[Guvante]

The US has spent (inflation adjusted) $34 billion on fusion as of the end of 2021. Assuming no real change it would be $35 billion as of the end of 2023.

http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2021/ph241/margraf1/

Fusion has been "a decade away" since before the turn of the millennium.

To say we should just throw $10-20 billion at a power plant and hope something comes out is not a good idea.

We should wait until one of the many multi billion dollar research plants is able to get even 10% of a reasonable to target energy output before even thinking about that.

Otherwise we would likely just sign the death of fusion in the public eye. Could you imagine the backlash if a $40 billion dollar project couldn't even produce power after two decades? (Going off how public works costs and timelines have been going is the reason for higher values)