ITER Fusion Reactor Enters Existential Crisis 470
deglr6328 writes "The long beleaguered experimental magnetic confinement fusion reactor ITER is currently in what some are calling the worst crisis of its 25 year history. Still existing only on the paper of thousands of proposed design documents, the latest cost estimates for the superconducting behemoth are soaring to nearly 20 billion USD — roughly twice the estimates from as recently as a few years ago. Anti-nuclear environmentalist organizations have seized upon the moment as an opportunity to use the current global economic crisis as a means to push for permanently killing the project. If ITER is not built, the prospect of magnetic confinement fusion as a technique to reach thermonuclear breakeven and ignition in the laboratory would be in serious question. Meanwhile, the largest laser-driven inertial confinement fusion project, the National Ignition Facility, has demonstrated the ability to use self-generated plasma optical gratings to control capsule implosion symmetry with high finesse, and is on schedule to achieve ignition and potentially high gain before the end of the year."
Fusion Reactor... Crisis?! (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Fusion Reactor... Crisis?! (Score:5, Funny)
ITER Fusion Reactor Enters Existential Crisis
Yeah, I read that and thought a fusion reactor had taken to wearing black clothes (from a thrift store), smoking (but only for affectation's sake) and contemplating existence in the face of this dark, heartless world.
Who knew fusion reactors were so...emo?
We're in a financial crisis! (Score:5, Funny)
Nuclear reactor creates Existentions... (Score:5, Funny)
ITER, Europe -- Physicists at the ITER Fusion Reactor announce new physics particle, known as the Existention. Previously only observed being emitted by cats placed in trap boxes filled with deadly acid, the creation of synthetic Existentions will open up a whole new line of research in quantum bogodynamics. An anonymous source close to the research team said it happened when the tight jeans worn by one of the research assistants distracted the operator of the reactor, causing what she loosely termed a "man event".
As an anti-fusion environmentalist (Score:5, Funny)
I'll just wait for the irony to sink in. Yeah.
20 billion USD... what's that expressed in (Score:2, Funny)
Gulf of Mexico oil spill units?
Re:ITER is too big (Score:5, Funny)
it makes me want to kill myself over and over. It really does. also the caps limit thing is retarded also the caps limit thing is retarded also the caps limit thing is retarded also the caps limit thing is retarded also the caps limit thing is retarded also the caps limit thing is retarded also the caps limit thing is retarded also the caps limit thing is retarded
Re:So let me get this right... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Still kinda dumb (Score:1, Funny)
Re:So let me get this right... (Score:2, Funny)
Or, of more immediate concern, how we're going to survive as a civilization when we run out of drinkable water.
Huh. Where I live the stuff falls from the sky, quite regularly.
Wait for hurricane season. I hear oil's going to fall from the sky pretty impressively.