And it keeps on costing billions.
https://earth.stanford.edu/news/steep-costs-nuclear-waste-us#gs.ofdufy
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This article says that many hundreds of billions, maybe more than a trillion dollars have been spent on nuclear fusion research. It said one article said that fusion won’t have any results until 2050.
https://www.powermag.com/fusion-power-watching-waiting-as-research-continues/
The reason I searched for “how much has nuclear fusion cost in the last fifty years?” was that I keep thinking that all those hundreds of billions of dollars could have been spent on proven technologies for generating renewable energy. The hundreds of billions could have been spent on building wind or solar farms in areas that have the best climates for wind and solar power. These could have contributed substantially to reducing greenhouse gases emitted.
Here is a dismaying quote from this article.
<< Among those pushing tokamaks was Robert Hirsch, head of the AEC’s fusion research program. Hirsch, an engineer and a nuclear physicist, has subsequently soured on magnetic fusion. He told The New York Times in 2012 that “tokamak fusion power has what I believe are insurmountable barriers to practicability and acceptability.” These include cost, radiation hazards, and radioactive waste disposal. He added that assessment assumes that the fusion technology would work, which he said is doubtful. >>
I knew that fusing hydrogen into helium creates nuclear radiation. But I didn’t think radioactive waste would be created. This is something I should look into.
