“My guess is that if even 1% of the effort that has been wasted on hot fusion.....”
Good point.
I’m a passionate supporter of basic science.
But the bill for 60 years of fusion reactor research by the super powers is at least $40 billion.
Amount of commercial electricity generated?
Nada.
I’ve grown to feel the same way about the Space Station.
$100 billion.
Will that produce valuable technology and benefit future generations?
Sure.
But if we had done $100 billion of basic research on clean coal, fission reactors, solar, wind, and batteries, we would have saved trillions of dollars in energy and military costs.
There’s been well over $40 billion spent at Livermore alone.