[PedroBatista]

Until now Nuclear Fusion has produced optimism, careers and portfolio valuations but no energy.

The theory is there, but the implementation is not and worse than that, there is no "it will get cheaper with industrialization" in sigh, because we are not even at that stage and there is no indication there is a realistic path to achieve the efficiency needed to be economically viable ( ever! ).

The best positioned to deliver something tangible seems to be ITER, many of the rest seems to be more of a pump & dump scheme than anything else.

[pfdietz]

ITER may deliver something tangible, but also something that is not on any realistic path to being competitive. It's far too large for the power it (or DEMO) would produce.

It's also possible ITER will just deliver a negative outcome, if they can't figure out how to control disruptions sufficiently. A reactor that violently breaks itself is not something anyone would want to buy.

[willis936]

The primary reason for this is the use of Nb3Sn LTS confinement coils. REBCO is the next wave.

[pfdietz]

ITER has volumetric power density 400x worse than a PWR reactor vessel. ARC as described in the arxiv paper is just 40x worse. Better, but not by enough.