The timing of the publication of the new academy paper on nuclear fusion is debatable. The quality of the impulse paper „Nuclear fusion as a building block for a climate-neutral energy supply? Opportunities, challenges, time horizons“ should have generated more attention than is presumably possible during the summer months. This is because the well-founded stocktaking by Leopoldina, Acatech and the Union of German Academies of Sciences and Humanities summarizes the dilemma and uncertainties of today’s research and energy policy regarding nuclear fusion in an analytical and well-founded manner.