Since yesterday I have put some meaningful effort into looking into what a Farnsworth Fusor is. At this point, I can confidently say that what is in the Safire type 2 plasma chamber is significantly different.

Perhaps I am biased because, most of my experience with plasma chambers has been involved in physical presence in laboratory settings.

>> I did my masters in Tokamak simulation

I think "simulation" is the key difference between what you did and those who are doing real laboratory work. Tesla lamented that too much in theoretical mathematics was being done in place of lab work.

I am honestly very disappointed that the essential characteristics between a Safire type 2 chamber and a Farnsworth Fusor are so clear to me, yet someone who has a "masters" (implies master degree) seems to struggle to spot the differences quickly.

The guys from the LLNL team were keen on immediately recognizing the differences, so no need to lose faith in humanity or anything here, but still, do they just give out masters degrees like candy now..