It seems that every article I've read on fusion since I was a teenager has said we're 20 years away from fusion.
LOL. My thought exactly -- 20 years and several billion tax dollars more to keep the researchers employed, pensioned and insured. Even if it became a reality the Greens would find some problem with it and kill it. Sorry for the cynicism but that seems to be the reality: deja vu all over again.
This is exactly right. We are no closer to fusion today then we were 30 years ago. The problem is and always has been containment — or how not to melt a hole through the Earth. I don’t think actual ignition has ever been the hard part of the problem.
We’ll probably be building non-orbiting stationary power generation factories in space and beaming the power down well before they solve the fusion puzzle.
And cold fusion? Cold fusion is a myth, it’s not fusion at all, it’s a chemical reactor.
Re: “It seems that every article I’ve read on fusion since I was a teenager has said we’re 20 years away from fusion.”
I agree.
Europe, Russia, and the USA have been doing commercial fusion research since at least 1960.
It would not surprise me if the world wide price tag for this technology has reached $100 billion.
If we had put that money into photovoltaic, battery, and hydrogen research instead, I think we might be at break even or better on those three technologies.