Now, after about a century of trying, we’re able to ignite fusion for a fraction of a second and get more energy out than was put in - sort of. that’s only counting the actual energy put into the lasers, not all of the energy to power the laboratory that did it. And all this was done to a tiny thimble of gold, the size and shape of a dime that contained a few specialty molecules of hydrogen. It’s a great start, but there’s a long way to go.
Keep in mind that this is just the effort to START a fusion reaction. The biggest problem with fission reactions back in the 1940s was to STOP them. Remember the guys with axes standing over ropes holding up boron control rods in the first fission reactors who’s job it was to quickly cut the ropes if the reaction ‘got away’. That’s what a nuclear bomb is: a fission reaction that ‘gets away’.
The laser ignition system is humongous! Went on a working trip to LLNL several years ago and got the NIF tour. Don’t expect a working reactor any time soon...