If it is viable in 2030, I wonder how competitive it will be with solar and wind. Many countries are reluctant to invest in existing (fission) nuclear, and are relying on renewables to scale up, I guess. Or just keep the coal plants running indefinitely.
Tri Alpha certainly looks promising and I hope they will succeed, but the article itself severely lacks any detail about the developed technology. It does not even mention FRC[0], which is foundation of the TAE reactors.
And next year it will be 2031. I think it is a reasonable position to say that until we have near room temperature stable superconductors there will not be commercially viable fusion. That could be 10 years or that could be 200 years. There have been incremental but promising developments but nothing that yet hints at the actual finish line.
They have a high level marketing video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-f4CxFBtx4 . It sounds like they're on the 6th generation machine having raised $880 million. I'd love to hear more details!
Fusion - 10 years away since 1950.
Well, now it's down to 9 years. Progress! :)
It used to be perpetually 30 years away... Almost there!