Because fusion research has progressed much more slowly than expected, many physicists and politicians now joke that fusion is 30 years away and always will be. Fusion is a very high risk, high rewardproject. Making fusion work at the scale of a 1000 MW power plant will be extremely difficult at best, but if it can be made to work reliably and economically it will solve the world's energy problems. The US typically spends about $550 - $650 million each year on fusion research.To put this into perspective, research the cost of other scientific projects. What is the cost of the space shuttle program? The International Space Station? The Large Hadron Collider? The Hubble Space Telescope? Include the cost of 3-4 additional scientific projects in your post