Reply To: The North Atlantic Current

[Tulse]

How much need is there for government involvement in FF? I understand that funding is always tight, but presumably some replicable, demonstrable success (not necessarily even peer-reviewed) should ideally be sufficient to bring in additional private investment. Some of the many huge advantages of FF is that, if it works, it doesn’t need billions in funding to demonstrate that, and its practical implications are immediate.

I suppose what I’m saying is that it seems to me the model for aneutronic fusion isn’t something like the Apollo mission or the Manhattan Project, but more like the Wright brothers or James Watt — these are efforts that can demonstrate success with relatively little in the way of resources, and their success has immediate practical commercial impact. As far as I know, neither Watt or the Wrights published peer-reviewed pieces during their research or required huge government attention — instead, their success was its own proof. I think that if FF or Polywell or Tri-Alpha can demonstrate an over-unity device, the world will (as the saying goes) beat a path to their door. (This is also true for the alt-but-not-aneutronic approaches, such as Helion and General Fusion.)

Is this a hopelessly naive view that is out of touch with funding realities?