[RightWhale]

There are too few working on the problem. That is because there are too few projects being funded. If we want to make some serious progress we need to employ more thinkers. A $ billion a year might sound like a lot, but for a problem like this, where they are at the edges of science and materials engineering all the time, it is laughable.

[Southack]

The big picture is that Fusion energy offers only one advantage over fission: no nuclear waste.

Well, who says that nuclear waste is a big problem? Oh sure, it is a *political* problem, but in the grand scheme of things it's simply toxic garbage, of which we already make plenty every day.

So all of the money spent pursuing fussion technology will simply buy us less nuclear waste. We don't get more energy. We don't get cheaper energy. We don't get safer energy.

Just less waste. That's all that fussion gives us.

So all of this talk about spending BILLION$ on fussion is the same as trying to spend Billions on waste disposal.

...Because nuclear fussion simply means less waste.

5 Legislative Days Left Until The AWB Expires

[CasearianDaoist]

A billion a year is chump change. We have to dismantle the entitlement state and seriously fund R & D in this country. The total Federal budget including defense research (basic and applied) is only around $136 billion a year. There is probably that much wasted in Welfare and Medicaid fraud alone. During the Cold War entitlements and general government spending made up about 35% of the Budget while Defense and Research made up roughly 65%. Those figures are now reversed. We cannot affords nearly 300 billion in Highway Bill pork or nearly a 100 billion in farm support (which voes not mainly even go to small farmer anymore anyway.)

The only way that we can possible compete in this world is to be far in advance in science and technology of any other nation or block of nations. We must radically rethink our whole approach to this issue and build a nation consensus.

We did this 45 years ago and this gave us the leadership we have now. We can do it again if we have the will. The major stumbling block is the Democrat party and the Left. 45 years ago they were not a problem - the problem was not internal, it was with the soviets. We could build up projects and programs and not have them taken apart when a new administration came to power.

If we do not act soon we will end up like a country such as Brazil or Argentina. The Euros understand what must be done and are making plans. So are the Chinese and the Indians. We are not facing reality. A billion a year? we ought to spent that buch on computing facilities for fusion research.