So how many years away is fusion now, if it’s not the mythical “30 years” we’ve been spoon-fed since the dinosaurs wore bell-bottoms? I was ten—ten!—when I first read about fusion as the ultimate energy savior, and even back then, in the late ‘70s, the magic number was 30 years. I did the math, got excited, and figured that by 2010, we’d be bathing in limitless energy while sipping soda on Mars. Fast forward to 2010: fusion was still “30 years away,” only now with better graphics. So let’s call that 60 years of moving the goalposts. And now it’s 2025—so are we at 75 years? Are we boldly closing in on the century mark for a promise that never arrives? I guarantee you, when I hit my personal 100-year milestone—assuming I’m still around as a grumpy, half-cybernetic crank—fusion will still be “just 25 years away.” Maybe. Times three. Or five. Meanwhile, we have real, working energy solutions now, not science fair pipe dreams that burn through budgets and never plug into a damn thing.
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2025/07/14/the_fusion_race_heats_up_1122617.html