Both inertial and
magnetic fusion approaches can be modified for power production.
Not exact matches
(ITER uses a different
approach, called
magnetic confinement
fusion.)
This
approach to
fusion differs from experiments on the NSTX - U, which confines low - density plasma in
magnetic fields to produce
fusion reactions.
There are two
approaches to
fusion energy, inertial confinement (the National Ignition Facility or NIF at Lawrence Livermore National Lab, for example) and
magnetic confinement (the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor or ITER, for example).
Importantly, this non-event should not bear any relation to the fate of other vital work centering on an entirely different
approach known as
magnetic fusion.
I agree that the
fusion program very much needs to pursue multiple
approaches, even within
magnetic fusion.