France to Host ITER

Science's quest to find a cheap and inexhaustible way to meet global energy needs took a major step forward on Tuesday when a 30-nation consortium chose France to host the world's first nuclear fusion reactor.

After months of wrangling, France defeated a bid from Japan and signed a deal to site the 10-billion-euroexperimental reactor in Cadarache, near Marseille.

The project will seek to turn seawater into fuel by mimicking the way the sun produces energy. It would be cleaner than current nuclear reactors, would not rely on enriched uranium fuel or produce plutonium.

But critics argue it could be at least 50 years before a commercially viable reactor is built, if at all.

For more details on the project, click here.

Technorati tags: Nuclear Energy, Environment, Energy, Politics, Technology, Economics

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NEI Nuclear Notes

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