Obviously not everything is a race, and adoption matters much more than invention, but was interesting seeing China, France, and Britain’s (and I think Canada maybe?) fusion teams one upping their fusion length records. I think my money is still on China, but I’m not a fusion expert so I’m not quite sure hoe far apart all the contenders are from each other.
I wonder if it’s just so far outside the scope of what capitalists know to risk model that it’s not a compelling bet. The “it’s 20-50 years on” timelines are also a hard sell.
If you win by delivering a reactor, you unlock so many knock-on effects.
Does your business immediately get subsumed on national security grounds? Does a massive reshape of the energy market cut off your current gravy trains? How do you monetize “too cheap to meter”?
Researchers don’t care. They’re in it for the cool project.
Oh, this one is easy.
You make it illegal for anyone else to do fusion and charge rents because you own the patent.
The same can be done with solar and places where you attempt to set up panels being blocked by local government. The amount of solar needed to actually steadily run a household is pretty huge. Manufacturing/industrial-wise it’s not exactly feasible compared to nuclear.
So? My point was that fusion can be monetized. The fact that solar can also be monetized is obvious, I think.