Given the promise of focus fusion, why has funding been so minimal and why is the government still concentrating on the tokamak?
There have been institutional obstacles to funding small scale fusion projects including, but not limited to, focus fusion. For the past 25 years nearly all fusion funding has been concentrated in one technology, the tokamak. The tokamak is an intrinsically large machine where the containment field is provided by external magnets. The tokamak is aimed at burning deuterium-tritium fuel whose disadvantages are noted above. In addition, the large size and complexity of tokamak reactors makes many scientists doubt that they could ever produce energy at competitive costs. But within the fusion program, as with many government programs, there is a political prejudice toward large projects because of the way that money is allocated. Large projects with corporate sponsors which generate significant numbers of jobs are supported by Congress. Small projects lack such political support.
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