Concentrating on big energy projects flies in the face of everything we learned over the last 30 years. We have to face our energy problems in a multi-faceted way. We have to ask ourselves what we would be missing if we were to pursue the ITER option. Dr. Barnard agrees with Argue's position on renewables. But he also believes that potential long-term gains of ITER are worth the investment.
Fusion is perhaps the ultimately renewable source, but it's a long way off.
A very long way indeed. The first fusion power station isn't scheduled to be built until at least 2030. In the meantime, ITER won't produce a single megawatt of usable electricity. Instead it is expected to use between 150 and 500 megawatts during test cycles. That's a lot of juice.