How Long Will it Take to Build ITER?

[theCandyman]

http://www.forbes.com/home/feeds/afx/2005/05/02/afx1991335.html

According to the above link, ITER "is not expected to be operational before 2050". Is this true? I had thought the time that would be required to build it would be less than twenty years even from a pessmistic viewpoint. If it takes this long, should the scientific community hold off on this project before actually building something concrete on account it may be half built before making a huge new discovery that could change everything and perhaps wait until it would require less time to build?

On the article as a whole, I am glad things look like they will finally be resolved and the project can continue. I am not bothered by the location that is finally decided on, but where do most of you think it should be built?

 

[selfAdjoint]

My solution: build An ITER in both France and Japan. The other nations will put up the funds they have agreed to for a single ITER, and France and Japan must bear the cost of duplication between them. If their pride requires their intransigance then let them put their money where there mouths are.

 

[LURCH]

Both the Department of Energy and the Princeton plasma physics lab seem to think that first plasma will be achieved by the end of 2015. Perhaps 2050 as a reference to the prediction of when the prototype might be available to actually produce fusion power commercially.

 

[Jikx]

Why not just build the reactor in a neutral country? Australia sounds like a good bet :p

 

[theCandyman]

I believe it was just stated in another thread that Austrulia has no nuclear reactors and if this is to be built for research, it should probably be built somewhere where research is prevelant. Although I am sure many researchers would not mind going to Austrulia for vacation and work.

 

[Astronuc]

France to host multi-billion-dollar ITER nuclear energy reactor

MOSCOW (AFP) - The six partners in the revolutionary ITER nuclear energy reactor agreed that France would host the multi-billion-dollar project, which is designed to emulate the power of the sun.

"Under this declaration, France is chosen as the site," said Antonia Mochane, spokeswoman for EU Science and Research Commissioner Janez Potocnik.

Japan earlier withdrew its bid to host the 10-billion-euro (12-billion-dollar) project, clearing the way for the site of Cadarache, in southern France.

Its backers hope that ITER will provide a cheap, clean and safe way to meet the world's future energy needs.

The project seeks to harness nuclear fusion, the same principle that powers the Sun and the stars, instead of splitting the atom -- the principle behind the atomic bomb and present-day nuclear plants.

The six partners in the project are the European Union,the United States, Russia, Japan, South Korea and China.

It's a matter of time now.

 

[motai]

Why not just build the reactor in a neutral country? Australia sounds like a good bet :p

It might also be a transportation issue.

"European Union,the United States, Russia, Japan, South Korea and China"

It is easier for those in the European Union, Russia, and the United States (somewhat if they are on the east coast) to go to France while South Korea, Japan, and China would rather have it in Japan. If ITER is going to be transporting a bunch of researchers, it would be best to keep them from getting too much jet lag, especially after 15+ hours of flight.

I guess in this situation it seemed to be deadlocked until they chose France. Hmm... good thing they chose the site. I remember last year they were still squabbling over where to place ITER.

 

[selfAdjoint]

Japan caved, with some sops to keep them from being too bitter. They'll pick up a lot of the technological development contracts.

 

[theCandyman]

I am glad it has finally been decided. I am also suprised I have not read this before I saw it here.

 

[Orion1]

PARIS -- France was chosen Tuesday as the home for an experimental $13 billion nuclear fusion project scientists say will produce a boundless source of clean and cheap energy.

The threat of global warming has brought nuclear power -- currently available only through fission and long out of favor -- back to the forefront as a way of generating energy because it creates no so-called greenhouse gases, a cause of global warming.

Nuclear fission -- with heat as a byproduct -- occurs when heavy atoms such as those of uranium or plutonium are split. But the process leaves behind highly radioactive waste, and the reactors can catastrophically melt down.

Harnessing fusion as an energy source has long been a dream of physicists because it would be safer, cleaner and cheaper -- using naturally abundant hydrogen as an energy source.

The major source of energy right now, the burning of fossil fuels such as coal and oil, spews greenhouse gases into the Earth's atmosphere, trapping the sun's heat. Oil supplies are expected to begin running short in about 50 years.

As a replacement, fusion would produce much more energy than fission, while leaving behind small amounts of relatively harmless waste and posing no danger of a nuclear meltdown.

The project is expected to create 10,000 jobs and take about eight years to build. But fulfilling the long-term vision of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, as it is called, could take decades.

If all goes well with the experimental reactor, officials hope to set up a demonstration power plant in Cadarache around 2040. Officials project that as much as 20 percent of the world's energy could come from fusion by the century's end, said Raymond L. Orbach, the U.S. Department of Energy's office of science director.

Reference:
http://www.harktheherald.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=58453&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

 

[NewScientist]

Japan didn't cave in they got a great deal, of all the money raised for ITER - 50% must be raised by Europe - Japan will receive 15% of whatever is raised. 20% of all jobs from IER will go to Japanese nationals! And what for? For having the research centre and a very high proability that the next plant will be built in Japan - around 2050 - the one that is going to work!

 

[Geoff St. Germaine]

I was talking to a couple of guys from EURATOM last week and they felt that the first ITER plasma should be around 2016. France was a good choice given the number of other large machines in Europe and given that ITER will be next door to http://www.efda.org/portal/fusion_eu/machines/tore_sup.htm .

 

[Morbius]

FYI:

http://www.llnl.gov/str/September05/Hill.html

Dr. Gregory Greenman
Physicist