Double Standards in Research

The European Union is pressuring Japan to "compromise" on the ITER project.

The European Union is pressing Japan to consider a "high political level" compromise to resolve a standoff over who will host a revolutionary nuclear reactor project, a key EU official said Thursday.
But Japan has not yet responded to the suggestion to end the row over the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), which has been billed as a test bed for a safe and inexhaustible energy source for the future.

"The EU has spared no effort and has made an offer to Japan that in all respects is comparable to the Japanese proposal," said EU research commissioner Janez Potocnik,

"I have proposed to our Japanese partners to sit together and find an acceptable compromise at a high political level. For the sake of fusion development. This suggestion has not yet been taken up."

Japan and France are vying to host the multi-billion dollar project, one of the most exciting ventures in international science.

But talks among the six parties involved are deadlocked: the United States and South Korea support Japan's offer to build ITER in Rokkasho-mura, a northern Japanese village near the Pacific Ocean, while the EU, China and Russia back France's bid for it to be based in Cadarache, southern France.

So the European Union wants Japan's cooperation... But they don't want to compromise and let them build it in Japan. At one point, the Europeans were threatening to build their own reactor, sort of like Cartman saying "Screw you guys, I'm goin' home."