April 29 was one day after the recent Extraordinary two-day meeting of the ITER Council that considered the report of the Independent ITER Council Review Group (ICRG). In a press release April 28, the Council stated it had “decided that the ICRG report be released immediately for the use of each Member’s government”. Although the Council did not specifically authorize releasing the report to the public, articles appeared in Science and Physics Today stating that they had copies.

When Dale Meade posted the ICRG report on the FIRE site on April 29, however, DOE Officials ordered him to take the report off the site, since the FIRE site was hosted on a government-designated URL (pppl.gov) and DOE had not authorized the release of the report to the public. Meade was in the process of removing the report from the FIRE site when the entire site disappeared from his screen before his eyes.

Inquiries to DOE and PPPL brought the response that the FIRE site was being moved to another (non-government) location. Suggestions that the site be restored while the transition was being effected fell on deaf ears. It has now been down for 11 days.

The good news is that, as of today, the site is partially up and running at a new location: http://www.firefusionpower.org/ and is expected to be fully restored soon.

An ALERT notice on the new site states: "This site is now an independent web site and is free from DOE and PPPL restrictions on content".