A lot is being going on in the petroleum business , there are people worried about exhausting the oil reserve ,where there are others who have a bigger problem to take care of,I am among the second category.Though being a petroleum engineer, I am well aware about the fact that ever since the first wells were drilled in pennsylvania in 1859, the myth that we are running out of oil is going on so frankly I am not too much worried about the reserves.But what caught my attention is the fact the frech government is investing $ 13 billionn on an experimental nuclear fusion project that scientists hope will eventually produce a clean, safe and endless energy resource and help phase out polluting fossil fuels.
An experimental device called the "International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER)" will be built in France. ITER is hopefully the step that will bridge the gap between today’s studies of plasma physics and tomorrow's electricity-producing fusion power plants. The goal of the project is to demonstrate methods of extracting the power of nuclear fusion.
The ITER Tokamak, a magnetic containment device, would be the first fusion device to produce thermal energy at levels equivalent to conventional electricity power plants, and would demonstrate the technology necessary for the first prototype commercial fusion power plant. It is based around a hydrogen plasma torus operating at over 100 million °C, and will produce 500 MW of fusion power. It would work by heating isotopes of hydrogen to hundreds of millions of degrees, creating a plasma of charged particles.
Anyone interested in reading more about ITER, click on the link for the US official website
http://www.state.gov/g/oes/rls/fs/2003/26004.htm
The official site, http://www.iter.org/