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Nuclear Fusion has a really interesting history. There's a good book called A Piece of the Sun I highly recommend to anyone interested in the subject. I was surprised on just how much money has been spent by so many countries on research, how different designs have evolved and just how much politics has influenced its development.

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What was the number they stated? I’ve heard “60 billion USD” before, which was spent by many countries over 60 years. In reality this seems like a small cost compared to something like the Manhattan Project, which was 23 billion USD spent over 5 years by one country.

A 25 year availability of a GWe plant (the conventional first gen plants that have the fewest engineering hurdles remaining) that sells all electricity it makes generates 22 billion USD in revenue.

$60 billion USD is probably less than my home city of Houston has spent on freeways. There was recently talk of a $7 billion plan to widen I-45 north because people who want to live nowhere near Houston want to get here slightly faster for work.

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