I looked around for some info on that ITER project yesterday after I posted that article, and it seems that the final agreement is all but settled. The reactor will be in France, with Japan as a "privileged partner" in management and research contracts. The EU basically issued an ultimatum that they would go ahead regardless if final agreement weren't nailed down by this July. All that's left now is to hammer out the exact details of the the "privileged" partnership. (We're just one of the red-headed steppartners, who gets to pony up cash and hope something comes of it).
yeah, you're right.
I'm of the uninformed opinion that nothing will come of that project just because its too big.
there's something esthetically wrong about looking for a way to cut costs with something big and costly.
but my arguement is merely to do with esthetics.
maybe too I like the idea of power streaming in from many cheap portable sources rather than one really big cheap source.