science

Like it has been for the past 30 years (which, I assume, was the joke here.)

If fusion research was funded adequately we'd probably have it by now, but I don't know if it's the energy lobby or what that means that it's chronically underfunded. An actually working fusion reactor design would bring about such an upheaval in the energy markets that I wouldn't be surprised if plutocrats had a hand in making sure the research receives orders of magnitude less money than it should.

Breakthroughs will bring in investment and then things can accelerate if it ends up viable.