Political Issues

Continuing Research

Is there still support for fusion research?

With the lack of fusion in the news and the knowledge that the USA has dropped from the ITER project, people may ask, is there still support for continuing research? As of now, the answer is yes. Many people still believe that it will work. There are scientists willing to spend their lives in research and testing to make it work.
There is still some government support from countries around the world, but the public interest must be kept up, so the governments will continue interest as well.
Why has there been not as much interest as there could be? Perhaps because there has not been immediate results; because of the time it has taken to reach this point, and more time will be needed before we get to the point where we have fusion energy on a power-generating scale.

Why should we continue research?

When it comes down to it, we need a new option for energy. Fossil fuels are running out and polluting the atmosphere, fission's wastes take too long to decay and there will always be the safety fears by the public.

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To see a comparison of fusion to other fuels, please click here. While renewable resources such as Wind Power are an option, we will need more than one option for energy. Not everywhere in the world has enough sun or wind to generate this renewable energy. Another problem, which will hopefully diminish with time, is that people generally regard set-ups for solar/wind energy as an eyesore.

With fusion, it will just be another set of buildings. All in all, we need an alternative form of energy, and we need to protect the environment. With fusion power, there will be less waste and no contributions to the greenhouse effect, so that hopefully, in the future, there will still be power for everyone and the earth will still be in a decent shape for us to enjoy it.

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