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Higher temperatures in the coolant loop are normally desirable for efficiency. In a heat engine, the hotter the hot side, and cooler the cold side, the more energy you can extract after all.

I don't really see why it's important for a fusion reactor though, where efficiency isn't really a concern at this point.

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Efficiency is the main concern for a fusion reactor!

We've known how to produce fusion reactions for a long time, the difficult part is to generate net energy.

Well, the energy output of the reactor is limited by the amount of energy you can get out, which is limited by how much coolant you can move through it and how much energy the coolant can absorb without boiling/exploding. The MIT SPARC/ARC reactor designs are physically rather small, so it's possible that heat exchange could be the limiting factor in power output of an individual reactor.

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