I’m personally quite interested in Helions design of fusion reactor, whilst I don’t necessarily think they’ll be the first to achieve a design viable of continuous operation, I think the insights gained from the much more complex and expensive “tradition” fusion reactors will hopefully help inform their design and make something viable for smaller scale cheaper operation that could be rolled out on a grander scale.
One thing that is apparent with energy tech is that it always starts out expensive and typically goes down in price due to wide adoption and large scale production.
Re the issues with operating life, etc; there are similar issues with almost every option whether solar/wind etc
Obviously either way we’re going to run into issues with large scale energy storage. Here’s hoping Sodium batteries provide some effective respite for that in the near future.