It's a clean source of energy using fuel that can easily be extracted from sea water, and it isn't owned by Saudi Arabia. We're talking about fusion - and a multinational project led by British researchers that aims to use high-powered lasers to produce nuclear fusion, the same physical reaction powering the sun. If they succeed, they could solve the approaching world energy crisis without destroying the environment.
Although the team admits a commercial fusion reactor is still decades away, it believes using lasers to spark fusion shows great promise. The EU has agreed to fund the setup costs for a seven-year research project called HiPER (High Powered laser Energy Research) to build a working demonstration reactor. But preparing for that stage - requiring the collaboration of 11 nations including Germany, France, Canada and Russia - is expected to cost more than ?50m (?35m). Building the reactor itself will cost more than ?500m.
It's a good idea, it's fundamental science research. The money is not a large amount, not much more than the annual budget of a Formula One team. Roll the eyes at how much money Ferrari spend each year rather than at the total budget to investigate fundamental science with the potential to produce energy in a better way than fossil fuels.
Fair point - but it would be a sad day indeed if we turned our back on fundamental science. I put it in the same catogory as art and littriture. And half a billion euro isn't very much money in the grand scheem of things - there are many many other expenditures far more worthy of criticism.
The process discribed here is Inertial Confinement Fusion....But currently the process with the most likelyhood to be used for a power plant is Magnetic Confinement Fusion: www.iter.org
