I sat in on one of the MagLIF sessions and I think there was one live talk with like 10 recorded ones. It was a weird conference. Basically just networked with university folks. So much better turn out this year with national lab folks returning.

Oh nice. I didn't get a chance to go to that one. Came down with a stomach bug for a day or two in Pittsburgh. Also wish I had time to go to the commercial fusion breakout this year, but alas. There's always next year.

That was the conclusion, yes. However, the reasoning was not correct.

Edit: the other thing to note here is not just that it takes a lower temperature to reach higher reaction cross sections but the loss mechanisms that scale with temperature as well. It's a balancing act to keep the plasma warm to use the fusion products to keep burning the fuel without it cooling off rapidly. Bremsstrahlung radiation - x-rays generated by accelerated charged particles, is the main culprit here.

This is not correct. Temperature is a measurement of the average kinetic energy of the particles - you express plasma temperature in units of eV (energy unit). If one element is heavier then it'll have a slower average velocity. DT reactions require lower temperatures to achieve their highest cross section for fusion reactions. Meaning you need to put less energy into the system.

• HEDP plasma physicist