  The enhancement of the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide is
doubling every forty years. Options must be developed for energy production
that do not drive carbon-dioxide emissions and can be fully deployed within a
few doubling times. Unit size and cost of electricity are only relevant in
comparison to alternative worldwide energy solutions. Intermittency, site
specificity, waste management, and nuclear proliferation make fusion attractive
as the basis for a carbon-free energy system compared to the alternatives.
Nonetheless, fusion will not be an option for deployment until a power plant
has successfully operated. A critical element in a minimal time and risk
program to operate a fusion power plant is the use of computational design as
opposed to just extrapolation. The importance of minimizing time and risk is so
great that ideally more than one concept would be pursued. Unfortunately, only
the stellarator has an empirical demonstration of the reliability of
computational design through large changes in configuration properties and
scale. The cost of computational design is extremely small, even compared to
the present scale of the fusion program. Adequate time for the development of
ideas that increase attractiveness and reduce risks requires a quick initiation
of design studies of fusion power plants, but this is counterbalanced by the
natural resistance to change. As will be shown, that sentiment is contrary to
both the needs of society and the status of the science; a shift in the
priorities of the fusion program to societal needs is required. The
construction cost of a power plant may seem great relative to the risk, but a
fusion program of tens of billions of dollars a year would be approximately one
percent of the annualized financial benefit of success.
