These guys were able to do it just from watching TV reruns...
There are a lot of highly competent US scientists and engineers who want fusion to work and have a lot of money to show that it can work. So far they have failed to show it CAN work.
If someone wants to build the star ship enterprise it is not too much to ask that they show that they can actually make dilithium crystals and that when put in a warp drive you actually produce some propulsive thrust and to hold off the intergalactic mission planning until they show at least that much.
Agree completely! Fusion has not yet been shown to be commercially viable. LENR (low energy nuclear reactions) has not been shown to be commercially viable and have had the added detriment of having been plagued with a scam artists and charlatans muddying the waters along with the duped pretending that they understand the factors at play and shutting down meaningful conversation.
These guys were able to do it just from watching TV reruns...