What I find interesting is that we get so pessimistic when it takes longer than we would like to solve big problems in fusion technology. We have been working on fusion for about 60 years and we are convinced that we cannot immediately emulate and master the forces that occur in the core of a star.

We do not become cynical when it has taken more than a century to cure cancer. Fusion is the only technology I see where people joke that it will never happen despite constant improvements.

every time merger comes up, people just dismiss it as impossible and say it's a waste of time and money and we should invest in solar and wind power.

Humans are myopic. They forget that not long ago reaching space was impossible. Going at the speed of sound was impossible etc..

This is probably because fusion is basically useless until you get really, really good at it. People don't see steady progress over the decades.

Once you have a clear plan for getting your tritium, I'll be interested. Operating breeder reactors have been decreasing in number and it is not as easy to extract from the environment as it is with deuterium. There's a lot to be gained from a net positive fusion scheme when your fuel is limited by fission output.

in my opinion I feel that this undermines the discovery too much. Humanity is much more efficient at improving things than at creating things. It was only 60 years after we achieved the flight before landing on the moon. Half that time passed between the first CGI on screen and the first photorealistic film created entirely on a computer.

If this discovery is true, it will only be a matter of time before we figure out how to prolong the effect and make it more stable.

it's like saying humans would never use heavier-than-air planes for anything more than a novelty because the Wright brothers only flew for a few seconds

OF COURSE.. They do not claim that this is going to happen today or even in this decade. New technologies are developed in small steps. Without this demonstration, the merger would never be possible; heck, like you said, it still could never be possible. As a scientist, it's frustrating to hear cynicism about breakthroughs because the results aren't here today. Much of that blame falls on lazy science journalism. But this article does not claim that the merger is about to happen. It only highlights an interesting and important scientific achievement. Can't we be excited about that?

It was only about 5 years ago that we had a stable merger for the first time.

With all the reactors now working on the problem, I think things are looking pretty good.

That would be a complete game changer. After reading a few articles last year about the merger, it seemed like they were incredibly far from getting self-sustaining reactions, let alone getting a net energy gain.

I hope they can figure this out as much as possible, then refine it, reduce it, etc. etc.

Mastering fusion is a must to unlock true future technology, reducing energy tensions will also make the world more geopolitically stable.

Science is all about incremental progress. No one is going to build a perfect fusion reactor from scratch

We still have a long way to go towards economic viability, and it is unlikely that something like the NIF will ever lead to commercial reactors, but hopefully it will show that it is possible to reject public and private investment in nuclear fusion in its set.

This could be the momentum needed to get to the end of the race.