ITER project, status?

[Franz Schönhofer <franz.schoenhofer@CHELLO.AT>]

Franz Schoenhofer

PhD, MR iR

Habicherg. 31/7

A-1160 Vienna

AUSTRIA

phone (international) -43-699-1168-1319

phone (national) 0699-1168-1319

 

 

 

RADSAFERs,

 

 

The topic of the ITER project came up today on Austrian massmedia.

Austria has always agreed with the opinion of the European Union to

support the ITER project and to contribute to financing. There was today

a routine meeting of the EU on this topic and the minister in charge

wanted to send a vice minister to this meeting. Suddenly the vice

minister (from the right wing party!) announced yesterday on TV that he

would vote “NO”, because this would contradict the official Austrian

policy for a nuclear free Europe. So the minister herself had to travel

to Brussels to vote YES. The Greens have too stated that it is a shame

to spend money on fusion, that it should better be spent on solar and

wind energy, that there would be radioactive waste anyway and after all

that would be a slap into the face of all anti-nuclear people (who are

in Austria the only ones accepted by politics and mass-media.

 

I remember very well, that in the seventies, eighties or even nineties

of last century one of the main arguments of greens against nuclear

power plants was, that one should develop instead nuclear fusion,

because this would provide the world with never ending cheap and clean

energy. I remember this so well, because I remember my pointed comments

(RADSAFErs know about my way of commenting….) that the greens are

obviously not aware of not only the technical problems, the costs but

most of all the problems with activated, radioactive components and

especially the problem of tritium which can hardly be prevented to

diffuse through all barriers, which would more than equal the problem of

waste from nuclear power plants. 

 

I wonder whether anybody knows the latest status of the ITER project. My

latest information is that the EU wants to be Cadarache in France the

location of the fusion reactor, other countries want locations in for

instance Japan near Rokkasho (I drove by the site in Feb. 2003). 

 

Best regards,

 

Franz