I have a friend that will disagree with you on that point. He claims (he's the PHD in physics, not me) that the answer to fusion will be found in one of these devices, and that the one being built in Texas was the only one large enough to possibly unlock the mystery. (His contention is that the ones in Europe are not large enough).
As far as the killing of it goes, sadly there WERE many other hands on the dagger. That moron leatherface governor we had in Texas at the time deserves part of the blame.
One of my friends had a machining company that did a lot of work on that project, and he told me it was dead in 1992. In fact, and I almost fainted because this guy is more of a right wing gun nut than I am, he actually wondered if Clinton winning (the election had not be held yet) might save the thing because the Bush administration had been so lukewarm towards it.
Call me stupid, but I still don't get the connection between oil and fusion. I'm not disputing either you or your friend, but oil is NOT an atomic science and fusion IS. So, I'm still confused on that point. If you can get more info, I'd LOVE to see it, because this is (obviously) interesting to me.
That moron leatherface governor we had in Texas at the time deserves part of the blame.
You mean Queen Ann? I have no real love for her, but I recall the efforts she made to try to get Clinton to let the state buy it, finish it and run it. I know that she made a couple of trips to DC to discuss it with him and he wasn't going to change his mind. I also wrote him a nasty-gram about it, not that I had any influence.