And I am excited there are several competing concepts. EMC2fusion's is very interesting.
Bussard's choice was to fuse boron-11 with protons; this reaction is aneutronic (does not produce neutrons). An advantage of p-11B as a fusion fuel is that the primary reactor output would be energetic alpha particles, which can be directly converted to electricity at high efficiency using direct energy conversion. Direct conversion has achieved a 48% power efficiency[39] against 80–90% theoretical efficiency.[11]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polywell
Here is a little more about B11 from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aneutronic_fusion
Boron
Many studies of aneutronic fusion concentrate on the p–11B reaction,[25][26] which uses easily available fuel. The fusion of the boron nucleus with a proton produces energetic alpha particles (helium nuclei).
Since igniting the p–11B reaction is much more difficult than D–T, alternatives to the usual tokamak fusion reactors are usually proposed, such as inertial confinement fusion.[27] One proposed method uses one laser to create a boron-11 plasma and another to create a stream of protons that smash into the plasma. The proton beam produces a tenfold increase of fusion because protons and boron nuclei collide directly. Earlier methods used a solid boron target, "protected" by its electrons, which reduced the fusion rate.[28] Experiments suggest that a petawatt-scale laser pulse could launch an 'avalanche' fusion reaction,[27][29] although this remains controversial.[30] The plasma lasts about one nanosecond, requiring the picosecond pulse of protons to be precisely synchronized. Unlike conventional methods, this approach does not require a magnetically confined plasma. The proton beam is preceded by an electron beam, generated by the same laser, that strips electrons in the boron plasma, increasing the protons' chance to collide with the boron nuclei and fuse.[28]
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