"Fusion project decision delayed"
The goal:
Iter will be the first fusion device to produce thermal energy at the level of an electricity-producing power station.
Advocates of fusion power point out that if they succeed, there is an almost limitless supply of power available because the deuterium atoms on which it would be based can be derived from seawater.
What was supposed to happen:
Iter is the boldest nuclear initiative since the Manhattan Project... the world's largest international co-operative research and development project after the International Space Station.
The experts were supposed to reach a consensus based on objective criteria.
Unfortunately, the decision-making process appears to have become highly politicized:
The US has been against [construction in France] because of France's opposition to the invasion of Iraq.
Iter will be the first fusion device to produce thermal energy at the level of an electricity-producing power station.
Advocates of fusion power point out that if they succeed, there is an almost limitless supply of power available because the deuterium atoms on which it would be based can be derived from seawater.
What was supposed to happen:
Iter is the boldest nuclear initiative since the Manhattan Project... the world's largest international co-operative research and development project after the International Space Station.
The experts were supposed to reach a consensus based on objective criteria.
Unfortunately, the decision-making process appears to have become highly politicized:
The US has been against [construction in France] because of France's opposition to the invasion of Iraq.
// 12/20/2003 
