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The former head of communications at ITER has warned that the fusion energy industry is engaging in risky and potentially deceptive hype over the technology, skirting over the many technical hurdles which remain before fusion can provide meaningful benefits.
The European Parliament and member states reached a deal for next year’s EU budget late on Friday night, agreeing more money for research and innovation than expected. The final deal includes €12.9 billion for Horizon Europe, with no part of the research programme cut. However, nuclear fusion research funded through the Euratom R&I programme is in line for a €120 million cut.
The leadership of ITER should join forces with the European Parliament and come up with a communication on fusion, to ensure the large research project survives upcoming budget fights, German MEP Christian Ehler said in a hearing in the Parliament’s industry and research committee (ITRE) last week.
The old joke that nuclear fusion is perpetually a decade away may seem unfair, but the world’s largest fusion project is once again facing more delays and billions in cost overruns
The ITER project formally began in 2006, when its international partners agreed to fund an estimated €5 billion (then $6.3 billion), 10-year plan that would have seen ITER come online in 2016. The most recent official cost estimate stands at more than €20 billion ($22 billion), with ITER nominally turning on scarcely two years from…