Then it needs to be economically viable.
I'm not convinced that fusion will ever be lower cost than fission.
And fission will probably never be cheaper than solar and wind and storage, which are categorically cheaper currently on a raw energy basis, and solar wind heavy up to fully drop in price and stabilize.
Fission and fusion are peaker and industrial heat application specific. But that implies such a lower level of monetary investment over time that they also won't get the economies of scale to thrive.
Even smr size reactors are a big upfront investment, while wind and solar can be scaled and grown organically.
I'm hopeful for a lftr style small price competitive fission reactor approach exists, but it's ten years away. Fusion is thirty years from practical use at least.
What is apparent is that we will never get political cooperation to solve environmental issues of this scale, outside of mutual agreement to lob nuclear weapons at each other.