~ Cross-posted from European Tribune ~
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This amazing nuclear fusion project will be located in France, it has been officially announced today.
A long and bitter dispute about where to site the world’s largest nuclear fusion reactor looks all but certain to end in favour of France.
Countries have been arguing since 2003 over whether to site the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) at Rokkashomura in Japan or at Cadarache in France. The French bid has been backed by the European Union, China and Russia, while Japan has been supported by the US and South Korea.
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The European Union stressed that no final decision would be taken until ministers from all six parties meet in Moscow, Russia, on Tuesday 28 June. “We are optimistic that we will reach a decision on the site then,” said the EU’s science spokeswoman, Antonia Mochan.
● Putin discusses major projects with German businessmen
● Russia, China to develop space research cooperation
● Nuclear experts set to inspect nuclear facilities in Iran
● Russia will preserve its positions in Iran under any president
● Moscow proposes conference on bilateral cooperation with China
UPDATE
ITER began with an initiative at the 1985 Geneva Summit between the US and the USSR. President Reagan and General Secretary Gorbachov began a process that led to a collaboration among the European Union, Japan, Russia (initially the Soviet Union) and the US. Project to design and carry out the supporting research and development for ITER, whose programmatic objective is ‘to demonstrate the scientific and technological feasibility of fusion energy for peaceful purposes’.
From the beginning of the formal collaboration in 1988, through the completion of the initial six-year agreement for ITER and the Engineering Design Activities (EDA), the United States was an equal party, carrying out significant tasks in design and supporting R&D. In 1998, Congress directed the DOE to conduct an orderly closeout of its ITER activities, which was implemented during FY1999.
The European Union, Japan and Russia continued to complete the extended EDA in July 2001. Now, with Canada and also China, formal negotiations have begun aimed at the decisions on construction of an ITER facility, which is reduced in cost and in some detailed technical objectives, but with the same overall programmatic objective.
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This scientific possibility always offered some Jules Verne ingredients when it was mentioned as a project.
Looking forward to catch up on some reading about the project, international cooperation and political landscape to award the location to Uncle Sam’s enemy state: France. CERN Geneva has been a prior project for major advance in Nuclear Particle Physics and International cooperation. I’m very anxious to see how ITER develops.
EDF – Lancer la vidéo – France Thermo-Nuclear Plants
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June 27, 2005 — The rival consortia bidding to run Europe’s satellite-navigation system Galileo, have joined forces to win the multi-billion euro concession. The two groups, iNavSat and Eurely, were awarded the contract by the Galileo Joint Undertaking, the body set up to drive the project’s early phases.
A constellation of 30 spacecraft should be in orbit by the decade’s end. Galileo’s technologies are designed to bring greater accuracy and reliability to navigation and timing signals.
ESA – Founding Partner in Galileo Project
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ITER would have an advantage over current nuclear reactors because it would be cleaner. It would not rely on enriched uranium fuel and it would not produce plutonium, which is a concern from a terrorism point of view.
Fusion reactors would, however, still pose some radiation danger. “In the course of the reaction it produces a lot of neutrons and they get into the actual fabric of the machine and over years it becomes radioactive, so there is still a problem of decommissioning,” said Fells.
“The technology of this is the science of the hydrogen bomb,” Fells added. “You take a couple of hydrogen atoms and you squeeze them together, you fuse them together, and they turn into an atom of helium and produce a great burp of energy.”
Scientists know it could work because they know the hydrogen bomb works. But the problem they face is trying to do it in a controlled manner so the heat can be used to generate electricity.
NOTICE the size – human figure to scale!
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