My take on it is, the scientists just don't know what they don't know. One of these days, someone will discover what it takes to make this technology work.
In the meantime, it's always interesting to see what's happening with the latest efforts in the area.
It would be nice to think so, but the only somewhat new approach (other than those two independent engineers up in Canada) is the magnetic pinch, and that’s already some years old, and has the same instability problems the toroidal (TOKAMAK) approach was conceived to solve. The various groups are headed down the same paths they’ve been on for years, and haven’t had any new ideas which panned out. And since they’re on such narrow roads, they are unlikely to think of anything new that would fit into their approach.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2158075/posts