power out, divided by
beam power-in, that should be slightly above
'electrical' break even.