Power! We have power! Or how to start a fusion reactor

How will we know when it's started?

We'll see our power indicators go up.

That's it? I heard about a prototype reactor that lost it's plasma containment.

It made a huge bang and flash of light when it started up!

Yes. It's one of the few cases where an existing product became vaporware.

Vaporware – is a software product that is advertised for a long time, but never released in the end. That is, something that never becomes a real product. Florence talks about the reverse process: when a real product explodes, it becomes vaporware (vapor – steam)