Just because I am leery of people playing with gigantic, multi-million dollar toys

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1053091/Meet-Evans-Atom-end-world-Wednesday.html

Why does government allow scientists to spend 1/2 billion dollars on technology like this? Why can't people get fed, hospitals get built, debts be abolished? On top of that, these old cooks could possibly do something and people not even realize the warnings were portending some flavor of truth.