But still, the work began, and gradually researchers came to recognize the desirability of non-ohmic heating and, later, of current drive systems. They also recognized the necessity, on the one hand, and feasibility, on the other , of superconducting windings. And, with a certain pressure from and direct involvement on the part of the fusion community, all these technologies have been developed at the industrial level. The tritium breeding blanket is yet to come. I have given examples of situations in which some new technologies were developed directly in response to the needs of the fusion community.
Examples are laser fusion, light ion beam fusion and heavy ion beam fusion.
We should not forget the possible appearance of new ideas in physics itself, ideas whose realization does not require the development of any new technologies. In the past this was not a rare event. This list could easily be extended. Though the extent to which these inventions affected the fusion programme was very different, I would say that, conceptually, they were of a comparable level. What is interesting and important here is that these improvements occurred decades after the emergence of the initial basic concept.