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The Guardian about ITER: "(...) is considered fairly easy to build but extremely difficult to operate." If this is true, ITER is so failed. Wikipedia: "Construc
by leaveyou 11y ago
The Guardian about ITER: "(...) is considered fairly easy to build but extremely difficult to operate." If this is true, ITER is so failed. Wikipedia: "Construction of the ITER Tokamak complex started in 2013[6] and the building costs are now over US$14 billion as of June 2015, some 3 times the original figure.[7] The facility is expected to finish its construction phase in 2019 and will start commissioning the reactor that same year and initiate plasma experiments in 2020". It's so easy to build, that is already 3 times more expensive. And it will be so hard to operate, that it will never work.
- Retric 11y ago"35 countries" That's the real issue, they could be building a toaster and it would be 3x over budget. PS: The ITER project was formally agreed to and funded in 2006 with a cost estimate of €10 billion ($12.8 billion) projecting the start of construction in 2008 and completion a decade later So, it's not really massively over budget yet, they just decided to build something else.
- lispm 11y agoWell, the Wendelstein 7X experiment is mostly funded by Germany as an investment into the east/north German science infrastructure. That makes it easier to coordinate, but it's hard to finance such a project. A project, which will have commercial use decades away, and whose commercialization would need much larger funding... We have actually enough financing needs in the German energy landscape currently: dismantling the nuclear power legacy, find a safe storage for radioactive materials and the research and development of the renewable energy landscape - which is in the hundreds of billions of Euros over the next 35 years.
- felipellrocha 11y agoJust because it's difficult to operate, that doesn't mean it's impossible.