One step closer to using nuclear fusion as a new source of carbon free energy....

[Disaffected]

83. Yup, and take a look at ITER.

$25 billion and counting.

The device will be furthermore a long way from a commercially viable reactor even if it works as designed. The next phase of the project (called "Demo&quot will supposedly be a demonstration reactor capable of grid connection/operation but, its development is promising to be just about as daunting and expensive as ITER itself, mainly involving things to extract the fusion energy (ITER has no way of doing that), building it so it can be maintained (ITER for instance has no means of replacing a plasma confinement super conducting magnet, which are prone to failure, without dismantling the whole shebang) and, self-generating sufficient tritium fuel to operate the thing (there are no significant naturally occurring sources of tritium and it has to be manufactured by nuclear means).

Moreover, there are serious doubts that such reactors would be able to generate the amount of tritium they would consume. The only other way to generate required amounts would be in fission reactors which adds another massive layer of cost and complexity plus fission nuclear waste disposal issues.