[samtheman]

I hope I’m wrong. Fusion would truly make electricity “too cheap to meter”. Actually, that phrase was originally used with fusion in mind and then got misappropriated to fission, where it doesn’t apply.

[dhs12345]

Me too — I hope you/we are wrong. Containment is the issue because of the heat generated. Maybe they could come up with a way “control” the process much like control rods slow down the Fission reaction. Inject the plasma with an inert material that is stable at the high temps. Just a layman's ideas and I am sure that they have already thought of that.

I am not current on the technology other than I heard a few months ago that they were able to produce a net gain of energy. I think that they are shooting high power lasers at the core and igniting the reaction that way.

Another possible improvement: the heat is used to boil water and turn turbines. Maybe they should consider a process that excites electrons in a conductor and eliminate the steam turbine process all together. Maybe something that produces a massive magnetic field and eliminates the heat conversion process — much less heat, no spinning turbines, much more efficient, etc. Steam power is so 19th century. :)