Political Issues

MONEY

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Just because we have the interest in finding a better power source, or that there are scientists all over the world willing to devote their time to researching fusion to the point where it becomes viable commercially, does not mean that there will be continued and advanced research.

There is still a need for funds as the scientists need to support themselves, they also need money to run experiments, build new faculties and machinery, maintain and fix existing models, and have money to buy the power needed to run their experiments.

So where does the money come from?

Funds come from a variety of sources. Private donors help out a lot, as does certain governments. Perhaps what is he best way to start out on a new project is to have international co-operation. In this way, the project is advanced by having the collaboration of scientists form different countries, with different educations and ideas, and this also means more than one country can help share the burden of the cost, which makes it a little easier on everyone.

International Projects

An example of this can be seen with ITER, where several countries have come together for the project. But even here, problems have arisen. While still in the designing phase, funding was seen as a potential issue, and ITER's budget was cut by about a third of the original proposed cost. This still was too much for the United States (one of the biggest partners) to handle, and it dropped out in 1999, placing still a greater burden on the remaining countries.

The idea of fusion looks promising, so why won't we put up the money for it?

(Link)

The fusion projects are very expensive. Already billions of dollars have gone into research, and billions more will still need to be spent. Over the years, many advances have been made in fusion research, and more continue to be made.

However, we have not yet reached a point where we are generating more power than is being used up, and many people remain wary about giving more money for research; they are apprehensive, and understandably so, to put forward the needed billions dollars for something that may or may not work.

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