&gt; But to me it doesn&#x27;t look appreciably closer to practicality than cold fusion<p>The figure of merit is Q, the fusion gain per input energy. For cold fusion, this figure is infintessimal; for lasers I think it&#x27;s about 0.001; Tokamaks have reached Q=0.7. Not to mention, theoretical break-even (&quot;effective Q&quot;&gt;1) was achieved in Japan, but they do not have access to Tritium, which is the only reason it wasn&#x27;t &quot;real&quot; breakeven.<p>Since your dad was a teenager, fusion efficiency has outpaced Moore&#x27;s law for microelectronics. Real progress is being made.