[1] http://backreaction.blogspot.com/2021/10/how-close-is-nuclea...
[1] http://backreaction.blogspot.com/2021/10/how-close-is-nuclea...
And yes, it costs a lot, but if they succeed, it would solve so many problems, it would be worth it.
And for scale, compare this to the amount of money being spent on, I don't know, the video game industry[1].
[1]: https://web.archive.org/web/20190509014637/https://newzoo.co...
not 500 MW of usable power. Have a watch of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJ4W1g-6JiY
Also note, the 500MW are the power of the plasma - in the best case scenario, maybe 50% of that could be converted into electrical energy, the rest will be lost as heat.
So grid-to-grid, they will be taking out 440MW of power and putting back in 250MW. Except that is useless, so they didn't even bother with a turbine the full 500MW of plasma power will have to be vented as heat in ITER itself (DEMO will take over, and aims to deliver net power generation ~20 years after ITER is successful).