| You should look at this: https://i.imgur.com/sjH5r.jpg It's a (normalised for 2012 dollars) chart from a study comissioned by the US government in 1976 to determine how much money would need to be invested per annum in order to achieve viable fusion power by specific dates. You can read the whole thing here (including the unmodified chart): http://link.springer.com/article/10.1023%2FA%3A1021815909065 The chart I have linked you includes an extra line of data not found in the original report, namely how much has actually been invested. Ongoing funding of fusion research dropped quickly to a half and then about a sixth of what the US government knew was needed to achieve their goal. It is in no way the fault of the fusion research community that we do not yet have a working reactor, they've been viscously strangled by bean-counters for 40 years. Frankly, I think it's a testament to the great work of some badly under-appreciated people that we're as far along the road as we are, and if you want to support funding you totally should because we've known for 40 years that increased funding is all that's holding this back. |
Then governments decided to put most of the fusion money in a three-decade construction project in France, cancelled a bunch of projects, and progress slowed.
At least private investors are starting to pitch in; Tri Alpha just got $500 million, General Fusion has a fair amount, and YCombinator invested a little in Helion.