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Giant International Fusion Reactor Draws Nearer
nnnneedles writes "BBC is reporting that scientists are deciding on where to build the world's first big fusion reactor. The international effort is described as the boldest nuclear initiative since the Manhattan Project, and holds promise for future unlimited, clean energy. The choice on where to build the reactor currently stands between Japan and France, but apparantly, the U.S. is opposing a french site because France opposed the war in Iraq." There's also an AP story.
Reading the related material Japan does seem the better choice, and its an opinion shared by russia and other non EU contributors to the project. This is especially true if you consider the fact the Japanese have been generating the cleanest high temperature plasmas for some time now.
Putting aside the merits of locating the project in Japan. I would love to know how not rewarding financially and ally that caused us considerable trouble is childish ?
If you think that France and Germany were operating on a purely moral plain, your'e missing the fact that they had the largest financial stakes in Saddams Iraq. Holding them accountable for their choices is just good sense.
Why is that relevant? What are they going to do, recharge their battery powered Humvees?
No, they are going to have U.S. soldiers doing guard duty at the reactor. Duh. Just like we do guard duty in Serbia, Sinai, Israel, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and all kinds of other places, including everywhere we have an embassy.
Who would you rather have guarding it? The French? Someone made a joke in another thread about two drunk Germans taking over the reactor...
"Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives" should be a convenience store, not a government agency.
But basically, the UK has approved the building of three offshore wind farms that will each provide the same power as a nuclear reactor (Sizewell B was the one named in terms of power output).
Wind's as unlimited a resource as deuterium, right? And a hell of a sight easier to draw power from.
Now, normally I'm all for fusion plants and cool high-tech stuff, but this just seems like another international money-sink. The fact the US is objecting to it being in France rather than Japan suggests A: petty, childish vendettas over the fact that France *dared* to defy the US over Iraq, and must now pay the price, or B: massive pork-barrel funding for American interests in the Japanese fusion industry, or C: both.
I don't even *like* the French, but really, fuck Bush. The sooner the world is rid of him and all his energy industry cronies fucking everybody else over for a dollar, the better. This is a man who is one step away from literally standing on a ledge pissing over people and telling them it's raining... and they're believing him! What's next? "That's not a human turd you just watched me shit out onto a plate, it's prime Texan beef! Now eat it up, yum! 'Cause if you don't, you're supporting TERRORISTS!" Christ...
You must think in Russian.