A rather desperate German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who is perhaps the country’s most unpopular Chancellor, is now calling for major investment in nuclear fusion to the tune of €1.7 billion by 2029. Under ordinary circumstances, this would be considered a very important opportunity. There has been a good deal of activity by a number of private companies in Germany, in collaboration with their U.S. counterparts, who are working on fusion, and the Federal government has approved an “Action Plan for Thermonuclear Fusion.” Merz said that Germany also has “ambitions to connect the first fusion reactor to the grid in Germany.” In that case, he can join the crowd, as China and the U.S. are already in a race to be the first to “light a lightbulb” with fusion energy.