Wow, I never imagined that fusion funding was that paltry. Considering the insane things that have to be built to make it work, it is very impressive what has actually gotten done.
Wow, I never imagined that fusion funding was that paltry. Considering the insane things that have to be built to make it work, it is very impressive what has actually gotten done.
To be fair, that's budget for magnetic confinement fusion. US has always been more interested in inertial fusion (i.e. shoot it with lasers). Likely because of synergy with military application of lasers.
The thing it, inertial confinement seems to be a dead end and has been for quite a while. At least rest of the world has decided to fund magnetic confinement (plus few oddballs with z-pinch), so I assume it's more promising approach.