...getting a self-sustained fusion reaction going on Earth is very difficult, and has so far eluded scientists.Not true. Hydrogen bombs use a self-sustained fusion reaction, but it doesn't last very long. The problem with building a continuously sustaining fusion reaction appears to be one of insufficient brute force, using at least three different methods, two of which use magnetic fields. Each time the teams spend years building the next and larger machine, they get some numbers out of it after the short-lived fusion reaction, consuming a lot of energy in the process. Next up is always more, bigger, scale it up. I don't think scaling up will ever work. And the neutrons obviously can't be magnetically contained, so the machinery gets bombarded with neutrons and becomes just so much radioactive junk.
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