How This Fusion Reactor Will Make Electricity by 2024
Can this new nuclear fusion generator make unlimited clean electricity?
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• • Helion Energy Polaris:... Deeper dive into Helion's materials, methods, and fusion approach. (unlisted bonus content)
•Organizations all across the world are racing to achieve a fusion power breakthrough. Many critics say nuclear fusion is impossible, but Helion Energy believes they’ve cracked the code…
If you could design the perfect energy source, it would have an inexhaustible supply of fuel, be environmentally friendly, not take up much space, and have a high degree of safety.
The fuels considered for fusion power have traditionally all been isotopes of hydrogen, but there are better fusion reactions using elements like helium-3. Nuclear Fusion 3.0
What is nuclear fusion? Nuclear fusion explained: an experimental form of power generation that harnesses the energy released when two atoms combine.
How does nuclear fusion work? Every atom is composed of a nucleus and one or more electrons. The nucleus is made up of protons, and neutrons. A fusion reactor heats fusion fuels into plasma and fuses light elements into heavier elements.
What is plasma? If you heat atoms to high enough temperatures, they lose their electrons, forming a hot cloud of charged particles called a plasma.
What about nuclear fusion in the sun? In the core of the sun, gravity produces high pressures, compressing elements to high densities and temperatures. Perfectly extreme conditions for hydrogen to fuse into helium.
There are three key groups of fusion approaches, Magnetic fusion (ITER, Tokamak, Stellarator) Inertial confinement fusion (National Ignition Facility, Indirect drive, direct drive, lasers) and Magneto inertial fusion (Helion).
For fusion power to make commercial electricity for the power grid you need to achieve breakeven, and then net electricity gain to create a viable fusion power plant. That is real world electricity. The triple product is the key figure of merit for fusion.
Some critical components of a fusion generator are electromagnets, capacitors, first wall, and the divertor.
When does Helion expect to begin producing electricity from nuclear fusion, and how much will nuclear fusion power cost? Fusion power is projected to be one of the cheapest sources of clean zero carbon energy and electricity.
To accomplish commercial fusion power, Helion approaches production in a way that’s reminiscent of Elon Musk’s strategy for Tesla. Turning fusion power into a real world technology is going to be a long road, but people said the same thing about SpaceX. Despite the challenges, harnessing the power of the stars and offering mankind unlimited clean energy is a goal worth striving for.
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I've been an engineer on one of the biggest laser driven inertial confinement fusion reactors for a couple decades now and I'll be blunt, the vast majority of fusion hype videos on the internet, or anywhere really, are hot garbage not at all worth my time. This video really impressed me though, both in its accuracy and detail, and its relative thoroughness in examination of the RFC scheme for magnetically confined fusion. The sources and citations are quality 👌. Compliments do not come easily or frequently from me, but this video does deserve them. I will subscribe in hopes that the current rigorous heavy science focus isn't lost over time in favor more lazy clickbait trash as I've seen so many other channels unfortunately fall prey to.
Once humans master fusion, we can fire up the desalination and carbon sequestration factories and save our planet from the current 420ppm global CO2 in the atmosphere (2ppm annual increase), and then remove tons of Carbonic Acid that is being dissolved into the oceans... Geoengineering will have to be done to reverse the avalanche of ecosystem feedback loops that we are seeing amplify one another...
You should maintain a list of what's worth watching...
Thank you for comment.
Yeah, looks good. They should have a useful fusion reactor in "20 years".
Who do you think you are? Arrogant jack ass. Your approval is nothing.
Love that Helton plans to generate electricity without boiling water to make steam to turn turbines. I’m rooting for Helion. I even love how they’re solving the helium 3 issue.
Do you know how much helium 3 gas cost? This is pipe dream.... The materals would last very long in very high 🔥.....
@@danmiller2177 they're literally bottling the power of a star and all you can offer is complaints about the fuel source 🤣
@@OldManShoutsAtClouds good luck with that dream.....
@@OldManShoutsAtClouds do u know how much helium3 cost?
@@danmiller2177 one hundred... billion... dollars...?
I am so impressed with the concept Helion is exploiting. I am not a scientist but from what i as a novice could glean they seem to be a front runner in getting to the all important ignition and commercial viability. I wish them well in this quest and wish them great rewards both financially and spiritually for their industriousness and dedication.
Helion actually does not have to achieve ignition (as in the fusion products keep the plasma hot without external heating) for their machine to work. This is because they can directly recover so much of the input energy (95%) that the fusion energy only has to make up for the remaining 5% for it to be self sustaining. For a power plant, you will want to have additional electricity to sell of course. So you need more fusion than just to make up the 5% loss. But the system should be efficient enough for ignition to not be needed.
@@elmarmoelzer2229another issue is where the heck is the shielding for it....
Based on my knowledge, I don’t actually think we are gonna end up with fusion power on a huge scale any time soon, but there is still hope. Look at our progress with tech in the last 20 years, that’s a short time to go from such low tech to a future we couldn’t imagine long ago. I may not know much about technology and engineering, but I sure do love learning about it!
No they will end to sell fossil fuels before as mush as they can. Also in what stoxks should i invest to invest in nuclear fusion ? What are the best ones right now
There are several innovations here. The reaction is unique for the fusion industry (but difficult to hit temperature); the conversion method is unique (though Lockheed explored this approach). The use of fused silica in a fusion reactor is innovative. We have only seen a few teams use glass inside their reactors; Sam Cohen's team at Princeton is one example. Glass is an electrical insulator; which reduces conduction losses out of the plasma. Almost all fusion reactor vacuum chambers have to be made using metal walls because of vacuum conditions; but the issue is that the metal conducts the plasma away; leading to large losses of energy.
Seems to me the hard part is done
Isn't fused silica glass? I thought glass was made from silica
The reason most fusion projects discarded Deuterium-Helium3 and pursued Deuterium-Tritium fusion is due to the frankly insane energy disparity. For reference a D-H3 fusion reaction produces 50 times less power than a D-T fusion at 300 million C, the ideal temperature of most fusion test reactors. That gap closes slightly if you increase density and temperature beyond that point, but that only creates greater engineering problems, for marginal gains. Helions approach is much more disadvantaged compared to other fusion projects, not only due to their fuel, but their (relatively) extremely low target temperature. At only 100 million C their proposed fuel mix is 1000 times less reactive then a D-T mixture.
I'm almost completely but not quite cynical when it comes to fusion that I invariably ban channels talking about fusion especially ones that invoke the words 'breakthrough' and 'milestone.' Those channels immediately get the 'Do not recommend' treatment. This channel was almost one of those but after fast forwarding through the first 3 or 4 mins I'm glad I watched. I was expecting sensational platitudes, lies, damn lies, outrageously ambitious timelines, clickbait etc; however none were forthcoming. How refreshing! My reward? Facts, a potential solution to the helium 3 problem and a plain admission that "turning fusion power into a cost effective real world technology is going to be a long road." Interesting. It was a good vid this one.
For far more than a half of a century, the "Fusion Theory" has made it's proponents very wealthy, those proponents include the Oil Industry that want to extend the market life of THEIR product, dirty fossil fuels. See.THORIUM
“The potential is enormous” Love the wordplay.
I am encouraged to see the expansion of human knowledge. And hope the future is bright...sorry to say that the more complex systems are the more likely things can go wrong, (my experience)..but still hoping for the best. Keep up the good work.
I have to give you props for your editing, effects, animations, and explanations. This could easily devolve into little more than a promotional video, but you framed it in a much more narratively interesting way, so instead of being "sold" on an idea, the viewer is learning new concepts and following along on a developing story and journey. And you're skilled enough to render complicated processes into simple, effective descriptions, and the animations are clear, simple, and coordinated with the descriptions in such a way that they add clarity and support. I was expecting to find out a neat thing or two; instead I now want to share this with a few friends because it's just bloody cool. Really, really well-made video! =)
appreciated
Agreed. This is an excellent appraisal of the video. Not only is this project fascinating in itself, but the way it's all presented makes it more than the sum of it's parts.
Am impressed
IT IS little more than a promotional video.
What a butt kisser
I work for a company that builds the capacitors that help them achieve this! It's pretty cool
Have helion
@@eholland77 No
What company do you work for?
"sell shovels when there's a gold rush" -- I'm also curious, what company is that? 😁
Achieve 'what' exactly?
Thank you for this video, kind regards. Question can you make from old plastic, plasma to made fusion possible ?
Great video!! I liked that you took one company and then expanded on the issue! Focused and precise!✌🏻
Finally… a fusion video that actually explains how they intend to get power out of the fusion reaction. Thank you!
absolutely... ask yourself why are we going to the moon? Nasa and Gov are lying to you. it's been 50 years and all of a sudden... there's been a huge breakthrough and H3 is the key. however H3 is very rare on earth but very abundant on a planet/moon with no atmosphere. the Artermis project is about mining H3 from the moon. it's very HUSH HUSH
This is good for teenagers willing to choose research in their future. Because I m afraid the fusion with Tokamak is only for studying the problems with this method to create fusions reactions. In fact this the bad method to create fusion because this is continuous process and not pulse mode process like Gaz engine. Tokamak is the steam engine to produce energy. So far JET needs 600MW to produce less than 60MW useful energy from fusion . The problem is the disruptions. Whatever we try to avoid them is the electronic cloud collected par of energy from DT reactions of nuclear fusion. With time the cloud is growing. Eventually it will touch the wall making short circuit of the huge courant coils. The B field is for positive changes. . The second solutions is to compress a ice pellet of two gases . The Idea in to reduce the size of the pellet by a factor 1000 time in a very short time of 100 nano seconds. The heat will have to reach 1 billions degrees in this short pulse. The result is eventually to make aneutronic fusion , no neutron emission. This is pure X ray generator easy to convert in electricity without turbine like in Nuclear power plant. So far it is say the top country are reaching 10 billions degrees Celsius. This is a technology is attractive because the electrons have no time to pump par of the fusion reaction. Directly photons emissions. Because aneutronic fusion creates no radiation but enormous energy which can be use to build either clean nuclear nukes o space reactor munch faster than chemical reactor .or electrical plants So far Bborum proton fusion reaction making 3 helium atoms and lot of X-ray is possible but not in continuity process like gas engine. The problem is to build the enormous heat done by lasers. But the lasers in lab can produce Gigawatts now. Of course still under military control. ITER the Tokamak for continuous fusion reactor is unfortunately a dead project with enormous challenges which will end this approach of making energy. . Of course the solutions to resolve ITER problems will help to improve other fields than fusion technology. this was a political project after the end of cold war. But the inertial method to produce controlled fusion reaction should become soon the best. Thanks to the Nobium lasers which are enabled to compress the matter to generate Fusion. In fact tokamak research was good to study the fusion reaction
all the other fusion videos are "fusion is the solution to all of our problems. i will not explain anything but its magic or something i think"
Amen!
@@thierrymartin997 Just because research fusion reactors will never achieve Q=1 doesn't mean that this bunch of people have a magic solution. This sounded to me like a glossy brochure trying to get venture capital for a small company with an unproven idea. Let's just say I'd like my research money to go towards improving the current generation of almost energy neutral experiments.
This is a top video, thank you, I just hope this is shared well.
Love the intro: "Hey, are you the guy building fusion reactors?"
This is very sound approach for various reasons. Small scale, pulsed heat generation and electricy generation via plasma and not via steam or hot gas, relatively simple to modify and optimise. Hats off !!!!
So let me get this right... to create a fusion reactor, you basically created two coil gun plasma throwers and aimed them at each other? Awesome!
I need a plasma rifle in a 60 watt range
I don't think anything that can hold or transport plasma exists. It's hotter than all known solid materials.
@@manuell3505 Then you should probably educate yourself, because we do it all the time. Heck, the fluorescent tubes you find in all the office buildings is technically exciting molecules into a plasma state to give off light. You can make a form of plasma in your microwave with grape seeds, and contain it with a glass. Also, you don't seem to understand the concept of what a melting point is if you try to claim that Plasma is hotter than all known solid materials. If you are trying to say that the plasma state is hotter than the solid state of any given material, that's a given considering the very definition of the states of matter. If you're trying to say that there are no solid objects hotter than any form of plasma, you're simply incorrect in that. Some substances do have melting points higher than the temperature of some plasma. You're also grossly incorrect in our inability to contain plasma even if it is that hot, such as found in modern tokamak fusion reactors that have yet to reach power neutrality. You use electromagnetic fields to contain the plasma. This is something we've been doing for decades now.
Did you watch the video? They hold it with strong magnetic fields, because plasma particles are charged. The walls of the enclosure have to be pretty heat resistant though, despite being physically not in contact with the plasma.
@@afz902k what could go wrong? Totally safe and effective I’m sure
I'd like more explanation of the diagram at 16:21 as to how they produce the He3. It has 2 deuterium atoms being combined to get either He3 + a neutron or Tritium + a proton but it seems like that's the big problem that other fusion projects are attempting, and they are mostly admitting that is too difficult and going for the easier combination of Deuterium and Tritium. If they can do it then great, we get a new supply of helium without needing to go to the moon but just saying they've patented something is skipping over a major part of the problem.
I was thinking the same thing.
Go ahead and add a collaboration with a company (relatively new also) that is trying to reduce the cost of jumping into space and coming back down. A bigger picture might start to unfold.
It is very hard to achieve ignition with D-D fusion that is right. It is even harder with Tokamaks. This is why Helion is not doing ignition and their machine is not a Tokamak.
remember the end result is trying to get to He4 he's trying to see if there is a non space way to aquire He3 hence the fusion part of the equation .
Lots of He3 on the moon. I think that's why everyone is suddenly interested in going back.
I've been wondering if a set of fusion reactors, operating in sequence, like a gasoline engine. This would solve the problem of recharging a single reaction environment.
Dr. Salvatore Pais USN has a small fusion reactor patented . All the naval ship have some type of special reactors for power .
Helion’s design is a first in more ways than one. Besides fusion itself, the most interesting aspect is that unlike all other fossil fuel and nuclear electricity-generating schemes, it doesn’t work by heating up water into steam which then turns a turbine to generate electricity. Instead electricity is created directly by manipulating the plasma’s magnetic field to drive a current through wires. That’s amazing. It’s way past time humanity moved beyond steam-powered turbines.
Well... It only really works with this type of fusion. There's nothing wrong with turbines, other than when they're applied to this type of fusion reactor (or solar, which wouldn't make any sense at all). Yes it's inefficient, but that almost always doesn't stop it from being the most efficient option available.
It could have been feasibly done with fision as well but no one put r&d or budget into figuring it out or we could have been much closer to fusion. The extraction, not generation is the true engineering marvel. Theoretically it's very much possible to take current from a magnetic field, this is done in transformers already, but to control a plasma such that we could extract energy from it is where we are missing out. Again if this is figured out then the rest of fusion is a cake walk because most of the tech required to extract the energy from magnetic fields could be reversed to stabilize the reaction in the first place. Then it's a matter of modulation until you are taking out more than you are putting in to keep the reaction stable.
@@unadultratedtrini This only works because this type of fusion is aneutronic, and because it's done by pulses, rather than being a stellerator/tokamak etc (where constant reactions are taking place). This cannot be used for most fusion methods or indeed fission reactors (which don't even have plasma). The reason this energy extraction method hadn't been invented before this type of fusion research is because it would have been completely useless.
I've said the same. I did a deep dive into these things once only to realize that they're nothing more than modern steam generators. Imagine my dissapointment
Why is it time for us to move on from steam? A steam-based reactor would have a LOT of advantages: 1. It could be a drop in replace, assuming it could work at small enough scales, at coal power plants and many gas power plants. 2. It would allow district heating using waste steam at those plants (there are trillions of dollars sunk in this alone). 3. Steam acts as a massive buffer. One of the problems with solar and wind is that there is no inertia to the system. If I plug in my car, and my neighbor turns on the stove, we might add 15 kW to the grid, but people are doing things like that every second. That inertia helps balance the power in and the power out. If there is no such inertia, we need more grid storage or very fast acting peaker plants. That is expensive. The plus side is that if this works reasonably fast, it doesn't have to be base load, something fission is mostly limited to. 4. In general, water moderates things very well. Any random issues are dragged out. If suddenly you can't put in more fusion material, you'd still have a hot power generator that could keep on pumping as other systems ramp up. Of course, this can also be a negative. Shutting down fission reactors takes days, and those can be very stressful days if there is, say, a war next to your reactor. 5. Steam can be used to distill water, among other things. Steam is so common because it is so good.
I love that they named the “early fusion power pinch device” at Los Alamos the Perhapsatron. I’ve been waiting for fusion since the first nuclear reactors were built in my childhood. This was such a wonderfully informative presentation.
what do you think of the LDX at MIT?
... and LCF... lattice confinement.
I have high hopes for this technology, keep up the good work!
I applaud the efforts to simplify this here, although I missed hearing the narration note that deuterium is actually an isotope (with doubled nuclei) aka “heavy hydrogen”. Many labels are flawed but at least that’s familiar to us in the last century.
I am a scientist in a program that uses 3He to date groundwater, along with Tritium. Deuterium is also used in our groundwater tracer studies. It’s exciting to see this technology for fusion electricity generation.
Some thoughts: Fantastic video. As others have mentioned, this is the first time I've heard of anyone coming up with a method to harness electricity directly from the fusion process. Most talk of fusion leaves that part out. The explanation and visuals are fantastic for detailing how the various fusion methods function. Its technical enough to be accurate, but is still accessible. And finally: If you turn their quartz injection chamber on its side, and sub out the pink light for blue.......... wouldn't we see that on the Enterprise-D? :O
pretty cool. watched quite a few videos on the topic generally, but on this startup specifically and it explained what they're doing pretty well. :sip: thanks
Thank you. I actually have fairly decent grasp on the whole process. Great vid!!
Great to hear!
Most of this was new to me, which is always a delight. Thanks for a very interesting and encouraging video.... even if they're not quite there yet, it's great to see this "new golden age of invention" unfolding!
Disclaimer.......for entertainment purposes only.
We should be transferring from our current nuclear energy source to thorium. Except we can't use that to make nuclear weapons.
This is the most exciting and concrete fusion reactor design I’ve ever seen. Specifically targeting at electricity generation, which different from so many different “breakeven” targeted design in the industry. I rarely comment on ur, but I truly hope they can achieve net goals in relatively short timeframe.
Y the "charged particles out" is unique vs all the other "hot neutrons" which is less attractive. Fingers crossed!
5:48 paused: what is up with the pipes? Was there some major blowout accident? It is a super cleanroom type facility (wear shoe covers) it would be clean and freshly painted
Great video, thank you. Excellent presentation all the way around. Well done.
Really interesting and I think your video explains more than most fusion content.
This is fascinating! Great video !
Couldn't you discharge the superheated exhaust through a titanium/ceramic heat exchanger to create steam to run turbines? Recapturing the exhaust energy to charge the supercaps more quickly so that the pulse frequency can be ramped up.
I agree that this new type of fusion reactor is much closer to viability that the previous methods. This magnetic vortex has a real chance at success. We may be looking at a long awaited upgrade to our energy needs. Unlimited energy is the dream, here we have a renewed hope. Keeping my fingers crossed.
I have seen things like this in my mind for 30 years. Why would this take so long to make? And after finding these and thinking they're awesome I found out about LCF, using simple equipment like vacuum tubes, they can do better, more dense fusion than these ever could. And that was invented by mistake 70 years ago. And I was never too smart to begin with. So.... ..... ... wtf
there's something like this at the lab... Fermi labs I think, or a college... It's a levitating dipole reactor that is 12-15ft across. That can do this, and it's old. They say it's a novel reactor. Not functional. It's functional. You don't keep a thing that big sitting in your lab as a curio.
... LDX at MIT
Not sure if you've heard but greater than net fusion was achieved this week.
@@alanmalcheski8882 join
This… this is amazing. I didn’t think I’d see successful applications of fusion power in my lifetime. The idea that it could happen within the next 5-10 years is wildly cool
It’s a pipe dream. Never gonna happen. Einstein said that man will never conquer the powers of the atom. It’s all a distraction wake up sheep
Where did you hear 5 years
It could happen in the next 5-10 years for the last 40 years. Do some research.
Dreamers wanted apply below.
@@jacobprisner in the video it’s mentioned that their reactors could be running by 2024 and generating more power than it takes to run them. Add time to build more reactors and scale manufacturing up and that’s how I guess 5-10 years
If this project starts to produce a large amount of net energy I can see this as both a energy source and a propulsion source for fusion rocketry, probably a High ISP Low Delta-V but a viable interstellar engine, it would need some geometry tweaks and all, but this might work for a superheated thermonuclear rocket or an only fusion torch rocket
maybe I missed something, about the fuel, the discussion seems to be between deuterium and helium 4, and yet no one ever talks about the tritium supply problem, other fusion reactors have a plan for making tritium inside the reactor, but does this one have any plans for it?
They do not burn Tritium. They are fusing Deuterium and He3. They make He3 and Tritium by fusing Deuterium in the same machine (or optionally in the future in dedicated separate machines). D-D reactions either produce a He3 or a Tritium atom (both with equal chance) and the Tritium will eventually decay into more He3 for fuel.
I’ve been following fusion for a decade and your video stands out as one of the most concise, informative and enjoyable ones out there. Great work
@@alantasman8273 Ive been following fusion for half that time and feel the same haha. I will still click on these videos as fast as any enthusiast though.
Incredibly made video as always! Great to see more about Helium-3 fusion after learning more about the challenges of D-T fusion (although there are some interesting solutions to that which show promise). I still need to look into it more, but the initial D-D fusion to create the He3 makes more sense given the low electronvolts of the neutron it shoots off, as I know the neutrons from D-T fusion can be quite problematic! Hopefully I can get in contact with them to get into more details about their D-D to D-He3 process! Thanks for sharing.
Some sources says that there are large concentrations of helium-3 on Lunar. Since we are not far from returning to moon, it might be worth a closer look. Could be a possible energy reservoir
Plasma, how long? It is point. Stupid bla bla he tries to teach whom what.?
@@the_dragon_gamer8850 Yes, let's pursue an energy policy that relies on a fuel that might exist in quantity on the moon. OR we could engineer a solution that uses Duterium, you know, the stuff that the sea is full of. I think option 2.
@@michaeldavison9808 deuterium? My point is, if there is to be a lunar gateway station for future spacecrafts. There has to be convenient ways of having fuel ready to pump into those craft they need to travel beyond Earth encounter. Helium-3 would’ve been Nextdoor to the gateway station. For now, that option seems more plausible because we haven’t mastered fusion reaction yet. 🤷🏻♂️
@@the_dragon_gamer8850 Large concentrations is relative. They are measured in parts per billion with maybe 7 parts per billion being the average. So, you have to process a billion tonnes of regolith to get 7 tonnes of He3...
How is this any different other than shape from conventional nuclear power? We can make it much cleaner too but we need to use the byproduct to weaponise.
Does the tritium need to be compressed before entering the reactor?
They do not need Tritium. The fuel is turned into a very low density ionized gas. The density at maximum compression is much lower than the density of ambient air.
Very professional video! If I saw this on the Discovery Channel, I would not think it was out of place.
Isn’t that the channel that does like my 2,000 pound wife shows? I don’t know whether to take this as a compliment or insult 😁
I think technology is going to move even faster when the engineering challenges have been dealt with for fusion
WOW this is truly AMAZING.
how are you going to feed it fuel fast enough to keep a steady fusion powered electricity?
They will do 10 pulses per second in power plants (though that can vary with demand). The power produced is stored in capacitors and then gradually released to the grid.
I actually feel smarter after watching this video, which is a rare and wonderful thing.
I was once optimistic on this project but now it seems too good to be possible, but if you are sure you can pull it out who am I to discourage you. Go for it ,we all want free abundant energy. I imagine what we can do with this energy, for instance space travel. This is a goal worth spending time on. MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU
Boy we're u wrong
Free? No one said anything about free. You will always pay a premium for new (more efficient) technology. Take EVs for example. It's the Chieftains of Industry that cash in on such advances, not the consumer.
I found this very educational and fun to watch, thanks!
Im happy I can semi-grasp this
What I find exciting about there approach is the direct generation of power through the use of magnetic the pulse. Elegant!
This is mad. What’s being described here is so complex it could never be run at sustainable levels to provide energy for the entire civilization of the planet. Just the amount of hot air that it takes to explain it is unbelievable.
For far more than a half of a century, the "Fusion Theory" has made it's proponents very wealthy, those proponents include the Oil Industry that want to extend the market life of THEIR product, dirty fossil fuels. See.THORIUM
A smartphone is complex too yet billions have one today and they cost a few hundred bucks now.
it may be too complex for you. All you need to know is that it is small and doesn't have to boil water.The cheapest power stations like they use in the UK are gas turbines.They are far smaller than a coal fired station. This model is much smaller than the nuclear power stations we have been using and produce far less waste if any at all.have a look at electric propelled space craft which is where this model started off.
I find this interesting to watch until the end. My main field of interest is communication but im getting into technology too. I want to contribute more to society so i have to learn more and tech is one of the most beneficial sciences.
That sounds like a new type of engine I will call it a pulse generator
Several years ago, Lockheed Martin announced that they were on the verge of fusion powerplants that would fit on tractor trailer trucks, which sounded a lot like this. I wonder if they were going down a similar track. In any case, we haven't heard a peep out of that project in a while now.
Guessing it wasn't a profitable investment for the elites, nuclear reactors does not make them wealthier either, they pretend to want a cleaner planet, as long it is profitable to them, they'll fly in their private jets around the globe to tell others to watch their carbon emissions.
@@jjcplaygames ukraine,the start of Armageddon
Yes, I remember that. I invested in LM because of that, but they made all their money selling better rocks and sticks to the savages instead. Wouldn't surprise me if the moneymen shut it down.
@@KZheadCommunists no Russia is the start. You know the country is bad when the people leave by the 100s of thousands within days. This war could drive science to mayor breakthroughs. Same as it did in WW-2
It would be classfied info as well strategic tech so ofc you didnt hear any of it anymore
Thank you for this content. It is very well put together and entertaining for someone like me that knows nothing about the subject.
Same. Seem out of my league compared to all these other commentators
I was so excited when I first heard about this… 40 years ago…
There are two other approaches to extracting the energy released by fusion through electrical means rather than through heat and steam. One is an approach by Hora to use very briefly laser pulses to induce fusion in a solid target and to the extract the energy electrostatically. The name physical effect he hopes to explain is called a ponderomotive force. The other approach is called a dense plasma focus. Both approaches have some theoretical and experimental support, but they are both far away from generating electricity.
Finally a well thought out and well presented description of a real fusion option.
I wonder if the U.S. military might be able to help Helion with the material to line the inside of the Fusion Chamber. Chobham is the hybrid Armor used to make the M1 Abrams and British Challenger Main Battle Tanks, this material is top secret as for how it is made and what makes up it's constituent materials. It is the most effective armor ever made, at least so far used as Armor on a MBT. I wonder how effective it would be as a liner for the Fusion Chamber itself? I know it combines both High density metal and the properties of Ceramics to achieve its strength, but there is more to it than that and it is extremely tough. Perhaps this material might be a key to achieving the durable chamber for fusion reactors?
That’s an interesting insight, I’m not familiar with that armor but I would assume it was engineered to have more kinetically resistant properties to shaped charges and stuff rather than the sustained thermal and radiation durability required for first wall metamaterials.
@@ElectricFuture Couldn't you double layer the walls? The first layer being to protect from radiation and the metal described above to protect that wall? Just an idea. I am not a scientist, so I do not have a 100 percent amount of know how on how it works. But, I think you could double layer the one. First layer should be for what you need to protect from radiation and any waste produced by the reactor, then the second layer, the one that should go on top, should be the metal fore mentioned and that may provide some results. If anything, if it isn't a success, it is at least a starting point. Brainstorm, experiment, record the results. I hope that y'all succeed in this. This would change the world for the better. Y'all are doing great things.
@@ElectricFuture Queue the world's top thinking minds to pivot their futures into Material sciences!, we crack THAT code? we are off to the races!
@@acegamma3249 Seems the thicker the wall the more weight introduced, which could lead to problems?
@@capo_di_capi Fair enough. As stated. "I am not an expert." My suggestion is only a guess. I know that tone is difficult to read through text, but it wasn't meant to come off as stand offish, or dickish. Now, for my solution to weight. I am pretty sure the supports for such weight would be made first, before the wall itself is built. I am pretty sure that weight can be accounted for during construction. Now, the issues that could arise from this could be expensive, which may not make it cost effective, which would be a huge issue. But, I am pretty sure it is at least a starting point. A starting point isn't a final solution, but it could produce ideas towards a solution and encourage progress.
This guy is just great! Thank you for your hard work!
Great vid, always liked fusion but this company blows me away...it's a very complex idea, but if you can do direct to power energy conversion, it'd be amazing, also ideal for spaceships.
Will it export more electric energy than is consumes including the energy used to produce the fuel ?
Making the fuel does not take a lot of energy. Polaris is still an experimental machine and will demonstrate small amounts of net electricity. The power plant planned for 2028 will produce 50MWe. Enough to do everything and then some.
I’ll agree with Muonium. Back in the 70s I worked on a version of the ‘Tokamak’. A Russian design for a fusion reactor. Back in the 80s I visited the laser fusion facility at Rochester. Fusion was always just a few years away...kind of like the check is in the mail and ‘I’ll still love you in the morning’. I admire their enthusiasm though .
Which device were you working on? You may be interested to know, if you haven't heard already, that at long last and after over half a century we have got the laser ICF scheme to work. It's not pushing electrons around the grid anytime soon, but indeed NIF, has ignited its first cryo DT indirect-drive capsule about a year ago. They've had trouble recreating the magic 1.3MJ yield shot over the past year, but it's very clear to everyone now that the threshold of true thermonuclear ignition and burn in the laboratory has finally been crossed and that in not very much more time (months, not years) it will be repeatable.
@@Muonium1 we were developing a feed system for tritium in the tokamak. I left that project after awhile so I’m not sure of the denouement. I was just a visitor to the Rochester laser fusion. I will say it was amazingly impressive. I had more hopes for that than the tokamak, but it’s been nearly forty years since then.
@@JD-ul8qu Interesting, I'm surprised that there were any systems at all attempting DT in the 70s on magnetic devices. I thought the first time it was actually used was on TFTR and JET in the 90s. I actually work with tritium decontamination of final optics on the laser. You must have visited LLE in the 80s when it was still the 24 beam 2Kj system, this was upgraded in the mid-90s to a 60 beam 35Kj system that still operates today. A decade later a new building would be added as big as the first to house a 20Kj 4 beam NIF style setup with two beams configured for chirped pulse amplification and petawatt (10^15 W) power levels on target. You can see a documentary on my channel if you like, showing the OMEGA 24 laser around about the time you saw it, featuring Neil Armstrong as presenter.
@@Muonium1 yes, it was in the 80s. And thanks, I will check out your channel!
Sounds like the early version of the warp drive if they keep going we’ll be living in the Star Trek era. Very cool video
wonder where they got the flux capacitor from???
I like how he is able to keep a straight face while talking.
The best science class I ever had. Great explainer! 👏
I have never had much hope that I would see fusion in my lifetime. In the 50+ years I have followed the progress with varying degrees of interest, it always seemed like an expensive science project. However, Helion’s approach seems by far the most promising. I can’t say I know much about the principles behind the reaction they use, but they seem to be light years ahead of every other approach in that they don’t just talk about the fusion process, but also the real engineering aspects of making a commercial reactor. Also, while tokamak and inertial confinement experiments are of massive scale and cost, this is a much smaller scale implementation. Iterations can be done much faster and at lower cost. Even if it does not work, they will probably know in the next 10 to 15 years, which is half the time that the traditional projects take to make a incremental step forward. And if it does work, you have to wonder what will happen to all those multi-billion dollar science project.
LOL. “If our physics holds, we hope to reach that goal (net energy gain) in the next three years,” D. Kirtley, CEO of Helion, The Wall Street Journal, 2014.
@@Kalumbatsch oh don't be a debbie downer! 😊 2018, 2024, 2028...at least he didn't say the usual 10 years away.
Scientists don't expect fusion power plants in the next 100 years. We are REALLY far away from having a working prototype, with close to zero improvements in the last 50 years in the grand scheme of things.
Look up commonwealth! They have developed stronger magnets
Naw man it will not become commercial for at least another 30 years unless they is a massive breakthrough. Plus Helion does not produce NEARLY enough power to sustain fusion for ignition so this test will be useless without way more funding
What a perfect explaination👌
You could use air jell to the wall for heat reduction
The problem is It’s plasma and the reason they use magnetic fields is that very element we currently know of ( I think ) can’t withstand over 100 million Celsius
Finally a great video on the subject. I really hope I'm alive to see Fusion becoming commercially viable.
Seems like a lot of work just to make Fusion Energy Drinks..
Every decade, it's just 20 years ago.
You are
@@alanmalcheski8882 The way it's going I can't say I got lots of hope. I mean, I still got a long way, but people say "it's just around the corner" a lot more.
@@thetalkinganvil8366 I mean it's already real, it exists, it could be commercially available. The problem is this...
I have been hearing about those efficient Fusion reactors finally coming on line for 30 years now!
Eh, I don't know about 30 years. I've followed fusion development pretty closely and the claims of just about ready to come on line have only been in the past 10 years or so. Still we should be very suspicious of such claims. Most tech startups that rely on technologies still in development exaggerate a great deal on their timelines, so that isn't much of a surprise. At one point Virgin Galactic was saying they would be running regular commercial flights by 2014 or so. Personally I tend to at least double the claims for time needed, assuming things work out at all.
🎼Tomorrow, tomorrow I love ya Tomorrow You're always a day away 🎵🎶
@@michaelclark4876 I might have got the time wrong but.... You are right in exaggerating time lines in any technology. Just look at KZhead videos with all the problems we are having with EV vehicles. They even say that ICE vehicles will disappear by 2030. So much baloney!
@@johncipolletti5611 Exactly! There is no chance that in 8 years internal combustion engines will completely disappear from all new vehicles let alone all vehicles. The optimistic boosters of a technology always have it developing faster than it does. Everything takes longer than expected. I'm a huge booster for fusion energy research and have been my whole life. I'd love for some of these predictions to come true. But lets face it, what Helion says in 2022 that it can do by 2024 is exactly what it said in 2014 would be done by 2019. In reality, net electric production with a D-He3 fuel cycle by 2030 would be an amazing triumph of lightning fast development. Would love to see it, will be shocked if I do. That being said, the people who claim fusion power will forever be 30 years away are failing to note the quickening pace of discovery over multiple approaches. I wouldn't be surprised if theoretical break even is made by or before 2030, but its a long way from there to putting power into the grid And to be fair about the timeline, 33 years ago we did have Fleischmann and Pons, though that fell through quickly.
@@michaelclark4876 YES!
Deutrium (Heavy water) can also be made in very very small amounts when you have an HHO Generator! Its like 0.01% per gals of liquid converted
Sounds like everybody else until you brought up aneutronic fusion and harvesting the charged particles directly. Makes sense. First really new idea in a while.
Good show about how to make fusion power with Helium 3. Very short description regarding how to produce Helium 3. I agree that Helium 3 is a better fuel than Tritium, but this is the first I've heard that you could actually manufacture the stuff from deuterium. Too good to be true?
It is established physics. You fuse two Deuterium atoms and you have a 50% chance of getting a Helion (He3). The other branch results in a Tritium atom that will eventually decay into more He3.
@@elmarmoelzer2229 Thanks for the clarification. I meant to question the cost, not the actual possibility of the physics to make the conversion.
@@patmitchell8690 Helion intends for their machines to produce He3 in D-D side reactions that happen when you fuse D + He3 in the same machine. So there is no extra cost. Though D-D fusion is less efficient. From my understanding they still get net electricity out of doing just D-D, but not the full 50 MWe their machines are intended to do. The D-He3 reactions add an extra boost to get to that.
It is established physics (every fusion experiment that uses Deuterium as a fuel produces small amounts of He3): When you fuse two Deuterium atoms, you have a 50% chance of producing a Helium3 atom and a 50% of producing Tritium atom. The Tritium eventually (half-life 12.5 years) decays into He3 as well.
@@elmarmoelzer2229 Does that mean that Helion will still need an outside source for He3, albeit a 50% smaller source? Thanks
Great explanation of how it works and what they are trying to do! I still wont believe it until I see it. This has been talked about for so many years and they always say "right around the corner". Well, where is this corner? It would be nice for this corner to hurry up an appear.
I've been hearing people talking about fusion being workable "real soon now" for at least 50 years. Somehow, it still hasn't happened. So, I always take stories like this with a very large grain of salt.
Have you tried aerogel as a thermal insulator?
Wow! My mind boggles but thanks for this accurate explanation.
This for once has technical merit and practical application over tokamak and stellerator. You have to appreciate companies that actually think through the chain of obstacles.
This is literally a thermonuclear device, what would happen if something went wrong?
@@erode.5101 what could go wrong? Geez
@@MarkBarrack Not much at this point since they can barely even get it going in the first place. 😆
@@erode.5101 if you aren't smart enough to know the diffrence between thermo nuclear and fusion, then just dont speak.
Gosh everyone is so negative and also didn't realize this is fusion, not fission!
Good luck guys! I'll be cheering you on every step of the way! 👍
Don't use it as a weapon. End of humanity
I feel this may be our new engine for space travel
Okay. It's 2024, can we get an update?
those quartz pipes are beautifully made!
You can see a diamond drill mounted to the right of the tube. During my visit there was a nervous technician painstakingly drilling each hole for the diagnostic lasers, trying not to crack the thing.
Question… in a worst case scenario… what could possibly go catastrophically wrong with the experimental development of fusion base energy? Even though the overall goal is to produce safe and clean energy, are the risk of testing and perfecting this technology equal to are greater than the potential benefits? May be a silly question but I’m just curious..😊
Not much that can go wrong. These things are inherently safe because the fusion reaction is so hard to sustain and it WANTS to go out, if conditions are not 100% perfect. This is why fusion is so hard to do.
@@user-bf3bj5no8j Helion's machines can be fully decommissioned less than two weeks after operation. The activated materials will be below background levels within less than a year. So, storage would be extremely short term, likely just on site for a year, then disposal. Low level waste makes the most by volume because even ridiculous things like the lab coats worn by radiologists, scrubs worn by patients during radiotherapy, or needles used to inject contrast fluid into patients (not even talking about the contrast fluid itself) are considered "low level nuclear waste" which has to be managed that way.
one thing they missing i see is sun has gogantic grawith/pressure inside... so probably high compression/pressure and heat rates will fix lots of problems mostlikely.
And what are they using for the energy to make this happen coal or oil
Very brilliant Helion's approach for the plasma confinement and direct electricity production! The impulsive function remember to me the Enterprise Warp Engine (is it a coincidence?). Awesome clear explanation by you, for people that not speak english so good like me too! TY one of the best documentary I ever seen! I hope Helion reach soon their target for all mankind!
"The impulsive function remember to me the Enterprise Warp Engine (is it a coincidence?)" You are confusing Impulse Engines and the Warp Drive. The former is for sub light speed travel and uses ionised gas to propel the ship. The latter actually warps space time around the ship into a bubble that moves the ship forward through space at velocities exceeding the speed of light.
@@mnomadvfx Pretty sure he was referring to the visual pulses the warp core made in the engineering room.
And these fusion reactors will be finished about the same time as Enterprise with it's Warp Drive.
This is Insanely interesting, and I sincerely hope that they will succeed!👍👍👍👍👍👍
a show from the 90s called star gate sg1 had an episode showing a large fusion reactor that used heavy water as its fuel. This seems pretty cool
"Ya blow up one sun and people expect you to walk on water" -major carter
you need a magnetic pulses solar core ,magnetron solar panels rotation with positive effects on energy, good work so far people's, love and bless you all, your Jojo...
I've been studying fusion generation for most of my life and this is the most viable fusion generator to become reality. The only concern I would have is the stability of the magnetic field and any losses due to instability.
I'm no physicist nor a scientist I am just a handyman that is always had an interest and I agree with your concern watching the whole video and how they're explaining that things happen in milliseconds at temperatures hotter than the sun and materials that can contain it even the capacitors that fire this off if something goes wrong do you have the time to fix it or shut it down or the ability for a safety switch to shut it down before you lose it how many times have you heard it's going so fast and oops I can't stop it oops is the worst word even in what I do
@@philliplapkovitch311 There is enough heat shielding that you would likely see glowing metal long before anything exploded, and your computer system is going to be able to predict something going wrong. Most likely, a failure just means you have dissipating plasma heat in a tube full of heat sinks.
@@jingbot1071 I have very little confidence in computer systems, even those with multiple redundancies, to respond and contain such a disaster. There are just too many bugs, too much vulnerability to hacking, too much vulnerability to human error, extraterrestrial events like solar flares, and other interruptions, and the more complex the system the more chaotic the risk... Yes one can argue that safeguards can be implemented, but however smart and knowledgeable we are there will be risks we can't foresee, and the consequences of a single disaster, however unlikely, would be very dire indeed.
@@mjinba07 If the computer system shuts down completely, again, you have a bunch of hot gas contained by heat shielding. And the on/off switch is a valve, manual, not computerized.
Isn’t worst case that the immediate container materials would melt and destroy the reactor but as the fusion reaction will cease and there is no adverse radiation created, there is no threat to the general public or even power plant staff? Maybe a reactor could “explode” to some degree but external shielding would be in place to contain any bits…?
I had to re-watch this vid three times to understand it but it blew me away!!! It is a truly awesome project!!!
Fusion research has to sound like success is just around the corner. That is how they fund their toys and careers.
They are fully funded actually and their investors have been on the board since the company got started. They also had their results peer reviewed by reviewers brought in from the big national labs. And they are aiming for net electricity some time around the end of 2024
Great comments everyone gave me depths what is possiblelitilty for future energy sound promising.it's just amazing find new energy.Just brilliant, Real cool to know Thank you!!!
In 7 years watching KZhead I've never seen a more detailed, clear and information packed video. I want to invest in technology like this and will be contacting Helion because of this video.
I agree Helion has great merit, BUT don't be blinded by science. Consider that much simpler methods like molten salt solar concentrators have failed commercial viability (befor Putin) because they had to pay people to pollish the mirrors and maintain their tracking mechanisms in non hostile conditions. Also this would be very long term - more like thirty years before ROI - how long are you prepared to wait and what might happen in the meanwhile.
This video brings me hope that we can actually achieve positive energy nuclear fusion in my lifetime. I have my doubts that it will happen by 2024, but I am rather excited to see what advancements are made in the coming years.
2024 seems very optimistic especially since in 2014 they were saying they would do it by 2019. If it took 8 real years to make 3 years of startup-hype progress, then 2028 maybe? More seriously, one of the biggest things to look at for viability is their progress in making He3. The energy and cost needed to do it will need to be added to the cost of the fusion reaction, and deuterium-He3 fusion already has to reach a much higher temperature for peak efficiency than deuterium-tritium fusion. Although more efficient conversion to electricity lowers the fusion efficiency needed for it to be commercially viable. And deuterium-tritium fuel cycles also suffer from scarce fuel, tritium also needing to be made though there are several ways to do it, and so far there has not been adequate consideration of that fact. We are way behind on tritium manufacturing capacity even in regards to what we need for fusion research let alone commercial electricity production.
Its the fact people don't know what its about and how amazing it could be. But people just hear nuclear and it turns them off to it without even trying to understand most of it and just assuming its something destructive.
I started college in 1977 at a school that had a lab working on laser fusion. I have been on the edge of my seat waiting for many, many years for a practical application of this technology.
In our lifetime might be optimistic, too. These dates are mostly used for fund runs. We'll see if they tackle the problems thousands have failed. They're going for harder methods that we've seen attempted before. Not putting any stock into any of these projects unless they prove they're at a positive Q value, not a positive Qp.
@@Kvothe_The_Bloodless Unfortunately you're right about irrational fear of the word nuclear. How many people know the proper name for magnetic resonance imaging is nuclear magnetic resonance imaging. Because the technology underlying it is nuclear magnetic resonance. The nuclear was dropped because of the connotations.
If a flux of slow neutrons is added to the plasma in the reaction zone, then this should noticeably improve the fusion conditions. Try it. The higher the neutron density, the better.
The NIF actually made the milestone of producing more than was consumed in 2022. Great milestone met!