As long as the government maintains its ambivalence toward fusion research, the prospects of any real breakthrough remain slim, according to an article by Energy and Environment Publishing titled “Light at the end of the tunnel for fusion energy research? Not while the government is dark.”

Pity the fusion scientists. Toiling at the National Ignition Facility, a $3.5 billion lab nestled here among vineyards an hour east of San Francisco, they were chagrined when they failed to ignite nuclear fusion by their September deadline last year. Facing public scrutiny, President Obama proposed a 13.8 percent cut for the program in his 2014 budget request, bringing funding down to $401 million, and researchers diverted their attention away from energy and toward experiments focusing on nuclear stockpile stewardship.

Andrew Holland, senior fellow at the American Security Project, is quoted in the article outlining the reasons and consequences of lack of government support.

While critics point to fusion’s broken promises, defenders note that these projects have suffered budgetary chips and gashes since their inception, leading progress to stutter and stall. “These programs show decades and decades of research. At the same time, we’ve never really made the investments,” said Andrew Holland, senior fellow for energy and climate at the American Security Project, a nonpartisan national-security think tank. “It’s really a litany of programs canceled and commitments not met.”

In addition, the country’s on-again, off-again relationship with fusion is eroding the knowledge base for this work and turning off a generation of researchers. “This drip, drip, drip is no way to bring new scientists into the program,” Holland said.

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