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France Chosen As Location For International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor
Chris Crum
Staff Writer
2005-06-28
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The European Union, Japan, the U.S., Russia, China and South Korea have chosen France to be the home of an experimental nuclear fusion reactor that's worth $13 billion.
This reactor is supposed to be a source of cleaner energy while making it more as well. The technology could lead to less use of fossil fuels that pollute the environment.
The reactor is called the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). It is supposed to produce the same type of energy as that of the sun and other stars.
Nuclear fusion is said to produce minimal amounts of toxic waste, and no greenhouse gases that are blamed for global warming. Bloomberg News explains:
Fusion, the process that powers stars, could be cheaper and safer than fission, the action at the core of contemporary nuclear power plants. Uniting the atoms of lightweight elements such as hydrogen instead of splitting apart heavier elements such as uranium produces much more energy with a fraction of the radioactivity.
The six members of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, or ITER, which means ``the way'' in Latin, agreed in Moscow today to build the facility in the southern French city of Cadarache, rather than Rokkasho-Mura, the Japanese location favored by the U.S. and South Korea.
"We are dealing with the question of how to address sustainable energy in the future," said the European commissioner for science and research, Janez Potocnik. "And fusion looks very promising."
It may be 50 years before the project actually becomes commercially useful according to some people that are opposed to the project. It will take 10 years to build anyway.
View All Articles by Chris Crum
About the Author:
Chris Crum is a staff writer for SecurityProNews and WebProNews.
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