I'm not sure it's possible for "lay people" (of which I am one) to recognize the difference between a very slow success and "decades of failure". Very little i

I'm not sure it's possible for "lay people" (of which I am one) to recognize the difference between a very slow success and "decades of failure". Very little is invested into fusion power as a project, overall. So advancements seem to come when outside influences cause breakthroughs. I wonder how different the world would have been if it had for whatever reason been easier to produce fusion power than a fusion bomb. Military investment into the bomb would have probably pushed things forward a lot quicker. As is, the US military built thermonuclear bombs very quickly and then the appetite for advancement just dried up.