[Kosh]

Budget problems again

A multinational fusion experiment known as ITER is having a tough time making friends in Europe. Last month, we reported that European partners in the project had failed to come up with the additional billions needed to begin construction in earnest. Now, it appears that Europe's left-wing Green politicians, at least, would like to see ITER cancelled outright.

What a surprise, materials costs skyrocket causing the budget to go out of whack, and some environalists try to come in and use that as an excuse to shut the whole project down (which more than a few groups have opposed for years now).

[SpardaSon21]

Don't the Greens realize all those near-term energy sources are not feasible for long-term dependence?

[Kosh]

Nope. In fact the only one that is reliable enough for baseline power (that's not region specific) is fission, which many of the greens also oppose.

[Bobboau]

why are they opposed to fusion power?

[Shade]

Indeed. I can kinda see why they might oppose fission power, but fusion power is much cleaner (in radioactive byproducts - Obviously both are clean in emissions). Greens should be supporting it.

[karajorma]

Greens tend to live in a strange world where they believe they can still have a modern lifestyle but not pay any price for it. Basically they're idiots.

Any sensible environmentalist is in favour of fusion.

[BloodEagle]

Of course the Martians don't want us developing nuclear technologies!  They want to keep us in the dark for as long as possible. 

[Flipside]

They're jMany environmentalist groups have built a cage of fallacy around themselves, they opposed Nuclear Weapons vehemently in the 1980's, and many of them still live in a world where 'Nuclear = Bad', regardless of how it is used (though I wonder if they would refuse Radiotherapy if it stood to cure them of cancer?). Because of this somewhat blinkered attitude, combined with increased Government control over Science, and increased Environmentalist control over Government, they could end up screwing things up for us in the name of saving us.

As someone mentioned earlier, they live in a happy cloud land where wind and water will provide all our energy needs, and yet are often amongst the first people complaining about wind farms etc destroying the coastline, or killing bats.

[Mongoose]

I'm still convinced that bird species that are too stupid to avoid a 300-foot-diameter windmill probably deserve to go extinct in the first place.

[Nuke]

we could burn environmentalists to generate steam to drive turbines.

[Kosh]

we could burn environmentalists to generate steam to drive turbines.

Then we'll run out of them too quickly. Better to stick them into giant hamster wheels. More renewable that way.

[Herra Tohtori]

Then we'll run out of them too quickly. Better to stick them into giant hamster wheels. More renewable that way.

Well the problem there is you would need to feed them...

I think it would be better to use them as organ donor pool. As soon as we can figure out how to put people on cryogenic stasis without damage.

[Kosh]

Well the problem there is you would need to feed them...

GMO's all the way!

[Flipside]

I'm still convinced that bird species that are too stupid to avoid a 300-foot-diameter windmill probably deserve to go extinct in the first place.

Bird are fine, but Bats aren't, Sonar doesn't work so well when the air turbulence is screwing up the echos, the truth is that Wind-Turbines kill very few birds, but bats (which, I must point out, are mammals, not birds) aren't quite so lucky

[Mongoose]

Hmm, you do have a point there.  Bats are awesome.

[IceFire]

You know it sucks... I consider myself environmentally conscious and I try my best on the whole to not do too many things to harm the environment. Yeah I have a carbon footprint but I do my best not to be too silly about that. So I consider myself "green" but there are some folks out there who make being conscious about this into a really bad thing.

This is one of those times. Fusion may be our best chance for a reliable long term power source that is relatively good for the environment.  We're going to need electricity and Fusion seems like a good idea.  Yes solar, yes wind, yes hydro, and in the near term yes nuclear. But this is a long term game and we need to play it well.

[Herra Tohtori]

CHAAAARGE THE BATTERIES

[newman]

The greens are basically stomping all over their own credibility with this thing. If successful, nuclear fusion plants could replace all of the fission ones in time. If they understand even a little about the technology they should be all in favor. Instead they keep insisting on fighting nuclear plants with windmills. Which is a windmill fight in itself. Idiots.

[carbine7]

I think a major problem is that people are just terrified of anything that is related to nuclear power. People always see it as a "nuclear bomb in their backyard " and go hiding under a rock like a cockroach.

On a slight side note, I think it must be a law of physics that any large project working on physics is stonewalled for at least five years because of budget concerns. LHC for example. I suppose you could attribute that to Murphy though.....

[Kosh]

The greens are basically stomping all over their own credibility with this thing. If successful, nuclear fusion plants could replace all of the fission ones in time. If they understand even a little about the technology they should be all in favor. Instead they keep insisting on fighting nuclear plants with windmills. Which is a windmill fight in itself. Idiots.

One of the posters on slashdot had an interesting point about that: Deuterium is abundent and easy to find, but tritium has a very short half life and so is rare in nature. That being said there are huge amounts of it being generated by fission power plants. Assuming that is accurate, we wont completely replace fission, just mostly replace it. That being said fission isn't bad either, but they have so many people scared ****less about it I have no doubt more than a few people will take their claims about fusion seriously.