Why is fusion ignored?
replies(8):
If you mean in general, it's not even remotely ignored. There are massive projects underway (see the previously mentioned ITER) as well as smaller, more experimental projects. It's a very exciting field to follow. It just doesn't move fast enough to solve problems that we needed to solve a decade ago.
We're in damage control mode when it comes to climate change, deaths from emissions, etc. We can't afford to wait for a perfect solution when we're bleeding out in the field.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkpqA8yG9T4
When you look at history of ITER failures and the real problems involved in making the whole fusion power production operation economically sustainable, this claim disintegrates. It is a very complex project that is hard to manage, and building and operating fusion power plant is currently much more costly than doing that for a fission power plant. The only benefit of fusion vs. fission is that fusion can give us much more energy. But fission can give enough energy now for decades, and much more cheaply.
I wouldn't advocate shutting down fission plants with the expectation that they'd be replaced by fusion in the immediate future, obviously, but some of the non-ITER work might end up viable sooner than a lot of people expect.
It's still not going to be ready tomorrow, but it doesn't require building the eighth wonder of the world.