[cpdiii]

Nuclear fission has been doing this since November 1942, the Fermi Fission reactor in Chicago beneath the stadium and thus forth the atomic bomb. The physicists were right.

Nuclear fission works and is an incredible source of energy. But it is politically incorrect. Fusion will be great when economically feasible and this may or not be achieved. Fission is and it works and is economical as is oil and coal.

ALL GOVERNMENT DECISIONS ARE POLITICAL!

[who_would_fardels_bear]

It's not clear what they mean by "net energy gain". Is this just the net energy gain associated with the energy put into fusing the elements and the energy that comes out?

Or does the net energy gain also include the energy required to maintain the magnetic field, the energy losses in converting fusion energy to useful work, etc.?

Some estimates are that workable fusion reactors may have to release at least 20X the energy directly used to fuse the elements in order to account for all of the other losses in a typical real-world power plant.