> For instance, without the Manhattan Program, civil nuclear power would not have developed, because the enormous investment in risky technology development wou

> For instance, without the Manhattan Program, civil nuclear power would not have developed, because the enormous investment in risky technology development would not have flowed from the private sector. I don't buy this. Generating electricity from fission is stupid simple once you figure out that piling a bunch of uranium produces heat (literally what Fermi did in Chicago in '42). The safety features to keep the whole thing regulated, not melting, and to avoid poisoning everyone around it obviously aren't simple, but the process of creating and capturing energy as electricity is. By contrast, the process of capturing the energy and converting it is a huge part of the challenge with fusion.