As I understand it, the bigger problem around fusion that we're still working towards fixing is being able to maintain an actively fusioning plasma. All of thes

As I understand it, the bigger problem around fusion that we're still working towards fixing is being able to maintain an actively fusioning plasma. All of these Q measurements are around very short runs, sub-second I think. ITER seems to have a goal of 400-second runs, which sounds more like it. Once we have enough understanding of plasma physics and confining magnet behavior, it will hopefully be more straightforward to optimize the energy going into the plasma, and the energy going into the magnets and cooling system, etc to hopefully achieve a QTotal > 1. And maybe have enough heat being generated that it'll be necessary and reasonable to attach a boiler to it, hook it up to a steam turbine and generator, and make some electricity.