Fusion Power is Dead Just Like Fission Power. They cost too much and are too complicated to build cheaply. The best type of electric generating power will be decided by its cheapness.

Media Advisory: Withdrawal from ITER Could Isolate U.S. Scientists from International Effort on Fusion Energy, New Report Says

A decision by the U.S. to withdraw from the ITER project - a large international burning plasma experiment - could isolate scientists from the international effort and require a new domestic approach to study fusion, says a new report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

 From article, (A decision by the U.S. to withdraw from the ITER project – a large international burning plasma experiment – could isolate scientists from the international effort and require a new domestic approach to study fusion, says a new report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. This report is the first in a two-phase study examining the state and potential of magnetic fusion research in the U.S. and providing guidance on a long-term strategy for the field.

A burning plasma – an ionized gas like the Sun and stars heated by fusion reactions – is a key requirement to make fusion energy. A magnetic fusion reactor can be thought of as a miniature sun confined inside a vessel.  As an energy source, it has environmental advantages and its fuel is abundant, extracted from sea water. This area of interdisciplinary research results in technological and scientific achievements touching many aspects of everyday life and leads to new insights in related fields such as optics, fluid mechanics, and astrophysics.

So far, the U.S. fusion energy science program under the U.S. Department of Energy has made leading advances in burning plasma science. For example, theoretical and computational models have substantially improved control of plasma stability, predicting plasma confinement, and enhancing fusion energy performance, and new techniques have been developed to avoid and mitigate transient events, which can erode plasma-facing materials in the experiment chamber.  The overall understanding of burning plasma science has progressed significantly as well.  If the U.S. continues to participate in ITER, scientists within the country are also expected to make leading contributions to the study of fusion energy at the power plant scale, the report says. 

Currently, the other parties involved in the ITER project – China, the European Union, India, Japan, the Republic of Korea and Russia – have developed national strategic plans for fusion energy demonstration, but the U.S. does not have such a plan, the report says.  Without a long-term vision, the U.S. risks being overtaken as other partners advance the science and technology required to deliver fusion energy, said the committee that conducted the study and wrote the report.  By adopting a national plan, the U.S. has the potential to support strategic funding decisions and priorities within the national program and foster innovation toward commercially-viable fusion reactor designs.)

Me, "Its all about economics. The U.S. can't even build commercial Fission nuclear reactors that have been around since the 1950's, without cost overruns ending up in the billions of dollars. Now, we are going to try Nuclear Fusion Power with the ITER? This is another worthless boondoggle. Let other countries invest in it. When it is proven to work, then we will decide if we want to get involved. 

It makes sense to allow power generating sources to compete. Wind, Solar, Hydro, have all proven that they can be made to work very cheaply producing power. It turns out that the Sun likes to blow wind, the sun likes to provide solar power, the sun liked to warm the Earth to provide eventual rain. While dams can be created to store water, what has always been missing is a cheap way of storing Wind and Solar power.
 Now with huge rechargeable battery systems, Pumped Storage Hydro, chemical conversions, there is a way of providing cheap power that needs very few people to operate it. Wind, Solar and Hydro just need maintenance and they will keep producing power year after year. Why invest billions of dollars in ITER, on a technology that is too expensive to create, when every year billions of dollars can reshape our energy grid and fund many renewable energy projects?

Our space program is the only place I could see the U.S. funding money for Nuclear Fission reactors. There are places on the Moon and in the solar system that don't have or get enough Sun light to produce electricity,  so you need another power source. Nuclear fission makes sense in this case, however, there is always the fear of a rocket blowing up at launch and reactor fuel dispersed into the surrounding launch area.
The only way for Nuclear Fission reactors to work on the Moon, and beyond, is to construct them there from parts (Probably created in huge 3-D printers) and mine nuclear material already out in space. Recently, a news report stated there were high levels of Thorium on the Dark side of the Moon. So, a thorium reactor could be built on the Moon.
NASA is always providing technology that can be built in or for space and then the technology is handed off to the private sector. Perhaps 3-D printing will get its start in space and makes its way into the private sector reducing costs of Nuclear plants in the future. Maybe. Maybe, then commercial Nuclear fission or fusion reactors, on Earth, make sense to build again."