I've had a quick shufti through the comments so far and I don't see too many "20 years" and anyway the meme was always 50 years. That said, I am with you - I t

I've had a quick shufti through the comments so far and I don't see too many "20 years" and anyway the meme was always 50 years. That said, I am with you - I think the 20, 25, 50 memes are badly wrong. "People were not screaming "20 years more" at the turn of the century." - which century? I went to school in Oxfordshire, UK (later half of the 1980s) and studied physics to A level and went on a field trip or two to the local nuclear fusion project. I clearly remember being told by everyone there how progress was measured. It seemed to boil down to a chart with time on the x axis and factors away from sustainable fusion on y. This may have been a "lies to children". The chart looked like an exponential decay with a rather wobbly tail starting in the late or so 1970s back then. There is a good reason for the 20/25/50 years meme. It's the best model we have had for progress for a very long time. I will be ecstatic to get my 'leccy from nuclear fusion in my life time and unimpressed if my grand daughter is still waiting.