Good comment Chris.
You might also be interested to read an excellent comment recently posted on the Canadian nuclear listserver, archived at this URL:
http://mailman.mcmaster.ca/mailman/private/cdn-nucl-l/0301/msg00102.html
....Canada is vying to have the ITER project built near our Darlington nuclear plant in Ontario, where a heavy water de-tritiation plant has large stocks of tritium ready made for use in fusion experiments.
Jaro
-----Original Message-----
From: Dr Christoph Hofmeyr [mailto:chofmeyr@nnr.co.za]
Sent: Tuesday February 04, 2003 4:30 AM
To: Sandy Perle
Cc: radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu
Subject: RE: France to pitch for experimental fusion power plant
Radsafers,
Sandy quoting Reuters:
(ITER) "..it aims to produce a clean and safe source of energy using
fusion.
"If we succeed, this is the solution to all our problems and we'll no
longer need to go to war in Iraq," a source close to the project
said, adding that it would be conducted over 40-50 years..."
One is used to scientists putting a spin on things to further their
cause, but this 'source' seems to move from the sublime to the
ridiculous... Never the less, a valuable contract to attract.
What is not said loudly is that the experts expect the first generations
of fusion reactors to be sustainable only as breeders of fissile
material like Pu-239, as they say, "clean and safe" (for use in good old
fission reactors?). I almost forgot about the tritium, the stuff that
caused the Brookhaven research reactor to be closed down. I suspect that
the fusionists think that by the time their contraption will become
operational, everybody will have forgotten that plutonium and tritium
are supposed to be dirty words. The time horizon has stayed remarkably
constant at about 50 years and therefore beyond my own.
My own sceptical thoughts.
Chris Hofmeyr
chofmeyr@nnr.co.za
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