RE:Fusion power in 20 yearsI do not want to burst anyone's bubble here and I am 100% in favour of continued work in this area. BUT there is a very big difference between experimental reactors like these and actual power producing facilities and 20 years is extremely optimistic to build one that produces electricity.
Firstly, any power producing facility will require licensing by the regulatory authorities. Why...because they will be using tritium, the radioactive isotope of hydrogen and all use od radioactive materials requires a license to operate.
Secondly, there is no site selection process even started yet. Any site for a nuclear facility must undergo an environmental assessment and a quite elaborate site selection process. I would imagine this would be shorter than for a conventional nuclear plant but nevertheless it will still take years and a site license is required to be ussued by the regulators.
Thirdly and going back to item 1 above, tritium is also the fuel for fusion weapons (Hydrogen bombs. You had better believe that security of large amounts of THAT material will get the attention of a great many groups and especially regulatory bodies.
Fourthly, fusion reactions so far have only been possible for a very short period (no more that a few seconds) it is a huge step to (a) make this occur continuously and (b) produce power in the 1000MW range.
It has taken ITER well over 20 years to get where it is today and a reactor producing thousands of times more power output is only 20 years away....surely not.
Sorry I don't think this is at all feasible. Producing a continuous high power fusion plasma will take that long. ITER is not even running yet.
Great progress has been made but a power fusion reactor is not 20 years away....more like 30 or 40...I would not hold my breath.