Thank you for your very well informed perspective. Fusion proponents seem to be either industry insiders with vested interests, or less informed fanboys who are simply unaware of the technical and economic realities.

This issue of safety is particularly prone to handwaving; in reality, the combined effects of activation and proliferation risks and the substantial radionuclide release potential will make the operational realities, regulations, environmental litigation and associated costs very similar to fission.

That's not too say fusion is inherently dangerous, rather that modern fission projects are already very safe and fusion won't improve on that. Yet fision still failed. So if fusion can't improve on the economics - and they quite clearly can't for the foreseeable future - then they bring nothing to the table.