A plasma physicist reviews 'The Future of Fusion Energy', explaining fusion basics and predicting its achievement by 2035-2040 based on recent developments. Longer summary

This post reviews 'The Future of Fusion Energy' by Parisi and Ball, providing an in-depth overview of fusion energy, its current state, and future prospects. The reviewer, a plasma physicist, explains the basics of fusion, the progress made so far, and why fusion hasn't been achieved yet. They discuss various fusion experiments, including ITER, and highlight recent developments in private fusion companies. The reviewer predicts a high likelihood of achieving fusion by 2035 or 2040, based on multiple diverse approaches currently being pursued. Shorter summary