OMEGA said:
Fusion power will save us
The world is coming together and building a fusion plant.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/05/24/technology/iter.php
BRUSSELS The European Union, the United States, Russia and Asian nations including China signed a treaty to build the first nuclear-fusion reactor, forging ahead with a €4.6 billion project that could eventually help cut oil demand and air pollution.
Japan, India and South Korea also are part of the agreement on the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, or ITER, which aims to show the potential of fusion as an energy source. The seven parties signed the treaty in Brussels after an accord last year to let France host the site. The project's estimated cost is $5.9 billion.
"It's a historic moment," Janez Potocnik, EU commissioner for science and research, said at the signing ceremony. "It's the first time all these important states are engaged in such a project."
Fusion, the process that powers stars, could be cheaper and safer than fission, the action at the core of contemporary nuclear power plants. Like current nuclear installations, fusion power plants would operate without emitting gases that are blamed for global warming, like carbon dioxide.
Efforts to cut greenhouse-gas emissions from fossil fuels, rising oil prices and worries about the safety of existing nuclear plants are helping drive the project.
Fusion power plants could deliver about 40 percent of global energy consumption by the end of the century, according to Raymond Orbach, director of the Office of Science at the U.S. Department of Energy.
"That will be without greenhouse gases," he said. "That's why we're all investing in ITER."
The EU, including France, will pay 40 percent of the reactor's construction costs. France, as the host country, will split the remaining 60 percent evenly with the six non-EU signatories. Construction is due to start next year in the southern French city of Cadarache and is scheduled to last up to a decade.
The treaty also covers reactor operations, projected to cost €5 billion over 25 years. Of the operating costs, the EU will pay 26 percent, the United States 13 percent, Japan 13 percent, China, India, South Korea and Russia 10 percent each and France the remaining 8 percent, according to the European Commission.
After the treaty approval, some of the signatories need to go through a domestic ratification process.
Iran & China are working on fusion plants too
http://www.physorg.com/news68444642.html
I can't see the video as I'm on dialup, but I bet its cool.