I did a nice paper for my Environmental Studies class on Fusion Power and other alternative healthy energies.
The biggest draw back with fusion is thus. Is is not free. It is very cheap to maintain and run and decomission. It has a super massive initial investment cost. The bigger a fusion generator and thus the more expensive the more efficient it will be. Fusion is a bigger is better kind of thing. A larger stable reaction produces more energy for same maintenance cost, is easier to contain and safer than a smaller one.
I wouldn't expect any fusion engines anytime soon. A few fusion reactors, but it will be a hard sale. For most people as soon as you say "fusion" and they hear "fission" or "nuclear" and they will run away and not listen any further. Don't even bother mentioning the initial price tag.
Fusion is the best long term solution... but most people don't think about the long term and don't educate themselves enough on the issues to understand the difference between fusion and fission.
PS: Fusion bombs are those massive ones several hundred to thousand times more powerful than the first ones on hiroshima and nagasaki and all their standard atomic bomb ancestors.
As for future weapons... Imagine all the great energy weapons you can use with massive energy sources. Enough to create massive EMP waves without a big nuclear explosion? Lasers? Particle cannons? Mass Drivers? Rail Guns?
[ November 27, 2003, 04:00: Message edited by: Cyrien ]