Re:Successful second round of fusion experiments with Wendel...
by drjesusphd on Tuesday November 27, 2018 @10:07AM
(#18542803)
Even coal power plants cost several billion. I don't think an order of magnitude reduction in cost is foolish to count on.
The issue is the design of extremely specialized components, not necessarily the raw materials (except when they're novel superconducting magnets designed for that purpose).
I think schedule delays are what is making ITER so expensive.
Fission is already in not too different a place than that: fuel is nowhere near the dominant cost per unit of energy produced. I hope that ends up not being the case with fusion, but it's hard to predict at this point.