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Page added on April 14, 2014
Cost Skyrockets For United States’ Share of ITER Fusion Project
“ITER, the international fusion experiment under construction in Cadarache, France, aims to prove that nuclear fusion is a viable power source by creating a ‘burning plasma’ that produces more energy than the machine itself consumes. Although that goal is at least 20 years away, ITER is already burning through money at a prodigious pace. The United States is only a minor partner in the project, which began construction in 2008. But the U.S. contribution to ITER will total $3.9 billion — roughly four times as much as originally estimated — according to a new cost estimate released yesterday. That is about $1.4 billion higher than a 2011 cost estimate, and the numbers are likely to intensify doubts among some members of Congress about continuing the U.S. involvement in the project.”
7 Comments on "Cost Skyrockets For United States’ Share of ITER Fusion Project"
Meld on Mon, 14th Apr 2014 3:51 pm
lol
J-Gav on Mon, 14th Apr 2014 4:25 pm
What a pathetic farce! Imagine the infrastructure repairs, healthcare access improvements, etc they could have paid for without this white elephant …
Arthur on Mon, 14th Apr 2014 4:56 pm
Funding:
– EU 45% (because they host the project)
– Rest: China, India, Japan, South Korea, the Russian Federation and the USA.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITER
The French Nobel laureate in physics Pierre-Gilles de Gennes said of nuclear fusion, “We say that we will put the sun into a box. The idea is pretty. The problem is, we don’t know how to make the box.”
As of 13 July 2010, the total price of constructing the experiment is expected to be in excess of €15 billion
Multiply that with a factor of 3-4 to arrive at 45-60 billion, wasted by the time the governments decide that it is not going to work.
60 billion is the equivalent of 60 GW installed wind power, this time with proven technology.
Kenz300 on Mon, 14th Apr 2014 5:19 pm
Nuclear anything always costs more than planned and leaves a stain of poison on the environment.
It is time to transition to safer, cleaner and cheaper alternative energy sources.
Wind and solar keep getting cheaper to produce every year.
It is time for the nuclear and fossil fuel industries to diversify into alternative energy and away from their environmentally damaging past.
GregT on Tue, 15th Apr 2014 2:55 am
There must be some potential here, for a bigger, and better weapon of mass destruction. Why else would so many countries, sink so much money into a project, to power stuff that we won’t have, once we run out of all of the other finite resources?
Aire on Tue, 15th Apr 2014 5:08 am
The reason… GregT thinks it could be for a bigger weapon. I personally believe it’s sheer hope. Hope in a breakthrough .. to keep society going and maybe control nature even more than we do. I think we humans need patience when pursuing technology because when left uncheck leads to problems that can be an exponentially no turning around situation
Stilgar Wilcox on Tue, 15th Apr 2014 5:58 am
These folks ever heard of EROEI?