I think there are quite a few credible alt-fusion projects out there. I have no particular animus towards ITER but I am disappointed that its multi-decade scope, megabudget, and sunk cost, are starving research allocation into other approaches. Some of which seem to have clearer paths to energy production than magnetic confinement fusion.
My favorite dark horse is the inertial electrostatic confinement Polywell design, which is currently being funded (crumbs in comparison to ITER) by the Navy, who would of course love a submarine sized fusion reactor. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polywell
Cool thing with the Polywell - if the physics actually pan out, the full size one should be able to fuse hydrogen and boron, which won't produce neutron radiation, just alpha particles that can be directly converted to electricity.
Cool thing with the Polywell - if the physics actually pan out, the full size one should be able to fuse hydrogen and boron, which won't produce neutron radiation, just alpha particles that can be directly converted to electricity.