Letter: Fusion cash could have been put to better use

From Sam Edge, Ringwood, Hampshire, UK

Our climate and biodiversity woes represent a threat greater than a world war. As we would with such a conflict, we need to spend our resources wisely on projects that will reap rewards immediately, or at least within the 20 years or so we have to make the biggest impact (6 July, p 13).

For example, the estimated €20 billion cost of the vast ITER fusion experiment, which I suspect is a vast underestimate, could have been used to subsidise the replacement of 8 million domestic gas boilers with heat exchangers in lower-income households. This would have led to energy cost savings for them, social security and healthcare system savings for everyone, large reductions in greenhouse emissions and a lessened reliance on despotic governments’ control of gas supplies.

It would also have created far more employment and driven down the cost of the technology, compounding the gains. If private concerns want ITER to continue, they should fund it, since they are the ones hoping to profit.