‘The promise of fusion energy has temporarily bridged the wide gap that separates Democrats and Republicans on the science committee of the U.S. House of Representatives. But that meeting of minds wasn’t the only surprise to emerge from an oversight hearing Friday on the status of ITER, an experimental fusion reactor being built in France that has been plagued by rising costs and construction delays.
Representative Lamar Smith (R–TX), chair of the full committee, and Representative Eric Swalwell (D–CA), the top Democrat on the energy panel that conducted the hearing, have sparred repeatedly this year over a wide swath of pending legislation. But they were in the same corner in praising the massive international project to achieve sustained ignition of a burning plasma, the first step in building a commercial reactor to generate power. (1)
But are we ready for this?
Have you read Mickey Mouse? (2)
The most serious things are said with a joke…
We are not ready to be free.
We are not ready to be independent.
If we were, we wouldn’t be looking for ways to be free and independent.
We would already be…
