Nuclear fusion is relatively well understood from a physics perspective, what remains is an engineering challenge. For the longest time most of the money spent on fusion reactor research has been plowed into a single approach. The good news is that at this point in time a wider variety of approaches are getting decent levels of funding.<p>That&#x27;s the reality of the situation, we&#x27;ve gone from a one horse race to something closer to an eight horse race. There&#x27;s a decent chance that the horse we were backing at first will get overtaken by some of the other entrants. If that is the case, some would argue we&#x27;ve been backing the wrong horse for the last 50 years. What it doesn&#x27;t mean is that the race is over.<p>Again, it&#x27;s important to understand the level of confidence when it comes to nuclear fusion. The science is relatively well understood, we&#x27;ve built plenty of working fusion reactors, in fact some fusion reactors are so simple that high school students have built them. What remains is mostly an engineering challenge, working on various ways of triggering and controlling the plasma, shielding the machines from the forces that would interfere with its function, and working out the best way to capture the energy as an electric current. The sun proves you can have get more energy than you put in, hydrogen bombs prove the same, so the potential exists, we&#x27;re just looking at how best to harness it.<p>Is there a chance this research won&#x27;t pay off in, let&#x27;s say, 20 years? A slim chance yes, but considering the enormous benefits that&#x27;s a chance many groups who invest in nuclear fusion are willing to take.