I agree. Like solar power, fusion always seems to be 10 years away. I wonder how much tax money they want to continue their development?
You might be surprised. If it's developed internally, they own it and all patents. If the government pays for it, not so much. For lots of things which have no commercial market (missiles, fighter jets, etc) the government ownership issue is not a consideration. But if you come up with a revolutionary technology to change how we create energy, well, you want to own that. And that could mean "we'll take partners, we'll take collaboration, but we don't want your money"