Shorter version of my response to a different comment: CFS's approach builds on more mature theoretical foundations; it's basically ITER but with new magnets us

Shorter version of my response to a different comment: CFS's approach builds on more mature theoretical foundations; it's basically ITER but with new magnets using technology that has arisen since ITER was conceived. It has a decently high probability of working, but will have practical/operational challenges that some more moonshot-y approaches would avoid (neutron damage to the reactor housing, having to breed tritium, complicated cooling systems, making electricity by boiling water). That's at one end of a spectrum, and as you move away from that, you get to things that involve more unknowns in terms of theory, but, were they to succeed, would avoid many of these challenges. Helion's proposed technology is towards the other, more moonshot-y end of that spectrum, using a less-well-established reactor design that's higher-risk/uncertainty, but should it work, would avoid tritium, wouldn't involve high neutron flux, and wouldn't require steam turbines.