A cost plus fixed fee contract is as close to fully funded as you can get. All includable costs for the company will be covered by the government and the company will get a fee on top of that.

Pseudo-earmark.

Great news, Simon. Hard to believe we've come this far.

Hopefully we'll get to hear how WB-8 differs from WB-7. I've got my fingers crossed it's a continuously-cooled machine that can do extended runs.

Why hasn't Polywell Fusion been fully funded by the Obama administration?

Because it is not the intention of this administration to do anything positive about our energy problems. I actually think that given the fact that no one really reads budget documents, combined with the fact that the collection of lop-earred duds we are please to call a government are scientifically illiterate and read at best at what was a 3rd grade level back when I was young; means that this kinda slipped in accidentally. If this project shows sign of success, they will move heaven and earth to kill it.

I hope it works, and I hope that we can get fusion reactors in operation; but I fear that as a country we are fighting not only to master the physics, but also to beat back the Luddites.

Subotai Bahadur

If the President realizes, in time, that the
game has changed from Politics to Economic
Survival, he will drop ~&5B on EMC2, and
say "Get it done". The bet is just too good.

ROI is too weak a term; The US could pay off
a good chunk of its foreign debt this way,
plus get a Navy nobody would dare oppose.

Subotai Bahadur has it right.

Economic salvation lies in turning about and reversing all of the initiatives of the Obama administration and Democrat majority Congress.

In order to implement Fascism in America (and I use the term in its correctly political sense; the State controls the outputs of the notionally private economy) there must be no avenues of escape left for the private economy. Debasing the money supply, controlling the financial institutions, imposing draconian tax increases and overturning the Rule of Law in favor of your political supporters is about 3/4 of the way there already (and some people say President Obama's first 100 days was not successful!), but denying cheap and plentiful energy is like depriving an ill patient of oxygen.

Deny oil drilling permits to strangle the internal transportation networks (despite sitting on massive quantities of oil; look up the Bakken formation).

Implement "Cap and Trade" (probably under the same capricious regime as the Chrysler "bailout") to make the price electricity skyrocket to industry and consumers.

Ignore nuclear fission, despite its promise as a "green" or at least carbon free energy source to ensure the results of crippling the electric grid remain in place.

Frankly, the numbers were so small and Polywell Fusion is so outside the box it slipped through "this time". Interesting to see what happens in the 2010 budget....

Wow Thucydides, I can't believe you missed the part where Obama has begun the systematic reintroduction of polio by sapping our precious bodily fluids. If you're going to post at least show a small capacity for reasoning instead of an eagerness to regurgitate the baseless ramblings of others.
You had better go put your foil hat on, in another sentence or two of you reading this, I will have your location pinpointed and then I will come for you with my black helicopters.

Alan,

Fascism is a variant of socialism where government controls the means of production, through taxation, subsidies, and regulation.

You might also wish to consider what the Democrats and Mr. Obama intend to do about the Next Oil Shock:

http://www.classicalvalues.com/archives/2009/05/the_next_oil_sh.html

The short answer: nothing. And I did not need to wear a tin foil hat to figure it out. All I needed to do was listen to the words of our Congress Critters.