(6) The ITER site near Cadarache
So what is ITER and why should you care? Follow the link and read about our (meaning humanity's, in this instance) first attempt to at least "break even" in the quest for obtaining electricity from fusion, the same source of energy being used day and night by our sun.
Perhaps there is no reason for you to care, but to me ITER is a bright hope for the distant future. I heard a gentleman from the UN give a talk about equity in the distribution of wealth being linked to the distribution of power. He suggested that if ITER works, and leads to the actual production of electric power from fusion, we ought to install a fusion reactor on every continent and make electricity as much a human right as air and water. Like water, it would not be free, necessarily, but it should be placed within economic reach for almost everyone on the planet as long as there is a supply.
So imagine my glee in passing this sign near Cadarache, it says this year the ground is being surveyed and prepared, and next year begins construction of the experimental plant. It is a truly international endeavor, and I was at the meeting of the economic superpowers (the "G-8") in Detroit where the US indicated it was going to pay the annual fee to be a partner in ITER. (OK, I was not a delegate, I provided support for a booth describing Department of Energy work in the nuclear energy field). One impressive thing about fusion is that its radioactive waste will not be as plentiful, nor as long-lived, as fission-energy wastes. It will primarily consist of activation products, not fission products and actinides.
Of course I would love to have driven past this sign, but I knew better:
The local countryside is marvelously peaceful:
That is another nice thing about fusion power, it requires no uranium, hence no enrichment of uranium, and thus a fusion power plant cannot be used to create a waste product that, through the marvels of very sophisticated metallurgy and chemistry, can be diverted into making weapons. That is good. Very good!
Links to other 'Septober' trip pages:
(1) Crossing the Alps on the way from Munich (Munchen) to Marseille.
(2) Sunset on the Giens Peninsula where my first set of meetings took place.
(3) Sunrise on the Giens Peninsula. (I took no photos of the city where my second meeting took place, Toulon).
(4) A visit to the north rim of France's Grand Canyon, in Provence.
(5) A visit to the south rim of Provence's Grand Canyon.
Universal links:
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