An op-ed in the Financial Times of July 24 entitled “The US needs a new Manhattan Project for fusion energy” by Carlos Paz-Soldan, director of the Columbia Fusion Research Center at Columbia University, calls for a Manhattan-style project for the US to develop fusion energy.
Paz-Soldan points to the major advances being made by China in the field and the gross discrepancy between its funding of fusion and that of the United States. He also reflects the general hysteria among too many Americans regarding the motives of the Chinese program. Paz-Soldan stated, “China is also laying the groundwork for massive fusion infrastructure projects, a long-term bet on owning the levers of the industry even if the foundational science is figured out elsewhere.” The implication, of course, is that China somehow “stole” American technology, whereas the reality is that the U.S. dropped the project way back in the 1980s, and China picked it up. At this point, however, with the creative advances made in the field by the Chinese over the last few decades, claiming “ownership” on the project is a bit of a stretch. If you drop the baton in a relay race, and someone else picks it up, it is difficult to cry “thief.”
Nevertheless, Paz-Soldan’s basic point is well-taken and much needed in the present state of affairs in the U.S. While the Federal government has again—belatedly—rebuilt the abandoned Fusion Department in the Energy Department, the funding leaves much to be desired. “The US government currently allocates only $800 million to fusion energy research, a mere 3 percent or so of what it allocates to NASA,” (which, one should note, is also way below its needed funding level for what should be an important economic science driver). “According to one estimate, China has mobilized at least $6.5 billion for fusion projects since the start of 2023, almost three times the funding appropriated to the Department of Energy’s US Fusion Energy Sciences Program in roughly the same period..”
