There are a lot of issues outstanding for fusion to be a viable power source, and this reactor is simply exploring the dynamics of one of those issues. Putting aside hype and desperation, there is no chart yet. For a fusion plant to work and compete with any other plant, you need it to have good uptime, relatively low maintenance burdens in terms of downtime and costs, good output, a viable source of fuel, a fusion cycle that is safe and sustainable, and more.
As of today the d-t cycle isn’t sustainable because it requires tritium, produces a lot of energetic neutrons that along with helium will undermine the reactor. The problem is that more viable fusion cycles occur at significantly higher temperatures and it’s a struggle to control plasma at d-t temps. The lack of control both quenches the reaction, and exposes parts of the reactor to plasma which erodes the material. Neutron bombardment causes the metal to become brittle, and helium infiltrates and undermines it too. So a reactor would be down for maintenance a lot, which would make it difficult to work as an economically viable source of power.
As of today the tritium for the reaction has to be bred in fission reactors. There are theoretical plans to use a “blanket” impregnated with an isotope of Lithium to breed tritium within the fusion reactor, but so far no one has gotten it to sustainably work near necessary levels. As a result a fusion reactor today would require fission reactors, and it might make sense to ask why we don’t just stick to the far more mature and efficient fission technology.
There are lots of other issues that aren’t as big or obvious as what I’ve described, but ITER and desperation hype aside, there are more unsolved problems than solved. So where this reactor is concerned, be excited for what it is away from the context of “fusion any day now!” hype. Appreciate the slow, but steady progress in the context of incremental research.
If you want clean power in your lifetime, support fission plants.