Will humans ever achieve Fusion Power?

[glazbagun]

I've been reading about the ambitions and obstacles of ITER, the current cost of >$14BN, the political disagreements over funding, etc. On one hand I personally think it great that multi-national science projects like this are even possible in Europe given that WWII was barely even a lifetime ago. And the prize is absolutely huge- everything the atomic age promised with none of the drawbacks, oil will be reduced to a niche chemical commodity and going to war over it would seem ridiculous.

On the other hand, I look at our creaking infrastructure, economic pressures, yet more chaos in the Middle East, or the way that the world of the Greeks, Incas, Romans and ancient Egyptians and most other ancient civilizations must have seemed pretty permanent just a few short centuries before they were reduced to historical footnotes and I think it's more likely we'll be dragged into a new dark age before we get there.

Doh'. 5000+ posts and this is the first time I put one in the wrong forum. Sorry all

Edited by glazbagun on Thursday 17th December 19:44

[glazbagun]

hidetheelephants said:

Hardly, it gets billions; fission on the other hand is treated as the idiot half-brother and starved of R&D outside of tiny iterative improvements to the existing PWR paradigm, despite it actually working and being safe.

Some sciences have always seemed sexier/better promoted than others, I guess. A quick google says that the US alone has spent ~$22BN (~$29BN total) on fusion research over nearly 60 years. Averaging to ~half a billion dollars= ~£330Million/year for 60 years. If the USA's GDP is 18trillion, that doesn't seem like they're really trying that hard.

By way of comparison, the Manhattan project ate $26BN(adjusted) in five years.
Channel Tunnel was £12BN (adj)
The Apollo program total cost was ~$120BN in todays money.
Development costs for the F-35/JSF were $59BN
The Human Genome Project was a relative bargain at less than $5BN adjusted, over 13 years.

Compared to those it doesn't seem extravagant, The lack of any forseeable payoff that makes it look like a giant money pit, but isn't that the case with lots of science?