Stagnation of U.S. Fusion Energy Research

Stagnation of U.S. fusion energy research is a quiet but profound funding failure, with budgets flat at roughly $600 million annually for decades, ensuring no path to commercial power. A 1976 ERDA report predicted fusion could be achieved by 2000 with adequate funding of $10 billion total, but actual appropriations never approached that threshold, and the U.S. now lags behind China, whose fusion budget has grown 200% since 2010. This underinvestment is slower than the average for major energy R&D programs and squanders the nation's historic leadership in plasma physics.