BERLIN (AP) 鈥 The German government announced draft plans Thursday to boost domestic research into development of nuclear fusion, a technology some hope will provide abundant clean energy in the future, but left open how those efforts will be funded.
Science Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger said that under the proposal, Germany will support all promising fusion technologies now being developed, including laser-based methods that but aren't widely researched in Europe.
Another method, using powerful magnets, has already received significant support from Germany at both its own in the northern town of Greifswald, and at the .
鈥淲e want to address both magnet and laser fusion,鈥 Stark-Watzinger told reporters in Berlin, adding that the plan is to 鈥渟ubstantially鈥 increase the 149 million euros ($163 million) that Germany currently provides annually for such research. She declined to be more specific.
鈥淲e don't yet know today which power plant concept will succeed,鈥 she said. 鈥淚n the end it will be scientists and industry, which will build the fusion power plant, that decide.鈥
Stark-Watzinger declined to say whether it could result in funding cuts for ITER, which has been plagued by delays and cost overruns, but said Germany would stand by its contractual obligations. The project is also under pressure because of , one of the few places of continued cooperation between Moscow and the West since the Russian attack on Ukraine.
Sibylle G眉nter, scientific director of the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, acknowledged that a commercial fusion reactor may not begin operation in Germany until the second half of the century, but insisted that the investment would be worthwhile for future generations.
Germany aims to and , which used conventional fission, in April after years of lobbying by environmentalists.
Stark-Watzinger made clear that she doesn't want a return of the old-style nuclear reactors, despite calls for that from some within her libertarian Free Democratic Party.
鈥淚 wouldn't advocate building any reactor that uses this technology again,鈥 she said, adding that nuclear fusion 鈥 which works by merging atoms to release energy 鈥 wouldn't pose the same risks of uncontrolled meltdowns and long-lived radioactive waste that come from splitting atoms.
鈥淭he advantages are clear and we have good conditions here,鈥 she said.
