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.
Let France pour money down a hole for 40 years if it wants.
At least the atom bomb (fusion/fission) and the fission reactor were children of a theory which actually worked out on paper before any construction began. And whaddya know, they went boom exactly as predicted. If someone could engineer credibly on paper a fusion design which would actually generate more power than it eats, then I would say let's go ahead and spend up to half the kingdom to build the darn thing. I get a sinking feeling that they aren't really finding out anything new about the physics of the process and they could already tell that what they are trying won't work.