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Page added on May 6, 2016
More delays for ITER, as partners balk at costs
Last week, an independent review committee delivered a report that was supposed to show that ITER, the troubled international fusion experiment under construction in Cadarache, France, finally has a reliable construction schedule and cost estimate. But the report says only that the new date for first operations—2025, 5 years later than the previous official target—is the earliest possible date and could slip. And it underscores the challenge of ITER’s ballooning budget. To start running by 2025, ITER needs an extra €4.6 billion that its member states are reluctant to provide. As a result, the report says, its ultimate goal—a fusion reaction that gives off more energy than it consumes—will be delayed from 2032 until 2035 at the earliest.
4 Comments on "More delays for ITER, as partners balk at costs"
Boat on Fri, 6th May 2016 2:14 pm
Energy Department Requests Proposals for New Institute to Boost Efficiency in Manufacturing
http://energy.gov/articles/energy-department-requests-proposals-new-institute-boost-efficiency-manufacturing
Traditional chemical manufacturing relies on large-scale, energy-intensive processing. The new institute will leverage approaches to modular chemical process intensification — like combining multiple, complex processes such as mixing, reaction, and separation into single steps — with the goal of improving energy productivity and efficiency, cutting operating costs, and reducing waste. Through the development of new process intensification technologies, the institute could unleash major savings in energy-intensive sectors like chemical manufacturing, oil and gas refining, pulp and paper-making, food manufacturing, biofuels, fuel cells, and other industries.
Bob Owens on Fri, 6th May 2016 8:10 pm
Imagine that! Cost over-runs on fusion experiments! Only been happening for 50 years, now. Just think of all the solar/wind farms we could have built with all that money! We would be living in a fusion (sun) world by now.
Anonymous on Sat, 7th May 2016 12:36 am
I know fusion detractors(Im one of them) love to make hay about how much fusion ‘costs’. Sure its a money, and time sink. But the current spending on fusion, and its spectacular lack of results, is really not the worst thing you can say about fusion, even with ITER thrown into the mix. Compare to the money that goes every single year into the pockets of corporate coal, oil, frakers, and for-profit fission power plant operators? Fusion, for all its wasted funds, is just a rounding error when you compare it to oils annual subsidies.
The only reason ‘fusion’ cant find more money, is the we in the ‘west’ are too busy spending what it does have on interest on debt, military imperialism, and subsidies for anything that runs on oil, which is almost everything….
Chris Hill on Sat, 7th May 2016 8:44 am
The question with fusion is: what if there are no shortcuts? What if we can make it work but it is too costly to ever b useful for anything? It is a lovely idea, but if it will never be economically viable, throwing money at it is a total waste. Humanity is in love with its technical prowess, seldom stopping to think about the true value of the technology.