[simonh]

ITER will cost about the same as the Manhattan project, around $21bn in 2021 $, and that's just one project. Total investment in Fusion globally is huge and the problem is at the moment there are multiple different feasible ways forward, and it's not clear which will pan out. There's huge risk of wasting large amounts of resources and time, even if we do eventually figure it out.

[willis936]

Creating conditions to split a heavy nucleus for 1 microsecond is much easier to do than fusing light nuclei steady state.

[simonh]

Yes of course, I know that. I’m not even saying the investment in fusion is a bad idea. I’m just pointing out that actually our investment in it is enormous and very risky.