In one minute

Daniel Jassby examines the conventional hot-fusion programme and argues that, despite relentlessly optimistic announcements, practical fusion electricity from it remains a distant prospect. He compares the 2021 deuterium-tritium campaigns at JET, a magnetic confinement tokamak, and NIF, a laser-driven inertial confinement facility. Taken together, he argues, these results matter more to the field than anything since the T-3 tokamak results of 1968. JET reported a record 59 megajoules per shot, and NIF reached 1.3 MJ, eight times its previous best. On his reading, inertial confinement has taken a clear lead over magnetic confinement in reaching reactor-relevant conditions. He also describes the practical burden of tritium handling in magnetic devices.

The Quest for Fusion Energy