5 ms·

Could you clarify how to read this chart? The y axis is, funding given different plans? Or.. I got the impression that this is meant to depict a relationship be

• MauranKilom 5y ago
  These are projections made in 1976. They can be read as different project plans made at that time for different amounts of funding. For example, "if we follow the blue plan, it would require 9 billion (2012) US dollars of funding in 1982 (etc.) and we would achieve fusion by 1990." The 1976 projection was that, assuming funding was kept at the level of 1976 (~1 billion a year), fusion would not be achieved in the foreseeable future. It further shows that actual funding has been below that level. In short: Yes, getting fusion off the ground sooner would have required more money. Not "always more", but more than "we project no success" levels.
  • pfdietz 5y ago
    Those plans would not have worked, though. They were for programs that assumed tokamaks worked better than they actually do. And by the 1980s it was realized (Lidsky; Pfirsch and Schmitter) that heat transfer limits would make any tokamak power plant unattractive.