Decision on Site of Fusion Project Postponed-France

Reuters ^ | Sat December 20, 2003

[demlosers]

PARIS (Reuters) - An international committee has postponed a decision on the site of the world's biggest experimental nuclear fusion reactor after failing to reach agreement at a meeting in Washington, France said on Saturday. Members of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project met in the United States on December 19 and 20 to pick between a site in France and one in Japan to host the project, worth 10 billion euros ($12 billion).

"At the end of the meeting... it was agreed by all parties present that no definitive choice could be made at this stage," France's Research Ministry said in a statement.

The ministry did not mention a fresh date for voting after the United States, China, Russia, South Korea, Japan and the European Union failed to reach consensus on the location of the 30-year project, billed as the future of renewable energy.

Regional French official Stephane Salord said a decision would have to be taken by February and voting rules could be changed to prevent another stalemate.

European sources close to the talks said the United States and South Korea were in favor of Rokkasho, a remote fishing village in northern Japan.

Russia and China were said to back the European Union's site in Cadarache, near the Mediterranean port city of Marseille.

The stakes are huge. Construction of the reactor alone will take 10 years and employ 2,000 workers, at an estimated cost of 4.7 billion euros.

(Additional reporting by Laure Bretton)

[longtermmemmory]

You will note how the euro reporters now report stories with the euro first and the dollars in paren. Apprently they passed a law mandating this reporting.

I say we re-evaluate this completly and put it in the USA.

[KantianBurke]

Go Japan!!

[CasearianDaoist]

YEs everyone should write their congress-critter and demand this. Let us organize something here. We need to keep this out of the EU.

[Buck W.]

"I say we re-evaluate this completly and put it in the USA."

I agree, but we have to do a better job than we did at the SSC in Wahahachie, TX. That was a government/industrial/scientific disaster.

[Buck W.]

"Wahahachie" is, of course, "Waxahachie".

[BlazingArizona]

I agree, but we have to do a better job than we did at the SSC in Wahahachie, TX. That was a government/industrial/scientific disaster.

The problem with building it anywhere in this country is that the Greens would never let us do it. If you want this project to be a jobs program for riot police, build it in America. If you want it to produce clean and unlimited power from fusion, build it in Japan.

[gaspar]

Twenty-five years ago the FermiLab in Illionois was the world leader in the development of nuclear fusion. The problem seemed intractable at the time, and I wonder who provided the breakthrough that made the project tenable?

[Willie Green]

I say we re-evaluate this completly and put it in the USA.

Well I certainly prefer to do it ourselves.
But then again, I'm also half wondering why the other nations even need us.
Afterall, of all the nations mentioned, I think we're the only ones who haven't built any new reactors in over 20 years.
Sheeeesh. What do we have to offer them anyway?