"Amazing breakthroughs" have notable consequences. This thing has no prospect of any consequences. It is just one number inching past a second number, the second one of dubious provenance.
You may call it a "milestone" if you like, even though it is a milestone on the way to nowhere. The only reason fusion gets any attention is because megaton bombs worked, and already demonstrated Q>1.
People are building out solar and wind power systems that stand some chance of fending off climate catastrophe, each day pushing fusion, like fission, farther from any prospect of competitiveness.
> "Amazing breakthroughs" have notable consequences. This thing has no prospect of any consequences.
The consequences of a breakthrough are often not noted at the time. It is only when the consequences have happened that we recognize them and grasp the change which has been catalyzed by the discovery. Who, other than Mathematicians, cared about Number Theory when it was discovered?
I don't know enough about plasma physics to characterize this one way or the other, but I think looking for notable consequences is very slippy ground to stand on when dismissing a result.
If there are ever any notable consequences of any value, we can whoop about it then. There are dozens of advances of equal magnitude, in as many fields, every day, without attracting a glance.
You may call it a "milestone" if you like, even though it is a milestone on the way to nowhere. The only reason fusion gets any attention is because megaton bombs worked, and already demonstrated Q>1.
People are building out solar and wind power systems that stand some chance of fending off climate catastrophe, each day pushing fusion, like fission, farther from any prospect of competitiveness.