> Compact fusion reactor
There are fusion reactors, they just don’t maintain it for very long. There’s one at MIT in MA.
-SB
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A practical "reactor" would maintain long enough to produce more energy than it takes in.
As you doubtless are aware, a practical fusion reactor would totally up-end the world of energy production. Scientists have been searching for at least 50 years for that magnetic bottle that can maintain such reactions (e.g., containing 100 million degrees for about 1 second or longer).
When the problem is solved, it will mean unlimited, "clean" energy.
The Farnsworth has apparently done it since the 50’s, it just fried itself relatively quickly and didn’t achieve net positive energy balance. It’s hardly a stretch that after 60 years of materials advancement and a finer tuning of the understanding of the physical behavior of the environment coupled with the ability to do calculations and modeling at rates equivalent to millennia of 50’s calculating that it would emerge successful.