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The inventor of TV, Philo Farnsworth, was one of the inventors of a neutron generating fusion source all the way back in 1964. The basic idea isn't new and it's hardly the only one around.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusor

Critical Bit: It's a tabletop-size neutron source, for medical applications. Generating zero-ish thermal/electrical output is a feature - just like having a fewer-watt chip under your CPU cooler is.

There are real world applications for sure. Not sure how terrible the ROI would be, but if you really needed helium you could make it this way. Granted terribly high cost/yield but def one way to do it. For the medical isotopes I’m sure it makes tons of sense.