Robert Zubrin: Fusion Power Is Coming

All this sounds cool, but just because the fuel is abundant and the reaction somewhat free of emissions, that doesn't mean it is economical.

Fission is simpler and mature, and even though the fuel is not as abundant, it is still plenty enough to power humanity for innumerable thousands of years.

Despite all of those things, nuclear fission is not financially viable. Building new capacity with other technologies is simply cheaper. Solar and natural gas, for instance.

Nuclear plants are shutting down all over. But the reason is primarily financial. It is no longer viable.

Even if someone figures out how to generate power via fusion, the actual relevant question is how to commercialize it.

Fusion would have plenty of uses for scientific research and powering spacecraft. But I have yet to see a compelling reason to believe it will be financially viable.

Solar is 2 cents per kWh. Fission is 19 cents per kWh.

It isn't the price of fuel that makes regular fission non-viable. It is everything else. The labor, the maintenance, the fixed costs, regulatory compliance, waste disposal, etc.

Add onto this that it takes many years to commission a plant, and yet incremental improvement in existing technologies like solar will be relentlessly occurring that whole time. Even if the plant seems viable at conception, it may be obsolete by the time it is turned on.