In his excellent open letter “Building Trust in Fusion Energy,” Bob Mumgaard explains clearly what fusion must prove, defining six milestones for commercial readiness. Likewise, Donné et al. emphasise that plasma performance alone is not enough and that real fusion progress must be judged through a holistic, system-level lens that includes engineering feasibility, subsystem integration, and above all reliability, availability, and maintainability. This article, “Prioritising Engineering, Maintainability, Systems Integration and Trust to Unlock Competitive Fusion Power,” complements both works by focusing on how some of the most critical milestones, especially #05 (net electric output) and #06 (economic competitiveness), can realistically be achieved through engineering, maintenance, inspection, and systems-integration excellence.
Alessandro Tesini Tesini (Wed,) studied this question.