[neverdem]

Is Domenici losing his marbles?

[SteveMcKing]

Or maybe they wish China to think the project is killed. Who knows.

[RightWhale]

Our Congress is so smart. Damn they are smart.

[seacapn]

This sounds like raw, jealous political wrangling at its worst. Crazy Pete needs to step back and stop acting like someone's spurned lover.

[Flux Capacitor]

[neverdem]

FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list.

British Scientists Say Carbon Dioxide Is Turning the Oceans Acidic

[Army Air Corps]

Gotta pump money into all of those highly productive social welfare programmes instead of this quaint science stuff...

/sarcasm

[Texas_Jarhead]

Why even have "national labs" when they just let our (read taxpayers) investments get stolen by two bit spies.

[Just A Nobody]

...has cost $2.8 billion. About 80 percent complete...

So they are flushing 2.8 billion??? Why? Lemme guess, they want to spend the money to force some emission nonsense?
Sorry, I won't "subscribe" to the NYT for any reason.

[isom35]

I hope a mad scientist steals it.

[montag813]

What is despicable is that this potential huge leap in scientific and energy progress would have cost only another $3.5 billion, and they canned it, but Bush's despicable $15 billion down the African rathole of murderous billionaire tyrants? Our public servants in the Senate apparently had no problem with that.

[Eagles6]

Obviously they got the email that Sun god Ra would look on this project with displeasure and would send locusts, eartquakes and such to punish these upstarts.

[RadioAstronomer]

Other Livermore officials warned of a parallel to the Superconducting Supercollider, a proposed 54-mile particle accelerator that Congress killed in 1993 after spending $2 billion. Some physicists regard its fate as a symbol of the erosion of the nation's scientific standing.

IMHO, one of the great scientific blunders of the 20th century. Fortunately we were able to get the Gravity Probe-B off the ground. That was a close call.

[endthematrix]

"Other Livermore officials warned of a parallel to the Superconducting Supercollider, a proposed 54-mile particle accelerator that Congress killed in 1993 after spending $2 billion. Some physicists regard its fate as a symbol of the erosion of the nation's scientific standing."

In our backyard we have Fermilab and they are lobbying for the International Linear Collider.

ILC Gov't website

Linear Collider News Archive

[satchmodog9]

Yes, more oil, less solutions.

[thoughtomator]

I feel like I'm in the twilight zone watching FReepers cheer for billions in Federal spending.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

The only thing worse than profligate government spending is profligate government spending on something and then not spending what's needed to finish it. They should complete this project and then promptly privatize it so it won't be a drain on our wallets.

[tertiary01]

Barbara Simpson mentioned this yesterday on KSFO. Also mentioned something about France or a company in France winning the contract to build something similiar? I didn't get all the incidentals as I was driving. She seemed to think there might be a correlation.

[Cementjungle]

I wonder who in the senate has a financial interest in the French companies that will benefit from this.

[rmlew]

Bad idea.
We need alternative energy. It is a strategic, economic, and security necessity. Fusion power is a panacea, but we haven't gotten it to work. We need to put resources into it.
In the meantime, we need fission power plants, and an upgraded grid.

[FierceDraka]

What in the HELL is WRONG with these people?

Sustainable fusion is the key to our future prosperity.

If we were to take a FRACTION of the billions and billions wasted on so-called "entitlements" (you are only entitled to air, water, and what you earn through your own works), this project would be a slam-dunk.

Fusion power would turn our enemies' main source of funding for terrorism (petroleum) into an insignificant commodity used mainly to manufacture plastics. And with material sciences advancing progressing as they are, synthesizing long-chain polymers from raw elements can't be far off (if it isn't already being done in the lab).

It seems that there are those at high levels who are more interested in maintaining the un-maintainable status quo than in positive change.