"The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, ITER, is being supported by seven nations representing more than half the world’s population. Costing some $21 billion and located in France, it will test sustainability of a fusion reaction – a continuous “burn.” It is to be completed in 2020 and operated for ten years or more. Another large machine will be needed simultaneously to solve engineering problems not included in the ITER project.
After that, the first power-producing fusion reactor, DEMO, is planned, but not before the year 2050. The path is clear, but the rate of progress is limited by financial resources. In the USA, fusion has been ignored by both the public and Congress, mainly because of the lack of information about this highly technical subject. People just do not understand what fusion is and how important it is. Books have been written light-heartedly dismissing fusion as pure fantasy. The fact is that progress on fusion reactors has been steady and spectacular. The 50-year time scale presently planned for the development of fusion power can be shortened by a concerted international effort at a level justified by the magnitude of the problem. It is time to stop spinning our wheels with temporary solutions. [...]
The situation can be compared – or contrasted – with that of the Apollo program to put a man on the moon. In that program, the physics was already known: Newton’s laws of motion covered all the physics that was needed. In the case of fusion, it took over 50 years to establish the science of plasma physics, to develop fast computers, and to understand the physics of magnetic confinement; but we have done it. In the Apollo case, there were engineering problems whose solutions could not be fully tested. Could the nose cone material stand up to the heat of reentry? Can humans survive long periods without gravity and then the stress of reentry? Will micrometeorites puncture the space suits of the astronauts? It was a dangerous experiment, but President Kennedy pushed ahead, and it succeeded marvelously. In the case of fusion, we do not know yet how to build each part of a reactor, but the only way to get this ideal source of energy is to push on ahead. The expense will be comparable to Apollo’s, but at least no human lives are endangered.
The path to a commercial fusion reactor has been studied intensely in the past decade. There are three or four steps: (1) the ITER experiment now being built, (2) one or more large machines for solving engineering problems, (3) DEMO, a prototype reactor built to run like a real reactor but not producing full power, and (4) FPP, fusion power plant, a full-size reactor built and operated by the utilities industry."
They have the science and say they'll have a working prototype inside of a year, I take that to mean that even accounting for them being on "government contract time", we'll see something real inside of 3-4 years.
