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Basic research can have a net positive effect even if it does not result in a commercially viable product; that's how basic research works. Anyway, if we go by

• tsotha 15y ago
  Basic research can have a net positive effect even if it does not result in a commercially viable product; that's how basic research works. Projects like NIF and ITER aren't basic research, and in any case there are all sorts of competing interests when it comes to research - we'll get better bang for our basic research buck funding, say, the Web telescope or something like the LHC. The argument for ITER and NIF has always hinged on the promise that they'll be able to produce something useful within a few decades. Anyway, if we go by straight cost/benefit, nearly all of the viable alternatives are polluting. And it's a fantasy to assume that we'll completely replace our energy consumption with renewables. It's not a fantasy because we can't do it. It's a fantasy because we can't do it for a price we're willing to pay. But what fusion advocates are asking is we instead pay for something that's going to be even more expensive.