According to LPP Fusion chief scientist Eric Lerner, the vast majority of the financial resources have been allocated to ITER's approach to fusion power, while other avenues, such as the one being pursued by his team, have been largely neglected, despite being much cheaper. Using an approach he calls "focus fusion," Lerner says his team can obtain a crucial electrode for $200,000, demonstrate net power gain with $1 million, and solve the final engineering problems, leading to a functioning fusion reactor with just $50 million in funding.

Eoin Treacy's view

Fusion has been described as the holy grail of the energy sector for decades and always seems to be about thirty years away. Part of the reason for this is because the government sector which originally funded nuclear research was more interested in weapons development than cheap, clean energy. The ITER project has been plagued by lack of funding, political struggles and a need to make one bet on a developing technology which has not yet been proven.

This project has clear parallels with Craig Venter’s success in sequencing the human genome. His company achieved the feat faster and more cost effectively than the government funded Human Genome Project. It remains to be seen whether the above privately funded initiative will be fruitful, but it seldom pays to bet against humanity’s capacity for innovation.