I mean…you can be pedantic about it, but to me this reads fairly clearly as “If it can’t be removed with a screwdriver, it’s not allowed.”

Azure - Microsoft AWS

It’s not an EU project, but there are EU countries involved in the funding, which means EU tender regulations apply.

Wendelstein is cheaper, but according to wikipedia it also went over budget. “[…] while the total cost for the IPP site in Greifswald including investment plus operating costs (personnel and material resources) amounted to €1.06 billion for that 18-year period. This exceeded the original budget estimate, mainly because the initial development phase was longer than expected, doubling the personnel costs.” (The original source is a dead link, but you could probably find something corroborating fairly easily.)

I’m not saying ITER is a bad project, I don’t even think the cost is a problem, I just think that the regulations surrounding the financing of these kinds of projects often do more harm than good.

Honestly, going wildly over budget is pretty much par for the course in any sort of large scale infrastructure project in Europe. With the way tender procedure’s work in the EU, it’s entirely expected that things are going to end up being more expensive and take twice as long. It’s stupid and wasteful, but it’s “public money” and not going to change any time soon.

My little conspiracy theory on this: I wouldn’t be surprised if every intelligence agency in Europe knew how did it, but no one is going to tell, and we’re not going to find out for years.

An attack on critical infrastructure like this is essentially an act of war, and nobody in Europe wants to escalate this conflict any more by admitting they know who’s responsible.

If it was Ukraine, it would result in public outcry, and we’d basically be forced to cease any military support. If it was Russia, it’s an act of war and there’d be public pressure in the other direction, maybe even enough to make us officially declare war. If it was the US, there’d be pressure for at the very least some pretty severe diplomatic consequences.

Nobody in European governments wants any of those results right now. Everybody is content to just leave it be and an article like this pointing blame at one of the three every couple of months is the only thing we’ll hear on it until it gets declassified in 50 years when it doesn’t matter anymore.