due to ballooning costs and technical challenges ..
Unfortunately, there is a big gap between technically possible and practical applied engineering. I’d love us to have fusion power in the future, it would make such a difference, but it’s not looking that promising. As well as the materials problems, I haven’t heard a practical scheme for extracting energy from the reactor to do useful work. Does anyone know how that problem is being addressed? I remember something about pumping tons of Lithium per second through it to extract the heat.
Why don’t they just buy a Mr. Fusion? That can generate over 1.2 gigawatts using household trash.