For all yous little guys (physicists)

I've been following this story on and off for around a year. They are finally setting up an international fusion reactor in France. Japan will be host to many of the administrative and materials research positions. Fusion, as you may or may not know, is basically putting two hydrogen atoms together to form helium. It is the energy source that powers the sun. It produces little waste and emits no greenhouse gases. It is also what powers the hydrogen bomb. The reason it is so hard to wield (besides the scientific challenges) is the fact that you have to heat the plasma to about a hundred million degrees celcius and then come out with a net surplus of energy after the reaction. That's harder than a Madison Iron Man.
The US has been having problems finding the funding to support the project. The discrepency comes when debating whether our domestic program should be cut in order to fund this international effort. Tough call.
In any case, I would guess it will be at least 75 years until it becomes feasible to use fusion profitably. This is a great start to getting there.

Six Egyptian pounds for the first to find my townie reference.