I think it's more accurate to say that the US and western market system is just fundamentally counter to fusion development.

The problem with fusion isn't some impossible to solve puzzle that everyone is trying to crack, it's that we don't have the proper materials and expiremental data to just build one. In order to get those you need long term stable testing and continued steady improvements. There's no secret shortcut that will give us commercially viable fusion, it requires longterm commited development.

However, western banks are never gonna finance something like that, at least not at a reasonable interest rate, becuase there's no profit to be made during that long period. So in the US especially (though I've seen some stuff from Germany as well) you get these nuclear fusion startup schemes (advanced snake oil salesmen if you ask me) who market new fangled methods if producing fusion that promise create some breakthrough that doesn't exist.

Here in California for example, we have a project, up in the bay area I believe, that's trying to use lasers to sustain fusion. It's a neat little idea, but the thing it needs is long term testing, and so the problem loops back around. The project attracts investors for a time with the promise of fusion but realistically it'll fail not because their theories aren't sound but because eventually investors will figure out it's not going to produce any profits anytime soon.

The only real fusion project I think has any serious (it's still barely any) potential is one on the east coast called Commonwealth Fusion which came out of a bunch of MIT alumni. I single that out just because they actually link their work to the development of chamber materials, which will likely continue getting renewed development. Even then, thet still need to do consistent testing that could only really be performed by a state, which this little startup of STEM nerds isn't capable of doing.

China recognizes the needs for nuclear fusion development and doesn't need to deal with the pointless puppet shows put on for investors. They are interlinking the entire nation's resources for the sake of developing nuclear fusion, which itself is just another part of a dynamic system of technological advancement.

ITER had some potential in my opinion but was mired by the need for political dominace exhibited by the West. An international fusion project is frankly a wonderful concept and would ideally be the way to develop fusion as different nations contributed in whatever areas they were exceptional at. However obviously that's not how international relations work under capitlist world hedghemony, so it was doomed to failure.

I'm sure it's a possibility. I'd also guess that inefficiencies caused by private companies are greatly to blame. At every stage of the process, from consulting, surveying to construction, some shareholders are going to have to take their cut. And because this is a new industry with no benchmark to measure against, they can drag their feet and string along the gravy train for as long as they like.