The one thing the Polywell has going for it is that it's really cheap to prototype compared to tokamaks. And as they like to say on the talk-polywell.org boards, we'll know within a few years whether there's anything to it.
One last note on the Polywell: you cannot read about it without repeatedly seeing the name M. Simon. This is some crazy retired electrical engineer in Rockford, IL, who has no professional connection to fusion research but has made it his mission to evangelize the Polywell online and in magazines. He doesn't know the plasma physics well enough to really understand the criticisms levelled against the Polywell design, but he makes up for that in passion.
Most amusing. My understanding of the physics is not quite as bad as he claims.
And I am crazy.
And I'm really an aerospace electronics engineer. A minor quibble.
My focus is on design issues. I leave the deep physics to the physicists.
Engineering is the art of making what you want from what you can get at a profit.
