Earth Equity News

International Atomic Fusion Project to Boost Its Budget. By James Kanter, NYTimes, April 30, 2009. "China, the United States, Japan and the European Union have committed billions of dollars to construction of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, or ITER, in a heavily forested corner of Provence called Cadarache that is a center for atomic research... The original budget, set in 2001, was about $10 billion, to be spent over 30 years. About half that amount was to be spent by participating governments on national projects to build components for the reactor. That budget is being revised because prices of crucial commodities like steel and copper have soared, and because features are being added to the original design to help to ensure that the experiment works. The seven parties are expected to decide on a new amount, which could be significantly higher, and on how to share the burden of paying for it, at meetings in June and November, said Neil Calder, a spokesman for the ITER Organization."