Powering Up Or Down

Among the many things our government is supposed to be doing to provide for our futures and needs, nuclear means of providing electricity is one that slips in and out of the media.

In when something goes wrong, out when it is going right and relatively quietly gives us the energy we need for our modern and demanding lifestyles.

It is an expensive business and the complex engineering etc. of any major work means that what your first estimate and what you then have to pay out can be very different. What starts as an economic dream can become a financial nightmare.

"The Engineer" at theengineer dot co dot uk deals with the Iter project and the progress it is making. It is located in Provence, France, to the north east of Aix en Provence at St. Paul les Durance. It is up country and for the workers there short of the amenities usually associated with that region.

The Iter web site gives a full article on the history and purpose of the project. 35 nations are involved and probably it is the biggest and intended to be the best. If so, then it is possible it provides one of the models for the power generation of the future.

If there is a future, that is. Given all the forecasts of dire doom and destruction of the planet, the soils, the seas and the impact of too many humans contending for too little supplies it is an open question. Or shut according to what you believe.

The Iter project is in a part of the world where we have evidence of the first humans making fire and working together to feed and protect themselves.

Where it began it ends?