A socio-economic approach to controlled nuclear fusion, and nuclear power in general

Many complain that nuclear power has never achieved its true potential, or met expectations. It's always "just around the corner", but the corner is never turned. I have a rather simple explanation for this. The extremely tight controls over possession and sale of Uranium. It is virtually impossible to possess or sell Uranium outside of a controlled institutional context. The terror of uncontrolled Uranium on the part of world governments is absolute. It is quite impossible to deal with radioactive material in substantial quantities as a private entrepreneur. Can't be done. The fear of "dirty bombs" is too great. Now, up to a point, this is understandable. It's not so much that Uranium is particularly dangerous, raw Uranium ore isn't terribly radioactive or dangerous. But it is relatively easy, if time consuming, to process raw Uranium ore into more refined forms which are extremely dangerous, or, if you like, extremely useful. And, that's really the point. The baby is being thrown out with the bathwater. Institutions have their points, but, bureaucratic control is not always optimal for generating creative results and invention. And the very controls that limit the danger of nuclear energy -- fission or fusion -- also drastically restrict any potential for creative progress. So, while I believe "nuclear entrepreneurs" should still be licensed, I also believe the licensing requirements should be loosened up considerably, to give private entrepreneurs much more freedom to operate. On the other hand, given a larger number of nuclear entrepreneurs, it probably would be necessary to establish a more sophisticated enforcement and inspection system to control and regulate their activities. And, this probably would cost a lot of money. But, I strongly suspect, if we want more systematic progress in nuclear fusion or fission, we will need to spend this money, as the price for freedom. Because without it, we're likely to keep spinning our wheels indefinitely in the fields of nuclear fusion, and nuclear fission. Uranium has proved the only real source of nuclear energy we've ever had, and without it, we probably won't get anywhere at all.