STEP is a fusion method not the organisation.

And the money was spent on designing a full scale reactor that uses that method. The register seems to think paying loads of researchers and professers to design the first ever of a new design is free. When in reality it takes huge amounts of computing power and in this case new AI systems to develop the algorithms to magnetically control.

A man made fucking star at 150million c.

Yes such design is expensive. Even when it has been done on a much much smaller scale. How much inflation adjusted do you think the first fission full scale power station cost to design.

The register is being dumb. Not to mention the 2.5b has been approved because the designers achieved exactly what the promised for 220m under budget.