Experts still see big roadblocks for inertial confinement as a practical energy source. That’s why other teams are pursuing other means of fusion—namely magnetic confinement, which uses magnetic fields to hold plasma—to prove that pathway to clean energy. Other projects like ITER—a massive tokamak under construction in France—are attempting to generate record amounts of energy output, though they will never be part of the energy grid.

ITER and projects like it also have massive energy hurdle to overcome due to the power requirements to generate the magnetic fields.

Whatever fusion sources come from this research we desperately need them as our energy needs are not slowing down and are outpacing the energy budget.

Don’t get me wrong I think bitcoin mining, AI training, and other energy sinks were a mistake and are a massive burden on our environment. However since it’s unlikely the billionaire class will allow for degrowth, fusion might be a way out of the hole we’ve dug.

However since it’s unlikely the billionaire class will allow for degrowth, fusion might be a way out of the hole we’ve dug.

The industrial revolution that fusion might be able to fuel would still need to solve climate change, because every increase in energy throughput also increases energy in the radiative budget. Geoengineering might become no-return necessity at this point.

Doesn’t our current energy production add something like 5 orders of magnitude less than insolation? How many multiples of our current energy production before the effect is non-negligible?