Batist

Accord signed in France on breakthrough nuclear reactor

Tue Nov 21, 8:41 AM ET

PARIS (AFP) - The EU and six nations have signed a treaty launching a multibillion-dollar experimental nuclear fusion research project, aimed at emulating the power of the sun to provide limitless, clean energy.

"This is a new step in an exceptional adventure," French
President Jacques Chirac said Tuesday after leading the signing ceremony in Paris that ended decades of tortuous negotiations.

Representatives from the
European Union, China, India, Japan, Russia,
South Korea and the United States signed the pact on the construction of the 10-billion-euro (12.8 billion dollar) reactor.

Originally called the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor but now known officially by its initials ITER (or "the way" in Latin), the facility is to be built in Cadarache, in southern France, over a decade starting 2008.

The project aims to research a clean and limitless alternative to dwindling fossil fuel reserves by testing nuclear fusion technologies.

Instead of splitting the atom -- the principle behind current nuclear plants -- the project seeks to harness nuclear fusion: the power of the sun and the stars achieved by fusing together atomic nuclei.

If it is successful, a prototype commercial reactor will be built, and if that works, fusion technology will be rolled out across the world.

Chirac said the experimental reactor was "a hand held out to future generations" and predicted that, if it proved successful, "we will be able to derive as much energy from a litre of seawater as from a litre of petrol or a kilo of coal."

The EU is to put up half the cost of building the reactor, with the rest evenly divided among the other parties. The project will employ 400 scientists, two-thirds of them non-French.

Following years of wrangling, Japan agreed in 2005 to withdraw its bid to host the project -- in exchange for 20 percent of staff posts including the director general's job.

A Japanese engineer turned ambassador, Kaname Ikeda, was named earlier this month to head the project.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, who was also in Paris Tuesday, called the signing "a major event" and a step forward to finding new energy sources that did not cause climate change.

In a fusion reaction, energy is released when light atomic nuclei - the hydrogen isotopes deuterium and tritium - are fused together to form heavier atomic nuclei.

To use controlled fusion reactions on Earth as an energy source, it is necessary to heat a gas to temperatures exceeding 100 million Celsius - many times hotter than the centre of the sun.

One of the attractions of fusion is the tiny amount of fuel needed. The release of energy from a fusion reaction is 10 million times greater than from a typical chemical reaction, such as burning a fossil fuel.

But the project has been criticised by environmental groups like Greenpeace, who argue that the enormous cost will suck funds away from other areas of alternative energy research, with no guarantee that an effective method of simulating and harnessing the fusion process will ever be found.

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Kuriboo

Bye Bye Buu

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Mario's Bitch

BEan

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The sounds of DKL screaming and yelling in agony is magical and relaxing.

Brian10488

nuclear fusion won't happen..

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Jay

We have already gotten close to achieving Nuclear Fusion. And if this plan goes through, then we will definitely achieve it.

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Brian10488

meh, i still don't think it will be achieved anytime soon.

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f1reburn

Not saying it can't be achieved, but it seems a bit perpetuum mobile-ish.

Jay

And why do you think that?

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LinKami Deschain

better them than us.

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Wii Code:0141-2992-0310-4549
Brawl Code:0602-5951-1825

Knight of Cydonia

Not really, like any other energy-providing process it requires a "fuel", the fun part being there's enough heavy water on this earth to keep the reactor going for millions of years, and enough lithium for thousands of years. The main problem at hand is not the possibility of the process, but the possibility of us starting up such a process, bring it up to such a level where it is actually efficient and harvesting the energy while safely contain it at the same time.

As with the criticism that this entire project detracts too many research funds from other fields of alternative energy, we must take into account that this is our best hope for an efficient alternative to nuclear fission and fossil fuels for the future, contrary to wind, solar, or tidal energies and bio-fuels, it's the only process that would be just as efficient regardless of the location of where it's needed, solar energy may be efficient and cheap in places where the sun shines almost day in day out, but in other places where this is far from the case, the technology would be far less effective and thus more expensive, and the same goes for the wind and tidal energies, as for the bio-fuels, well they sound reasonable, but again crops would have to be grown, again more or less efficient based on location, and I don't know if eventually we can "grow" all the energy we'd need, even if we all cut back... but that's Greenpeace for you, they're just not realistic in their intentions, I care for the environment up to a realistic level, they go far beyond such a thing...

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thaddius

I think you mean: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster

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PSN ID: DrSquigglyPants

Brian10488

Yea, chernobyl was the worst one.

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Jay

Chernobyl had nothing to do with a fusion reactor though, so bringing that up is pointless

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thaddius

The guy brought up Three Mile Island. I was correcting him.

And they do have much to do with eachother. It deals with a reactor melt down which is exactly what Majinbuu speculated\feared..

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PSN ID: DrSquigglyPants

Jay

Yes but a reactor meltdown is very, very unlikely with the new design of this fusion reactor

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thaddius

Oh. Sorry sir. I didn't realize we were dealing with a fusion reactor specialist. Since fision reactors are theoretical, you can't know for sure that it will be 'stable'.

Whatever, the liklihood of a fusion reactor is not the point here, Majinbuu's subject title is 'France is Gonna Die! It's a conspiracy to blow me up!'

To me this implies that he's talking about the possibility of a meltdown. And someone mentioned three mile island, which was almost a meltdown, whereas I corrected him by saying he meant Chernobyl. So stop worrying about it, k?

I'm interested to see how this project turns out.

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PSN ID: DrSquigglyPants

Jay

Not once did I say I was a specialist. I'm just telling you what I have read from multiple sources, as well as my (limited, but more than most) knowlege of nuclear fusion.

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thaddius

It's called sarcasm dude.
My point is just that there are no fusion reactors out there to support your claim of a 'stable' reactor.

No problem though. If the sun can do it countless times a day, we can do it too. It's just that the sun is an uncontrolled fusion reactor that is constantly exploding. Here's hoping we can control it, for Frances' sake. They got the Louvre.

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PSN ID: DrSquigglyPants

Jay

And Majinbuu

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