ITER on the Ropes ...portends scale-back of all massive nuclear research

The new director of ITER, advises the international nuclear hot fusion project is way behind meeting its original 2020 target and is unlikely to deliver results before 2035.
There is doubt that it will ever be commercially viable even if enough contributing nations stay the course.

A May 2015 post, EU Shakes up its Science Budgeting, concluded with:
"The design of progressively larger and larger nuclear and particle exploration has to end.
Just because engineering, mental and financial resources are available doesn't mean that "science for science's sake" has to be pushed beyond sensible limits.
In internationally funded nuclear and particle research, scaling back should be the operating words."

A Guardian article critiques big governments' tendency to support massive science projects and neglect the more practical.
http://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/2015/may/27/how-can-we-stop-big-science-hoovering-up-all-the-research-funding

Funding programmes should provide balance between pure science and solution-based projects. Canada’s system falls short on supporting cutting-edge research, e.g. LENR, but at least rewards those showing positive results.

May 2016 Update on earlier posts about squandering funds on keeping aged nuclear reactors on risky life-support.
Germany's most populous state, which borders on Belgium, is stocking up on potassium iodide tablets due to proximity to aged neighbouring nuclear reactors.
http://www.dw.com/en/north-rhine-westphalia-prepares-for-belgium-nuclear-accident-with-iodine-tablets/a-19279950

Besides meltdowns, radioactive leaks, structural decay and sabotage, Science Magazine now reports on a simulation of a spent-fuel fire in a high population area:
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/05/spent-fuel-fire-us-soil-could-dwarf-impact-fukushima
True to form, the science editor does not highlight the obvious solution to such inevitable future disasters: Shut-down funding of hot fission/fusion research, schedule shut-down of all operating nuclear reactors while quickly transitioning to renewables and funding deployment of LENR-type energy.
Unfortunately, nothing happens until the UN's member states force the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to drop its nuclear proliferation policy in favour of a LENR Proliferation Agenda. See December 2014 open letter to UN.

Will Angela Merkel, Justin Trudeau and their UN envoys lead the shut-down charge before a Chernobyl/Fukushema event happens in a populous area?


Update June 17, 2016
Brexit vote casts palls on the Joint European Torus reactor (in UK) and the International Thermonuclear Reactor (ITER in France.)
http://science.sciencemag.org/content/352/6292/1376?utm_campaign=wnews_sci_2016-06-16&et_rid=33799724&et_cid=564673

Update July 11, 2016

Erudite E-cat World commentator, Greenwin, provides review of nuclear boondoggles:
http://www.e-catworld.com/2016/07/11/a-star-in-a-bottle-boondoggle-greenwin/