Nuclear fusion row going critical

The debate over whether to build the world's biggest nuclear fusion facility in France or Japan is going critical. The European Union says it could pull out of the international project and build its own, if the project goes to Japan. But the US has firmly backed Japan as its preferred site.

Critics allege the US support for Japan is to punish France for its opposition to the war in Iraq, or to enlist Japan's help in an expensive particle accelerator project called the Linear Collider.

Whatever the motivation, the decision is being based purely on politics, says ITER's former deputy director Ronald Parker, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "No scientists are being consulted about the advantages or disadvantages of each location," he told New Scientist.