Fusion, Computing Top DOE Wish List.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has ranked 28 major science facilities it hopes to construct in the next 20 years. Topping the DOE wish list is a multibillion dollar nuclear fusion reactor, followed by a plan to build supercomputing infrastructure. The DOE Office of Science set out last year to evaluate and rank the department's proposed major science facilities. Marking another chapter in its spectacular comeback, the International Thermonuclear Fusion Reactor (ITER) experiment stands alone as DOE's number one future science project. ITER aims to achieve a self-sustaining fusion reaction by heating a mixture of deuterium and tritium, to hundreds of millions of degrees. Spain, France and Japan are competing to host the machine. The U.S. will likely foot 10% of the bill for the $5 billion experiment.