An Exotic Approach to Nuclear Fusion (Helion Energy BTS)
Nuclear fusion power, can change everything. And so can winning free test gear at KeySight World: Live From The Lab - which you can check out here: keysig.ht/fNMiHd. DATE CHANGED TO NOV 7TH!
For 50 years, we've tried all methods for controlling nuclear fusion. For half a century we've focused on creating a sustained fusion reaction. However, is a sustained reaction really the right approach? Helion Energy's topography is so different, that it may just have a chance. www.helionenergy.com
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#future #innovation #fusion
It was awesome to have you here, Jay. ⚡ Thanks for geeking out with us over high voltage capacitors, electromagnets, and fusion!
It was an honor to see the work you folks are doing.
I kind of wish he would have touched on the usage of H3 a bit. As my first thought was that H3 is very expensive vs Tritium, but then I looked it up and the wiki says you guys are using a D-D side reaction to make your H3, Which is very interesting and useful, and i believe worth touching on.
im waiting for what thunderfoot has to say :)
@@miclowgunman1987 Doesn't H2 + H2 -> He3 also yield a neutron? Another reaction can occur which is: H2 + H2 -> H3 + H1. Which leads to H2 + H3 -> He4 + N . Isn't it kinda disingenuous to insinuate their setup is aneutronic when two of the four possible fuel reactions produce neutrons?
@@PlasmaChannel It was a fun video to watch! But as @miclowgunman1987 said, going a bit deeper would be very interesting especially as there where close to no new informations than what we already know from the advertising videos. Jay I hope you were able to acquire some cool stuff for new projects like some of the lit capacitors. 😂 MORE POWER!!! Home_Improvement.mp3
Regardless of the viability and future of the tech, one thing Helion definitely has a leg up on compared to all other projects, is the fact they are doing the marketing game brilliantly.
You will just need one drop of blood for a full analysis. It will be a medical revolution. That’s what it sounds like to me…
The other thing they have is the cap development. Even if they don't get their reactor off the ground, the work they're doing on ultra-capacity full discharge capacitors is going to help a lot of other tech
you can have the best marketing in the world but when the day comes you have nothing to show for yourself that is game over. there have been so many so far and people are getting tired and want results over marketing
This combined with the fact that they have no real plan for their fusion research beyond "do a fusion" makes me think they're just pumping investors and skedaddling.
I mean look at this stuff. Its like an oversized fifth grade technik class room. At least the Lady in the background at 9:33 is having fun. Building band-capacitors is one thing but this looks like cobbled together in the worst way they can find. 14:14 hä also im ernst was soll denn das darstellen so ein schrott ich hau mich weg🤣
I work not too far away and I've made parts for them. Very cool to see stuff like this happening so close to home!
That isnt as advanced as my engines but meh I cant technically prove them either though so good on them for coming up with a concept they think works.
That's cool man. They probably need lots of weird parts for their vacuum chamber...
We call it fraud, to be frankly......
@@yeyuan6273 what?
@@yeyuan6273 of course it is a fraud. They need these videos by believers to keep funding going on.
But D-H3 will also produce neutrons (albeit less dangerous). I was quite sad to see they completely omitted this detail. They have neutrons detectors in there too.
They'll have 10x less energy output as neutrons, lower individual energies, and a cheaper and more durable reactor chamber than tokamaks which probably have the toughest situation with neutrons. It's really night and day as far as the neutron situation
as i understand it there is no way to accomplish fusion without creating neutrons
@@charlesreid9337 pB11 is close with .1% of energy from neutrons. I think He3-He3 is even better and thus popular for interstellar engine concepts but requires an external source of it like the moon or Jupiter
@@Canucklug I know but they should have taken 30 seconds (in the already too short video) to explain that.
It will be all D-D fusion which will produce 14 MeV fast neutrons. D-D is 3 times easier than D-He3 and nature always chooses the easiest path. It will never work as helion thinks it will since they seem to forget the problem with Plasma scattering when compressing the plasma. You have to be brain dead not to see the scattering problem.
I was very surprised when some years ago had discovered that the atomic fission is simply used to generate heat to run the turbines with steam ... it felt like wood was replaced with coal and coal with uranium adn than we stopped for ages... Seeing this approach is very refreshing and inspiring. Looking very much forward to see all this fusion tech to change the world as the steam power did at its time.
This tech is already 70 years old, it’s essentially It’s doesn’t yield any energy, as you put more energy in than you get out
I agree with you about splitting atoms to boil water. It seems very wasteful doesn't it? I live within a mile of a nuke plant. I figure I might as well be at ground zero. Very little fuel but very toxic too!
Wood, coal, oil, uranium, and Helium 3 are all used as fuel, but with more specific heat produced as we advance. But it's probably not going to happen because fusion is far too violent to contain on any useful scale.
everything in our society is a ham fisted half-assed primitive first attempt. profit motive has made us centuries behind where we could be
@@StoneKathrynits just because energy capture is pretty difficult.
This approach reminds me a lot of the classic internal combustion cycle: Fuel injection > compression > combustion > expansion Except the combustion is a nuclear reaction instead of a chemical one and the compression and expansion are done via E-M fields instead of pistons Brilliant
I was thinking something similar. Kind of like back pressure from an engine to slow it down too.
Yes, exactly.
Note: helion is under a lot of scrutiny by nuclear engineers and this recent bout of KZhead videos are essentially advertising to get their bame out and hopefully get more funding Im a little suspicious
Helion does not need funding. I know of ONE former nuclear engineer who said a bunch of nonsense about them, born out of a complete lack of understanding of the concept.
@@elmarmoelzer2229 No the nuclear engineers are right. Helion is dumber than a box of rocks. Board line scam. It will never work and they are taking complete non-sense. No better than Rossi's e-Cat design.
Improbable matter did a pretty damning teardown of their entire setup
@@Ryukachoo He did not. He showed a complete lack of understanding of their concept.
@@Ryukachoo Improbable Matter explained a number of generalities about fusion that can be applied to many different machines (including JET, the one he himself worked in). He demonstrated good knowledge of the field in general, but lack of familiarity with the specific machine he was criticizing. My summary of his video is: fusion is extremely hard, so he thinks that Helion will fail.
Fussion is cutting edge tech *laughs in November, 1, 1952 *
i appreciate the amount of investment happening in the fusion space, but i can't help but feel skeptical of Helion specifically, Improbable matter made an excellent video explaining just how much less feasible he3-deuterium fusion is than tritium-deuterium fusion that is used by conventional tokamak designs. I really want to believe that they can get energy out of this design however the more I look into it the more I feel like, at least with Helion, this method is a reach.
Yeah, after watching the real engineering video, I was pretty hyped. Then I saw the improbable matter video and now I'm pretty skeptical. The issue with neutrons is also a big problem they have to solve.
So y'all watched two videos and think you have a better outcome synopsis than dozens of fusion researchers and financial analysts at Microsoft?
@animal579 I'm not aware of any fusion researchers who have endorsed this. Though that term is lose and technically everyone at helion is a fusion researcher. I would say I haven't heard any endorsements come out of the academic nuclear physics areas. Microsoft did a bit of a PR stunt; they signed a promise to buy energy from Helions' first net positive reactor... if it ever gets built. It looks good for the, green energy and all, but there's no commitments. The issues raised in some other videos by nuclear physicists not sponsored by Helion have centered around 1.) Not targeting a high enough temperature for D-D reactions to occur at a reasonable rate, especially given the microsecond confinement times they're envisioning. 2.) The neutron radiation that they will unavoidably be producing from the D-D and D-T reactions will cause reactor transmutation and require heavy shielding. That shielding will push the magnetic confinement coils back, which weakens the field strength. 3.) They are breeding significant amounts of tritiu and have not outlined plans to safely store and dispose of it
@@animal579 uuuh yeah, improbable matter is certainly trustworthy in this regard, as he has experience in the field as an engineer and has given his view on why fusion is generally so hard to do, and why helion could be a stretch, am I saying I Believe him entirely? No, but his input does make me more apprehensive of helion's stated goals and feasibility.
@@animal579 "financial analysts??? WTF are you talking about, you expect financial analysts to provide useful information about physics? Look at theranos and how many huge silcon valley partners they had that bought the scam hook, line and sinker.
What Helion is doing is not so new and revolutionary as they claim. It's an FRC - those have been around since the 60s. I'm sure a lot of research went into their project, but a few details consistently get left out. Neutrons for example: They still get those, as the Deuterium in their reaction has an equal probability to fuse with each other rather than a He-3 nucleus. That produces those nasty neutrons. Why they claim their reaction doesn't have those, is baffling. Then there is power output. At their proposed temperatures there is basically no chance this concept would ever produce net energy (we are 3 orders of magnitude below a D-T-reaction here...).
They can make the claim because they have the data from experiments to back it up. Instead of just being lazy and commenting here on KZhead, go look up their published results.
They did leave that out, but DD neutrons are only 2.5MeV, and DT neutrons are 14.1 MeV. This lower energy means much less damage. Also, DD fusion is actually desirable because it is the means of generating He3 fuel. My understanding is that the fuel mixture (ratio of deuterium to helium-3) and the conditions in the reactor are variables that can be tuned to focus more on power output (DHe3 fusion) vs fuel generation (DD fusion).
@@d4rk0v3 No helion is lazy & just dumb. Nuklearwanze is correct. Give a few years and Helion will be exposed as the next Rossi e-Cat fraud.
@@d4rk0v3 do you have a link to a paper for me? Didnt find much, but I would really like to read that. (I did however find what the American Physical Society had to say about their research, which was not very nice)
A very comprehensive explanation of exactly how this form of fusion works. Its truly amazing stuff.
The simplicity of this idea is kinda cool. Literally a massive transformer with a reaction chamber and the secondary captures the energy from the reaction plus a portion of the energy left from the initial power supplied. Fun stuff
I’d suggest watching Improbable Matter’s video on Helion before you drink the Helion koolaid
I remember reading "Popular Science" when I was a kid in the 60s. Fusion was "just over the horizon". It's now going on 60 years later and fusion is STILL "just over the horizon". You'll excuse me if I am just a tad sceptical. I wish the folks at Helion (and their investors) all the best. I have been on the bleeding edge of technology a couple of times and it is beyond cool. I hope their way works. Maybe I'll even live to see it. Ain't holding my breath!
I think your sentiment is fully justified. I hear you! The way I see it, time is the variable we need. And that's a variable which we can't control.
@@PlasmaChannel Helion is another VC-backed startup peddling vapourware. Their tech is neither new nor realistically feasible for power generation: kzhead.info/sun/ZtqOgMyrfaGknK8/bejne.htmlsi=FuJQn3gCePxG4koi
I get the skepticism, but on the other hand, is it reasonable to expect these breakthroughs in a few decades? - For +/- 200,000 years we have had no idea about electricity, no combustion engines, no airplanes, no satellites, radios, phones etc. - We got steam engines about 300 years ago. 137 years ago, the first AC electrical generator was demonstrated... - The idea of fusion being the thing that allowed the Sun to produce energy was thought up around 1920. - In 1946 the first patent for a fusion reactor was registered. -In 2022 for the first time net energy production from a fusion reaction was recorded. - The in 2018 announced the SPARC reactor, which is on schedule to be in operation in 2025, is expected to generate over twice the amount of energy that it needs to sustain itself, and is expected to produce up to 140 MW in 10 second bursts! I don't think that 60 (or even 120) years is a long time to develop artificial stars that can produce insane amounts of energy out of abundant, cheap fuel without melting!
While we wait for the s-l-o-w march towards fusion, nuclear fission is alive and well, producing electricity as we speak, vital for an electric future. Yet the Luddites and wannabe cave dwellers fight tooth and nail to stop it. Do you REALLY think they won't oppose this as well?
To expand on what the above comment implies, the concrete metrics available to us regarding technological advancement only make any mathematical sense when regressed to an exponential growth model. Contrary to the intuition of the "it's always 10 years away" crowd (which is exhibiting pessimism rather than skepticism), it is in actuality irresponsible for us NOT to set our expectations and plans according to our best estimation of A=Pe^(rt). If someone else can come up with a simpler way to say that without distorting the meaning, feel free.
I have always considered the Tokamak designs to be industrial suicide. "Johnson, are you saying you can't contain the neutrons with our new magnet?" "Uh, no sir. They don't respond to magnets." "Well, what can we do about them?" "Nothing. We have to let them hit the shielding, making the shielding radioactive." "With the system at operating temperature, how long will the shielding last?" "We estimate 1 week, sir." "This could look bad for OCP, Johnson. Scramble our best spin team at once."
It does need to be pointed out that the Lawrence Livermore project is specifically for nuclear weapons research, so while important scientifically it's only tangential to the actual quest for fusion electricity
How do they prevent D-D fusion happening instead of D-He3? If mostly D-D fusion is happening, you'd still get a ton of neutron radiation (similar to D-T) and since Neutrons don't really interact with magnetic fields, their energy would just go to waste in the walls without inducing a current. It's my understanding that at 100Mio°C or so, the reactivity for D-He3 is still like an order of magnitude lower than D-D.
That sounds like a good argument. I think you're right to point out that D-D reactions could happen instead of D-He3 since less of a nucleonic repulsion would be with the D-D reaction at the Lawson criterion. Thanks for asking about this.
They don't it is just a scam.
D-D fusion produces only 2.45 MeV neutrons and only in half of the reactions. They actually want the D-D side reactions because those are what make the He3.
@@elmarmoelzer2229 2.45 MeV are fast neutrons, and will activate any materials nearby. Its a scam as cajampa commeted.
Well, unless someone wants to claim that the video is faked you can see the reaction right there, so the reaction does certainly happen. As for the D-D; I can’t comment on your question directly, however I wish to raise the fact that (as far as I’ve heard and understood) they utilise the D-D reactions to make the fuel on the go. Take from that what you can.
These reactors will also become radioactive just like tokamaks due to neutron rich D-D reactions occurring at the relatively low temp D-He3 mix, and for a lower energy yeild.
I wonder about that too.
Yup! You're way much smarter than Helion! You have to be brain dead to not figure that out.
They barely talked about the problems their own design faces. I did see them throw some dirt at other projects as if they don’t face similar problems. Like their neutron problem and they barely mentioned how does the machine handle the temperatures of their methods
You should pay Wendelstein 7-X of the Plax Planck Institute for Plasmaphysics a visit. This reactor is a stellerator currently on the way to achieve fusion pulses orders of magnitude longer than most other fusion reactors. Their current goal is 30 minutes of fusion of which they already achieved 8.
I was really surprised he did not show Wendelstein 7-X in his list of fusion experiments currently undergoing evaluation. The stellarator design helps to refuel the reaction chamber continously, which lead to the aforementioned 8 minutes discharge time and an energy turnover of 1.3 gigajoules. Fingers crossed fusion will be available soon for our energy needs.
I don't know if Helion is legit, but they sure are doing a shit ton of PR recently. Every well known technology youtuber seem to have been invited.
Probably a funding round coming up soon, high tech startups consume money like nothing else, and this is an easy way to drum up a bit of publicity. It does definitely raise the suspicion levels a little for the more skeptical of us though.
There is still neutron radiation from this reaction. Deuterium will fuse with other Deuterium unless you fuse one atom at a time (which would be ridiculous). The only truly neutron free reaction is the Proton-Boron fusion.
That sounds about right. How do you control that reaction? Just a proton gun shot into plasma Boron fuel?
@@StoneKathryn Well just like any other type of fusion, you have many methods. What you describe is an inertial confinement, that works of course, you could have a pure thermonuclear one where you just hold the plasma at the required pressure and temperature or you could do a Z-pinch like this Helion company wants to do. There's disadvantages to all of these and for Proton Boron you need even higher energies still so of course it's something you can only start considering once Deuterium-Tritium fusion is easy to do because any other kind of fusion is just MUCH harder.
@@MrRolnicek I agree. Things could very much change with a "working" fusion energy source. I have looked forward to "fixing" the problem of fission reactors by "plasma torching" it to much smaller elements. That would be nice. It would be like "cooking" it down. Lots of "trash" problems could be solved with plasma torching it down to elements.
@@StoneKathryn It's a lot easier to just chuck any inconvenient elements into fission waste burner type reactors. No need for fancy solutions when simple ones work well.
@@MrRolnicek Are they doing this to "clean" up the waste then. Have the waste problems been "solved"?
This is exciting and one of the few reactors I've seen that actually has a design not just for fusion but for excess energy capture. Trying to pulse the reactor rather than a sustained fusion seems alot more practical.
also depending on the reaction style, its less wear on the entire system which means better longevity
@@relientker I got more intrigued because this design really doesn't produce neutrons, so its not radioactive like all of the other fusion reactors, they just omit it because its supposed to compete with fission. how ironic.
@@monad_tcp: Except it apparently will produce plenty of neutrons if it ever becomes viable. Check out the KZhead video "The problems with Helion Energy - a response to Real Engineering" here: kzhead.info/sun/ZtqOgMyrfaGknK8/bejne.html
@@monad_tcp Helion's approach will still produce neutrons, just at a lower rate than competing reactor designs. The reactor walls will still eventually become radioactive waste, it will just take longer than the other approaches.
@@RMX7777 If what you mean by "radioactive waste" is highly radioactive materials that will stay dangerous for centuries of millennia, as happens with part of fission plants waste, that not correct in the present case. One of the general advantages of fusion over fission is that is produces much less activated materials with long half-lives. In the specific case of Helion machines, their estimation is that after one of their reactors is decommissioned, it will only take days for its reactivity to decrease enough to allow start dismantling it safely, even by hand, and about one year for it to be indistinguishable from the background (anyone interested in reading the specifics, search for the Helion presentation in front of the USNRC, from March 2022). So, radioactive waste in that sense, yes, but only for a quite short period.
I can't wait to see where this tech is in 10 years time. It's already at such an incredible pace.
I remember hearing about this about 2 years ago, it’s really cool to see actual working prototypes instead of concepts and talk 🙃
This was so awesome, can't wait to see future developments and hope you get to document it for us, to partake.
Great video, their approach is really interesting, I look forward to seeing how they progress.
It's always complicated!🙀📡🌐 We're your laptop 💻 now Kitty's? There copying % to complete there planets! It's like 📡🦠👄
All the different fusion projects are interesting and as long as more is learned and progress is made hopefully one or more of them will be a viable source of power.
I have done a ton of research into various topologies, This is the one that hold the MOST potential.
Fr! Nice pun too
The most interesting aspect of this type I think it's viability as an engine for deep space missions. Unlike all the other options, this one could be open af one end without too much issue and it doesn't have the stupendus weight requirements of laser inertial.
I'm a bit of a dummy, but I think as a deep space engine, it would do fine, but really, deep space isn't a difficult environment to have very efficient movement. Solar sails are already easily the most energy efficient form of movement you could achieve in space. I think the big ticket is finding an extremely powerful engine that produces few emissions, uses little fuel, and is space efficient to actually exit and re-enter gravitational fields.
B, listed! I'm in the school that thinks matter+antimatter is a little more useful...although! it could be both! a robot putting around the moon or oceans using one kind of engine. and the other one could be a back up. Thinking about fusion for the main battery. uh oh! something went wrong and that's not working now! and matter+antimatter as an emergency back up maybe.
Fusion energy was one of the biggest reasons why I was so excited for LK-99 when it was hitting headlines earlier. The quality of our high-temp superconductors is the real limiting factor when it comes to fusion technology (hence why ITER's tokamak design is friggin enormous). It's a shame that LK-99 is slowly turning out to be something of a dud. The approach to creating a superconductor was novel, though. I fully expect other researchers to throw their time and energy at trying to create similar theoretical quantum conditions with other materials. We've already seen the enormous benefit of using superconductors like YBCO, which allow fusion projects like Helion and SPARC to miniaturize the footprint and cost of creating a reactor.
It's an electromagnetic model of an internal combustion engine where the exothermic reaction is the fusion of the Helion. The piston is the electromagnetic pulse moving back and forth! Brilliant!
I saw the first interview they ever did like a few hours after it released and the same day other fusion news overshadowed them so I never got to hear more about helion till now love the vid and love the reactor hope to see more from them in the future
Fusion is the industry thats overpromised and under-delivered for the past 50 years...
Wait 50 years, then another 50 years.
I've been following Helion for years. With much of their work being brilliant, the push-pull energy generation is the most amazing tech imo. It's one of the first techs I can think of that directly harvest electrical energy, bypassing rotating magnetic fields, and the ancient heat to boil water to run a generator setup. I am so in Love with the work done at Helion, and can't wait for the full scale prototype.
The push-pull generation is such an elegant solution. Makes other tech look overcomplicated and inefficient.
Massively important work! I applaud the great flexible minds that were able to develop this technology. It's still in the theoretical stage but moving along logically. Most impressive!
I'm referencing this for my chem 131. Thanks for such amazing content! What an amazing job tying in some incredible stories going on around the world. Iter has interested me for some time!
Several things: - if they would change their vacuum pumps to either Pfeiffer-HighScroll or Edwards NXDS, it would be silent during your filmging - these are scroll pumps - DHe3 would need about 1,6 Trillion degrees, to reach an optimal cross section for this reaction. Its already hard to reach 150 Mio degree in a Tokamak, ... - I am still missing He4 measurements or something as a result of the reaction - this would proof that they achieved a noteworthy amount of fusion
skeptical on this solution for the same reasons.
Incredible video, Jay. One of your best. But to be honest I'm surprised you didn't get demonetized, showing dem guns on screen.
This was awesome! Helion: please go public. We want shares!
Please keep us updated on this company's progress. This is very exciting
Awesome stuff, wish I knew a company like this existed before leaving school
This company is just marketing bs bro
Ikr! Even if it's just in its infancy it's bound to inspire at least 1 remarkable individual. That's the true key to innovation
Seems like the only thing that novel reactors get us is novel instability modes. Credit to Helion for thinking outside the Torus, though. I'm very cynical about (practical) fusion power, so I'm going to guess that the end result is going to be a modified version of the "tilt mode" instability. The plasma breaks confinement during the relaxation phase, because the plasma doesn't relax evenly, it's impossible to completely anticipate, and shift the confinement field quickly enough. Think of it as the Spheromak version of the "kink" instability.
Helion is the one to watch. If I was to place bets, this would be where all my money would be placed...
It’s times like these where I wish I could bring a scientist from the past to the future to see their amazement in learning how far we’ve come.
As respectful as I can be to be courteous of your guidelines, I have to say that this is disappointing. There's a handful of videos of nuclear physicists busting helion, so there's no need to go into too much detail here. But the big takeaways are: 1.) The D-D reaction generates neutrons, which do create activation products in the walls of the reactor. 2.) The D-D reaction generates tritium and He3 with equal probability, and the D-T reaction proceeds at a much, much faster rate than D-D or D-He3. This means that tritium will be fused much faster than it could ever magically be removed, and this generates fast neutrons, which further contribute to reactor activation products. 3.) Tritium that is formed and which isn't used in a reactor cycle needs to be dealt with. It's very radioactive and Extremely mobile in the environment, not to mention being almost impossible to isolate once released. I've heard of calls to immobilize it and store it, allowing it to decay to He3. On paper this works, but with a half-life of 12.3 years, you'll need to amass a lot of tritium just to get a decent rate of He3 production. If a splash of that tritium store were released into the environment, you'd have an incident on your hands that would make chernobyl look like nothing, an issue which the NRC hasn't seemed to take very seriously as of yet, though likely because they know none of these startups are serious. 4.) Miscellaneous: how will they maintain hard vacuum during x-ray induced reactor wall spalling? How will they remove and reprocess spent fuel to seperate helium and hydrogen isotopes? or is this a once through scheme? -Alternatively: We've developed working nuclear energy in the form of fission. Even in its most common and crudest form, it's an economical and zero-carbon energy source with no intermittency, which plugs directly into the existing grid to provide stable 60Hz AC power. We have known how to perfect it for decades, including breed and reprocess designs that cut waste levels by a factor of 20x and which utilize 100% of the actinide fuel, and additional reprocessing to seperate long-lived from short-lived fission products could cut waste volume again by a factor of 5x. Though rarer than Deuterium, there is enough combined Uranium and Thorium to meet our current average power needs for at least a few billion years (keep in mind that the jurassic era was a tenth that distance from us). Yes, we could continue to dump "dumb" venture capital into silly little projects like this. Maybe some serious tokomak based fusion startup will succeed in producing economical power, and then I'll eat my hat. But that's a big maybe with no proven way forward. I would strongly argue that, for the sake of our species survival, and in order to prevent widespread ecological collapse, we should focus on developing realistic solutions and put theoretical well-wishes to the wayside
You raised a lot of good points. I hope someone can provide good answers. All of them seem like things that experts must have thought about and planned for… I wish they had been discussed in the video.
I have not seen any video "busting" Helion, but I've seen a couple pointing some of the problems they'll have to overcome. Everyone knows that fusion is hard, if it were easy we would had done it fifty years ago, but that something is hard is no proof, neither of feasibility, nor of impossibility. It is a bit like climbing the Everest. For decades many tried to crown it, and all of them gave up, or died trying, many said that it was just impossible. Now, let see if I can offer some counterarguments: 1a. Yep, D-D side reactions generate neutrons, and these will activate parts of the machine. Helion's plan is to use [almost] exclusively materials that, once activated, have very short half-lives (in the order of minutes to hours, for example, their magnets are made from aluminium, not copper, and the reactor walls are silica, not steel). In a presentation for the NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission), Helion declared not long ago that they estimate their reactors will be safe for human maintenance operators only days after having turned off, and their activity will drop to background levels in about a year. 1b. It also helps that the number of neutrons is far less that fusing D-T, and their energy only about a sixth (2.5 MeV for D-D neutrons, vs 14.1 MeV for D-T). 2. T nuclei produced by D-D reactions will carry 1 MeV of energy. The original D nuclei only have 20 to 30 keV. The difference in speed will be high, decreasing the probability of D-T interactions. Add that one fusion cicle will last about 1 millisecond only. The net outcome, very few D-T fusions. 3. Tritium management is nothing new. CANDU reactors have been producing, refining and storing it for decades. ITER site includes a treatment plant to do something similar. Helium does not need to invent anything new. 4a. Spalling ? One, they will evacuate the reaction chamber between shots. Two, every fusion reactor will have the same problem but Helion's design has an advantage, its linear topology makes it easy to disassemble, and subsequently to maintain (much, much easier than any tokamak or stellator, for example). 4b. Regarding reprocessing of byproducts, see point 3.
No fusion project will ever work except for Thermonuclear weapons. All of the designs including the tokamak are fatally flawed and will never work. Dead end\ unobtainium.
@@charliem6590 All really interest, good points. Thanks! I was aware that Helion was using materials with less potential for activation, but I didn’t know about the aluminum magnets. Is it actually aluminum conducting electricity in the wire coils?! A bit disconcerting still that days will have to pass before any maintenance can be done, especially in light of the super high vacuum conditions required. Very useful to know that newly-made tritium will only carry 1 MeV. Is this true regardless of how much energy the original deuterium atoms possessed, or is this in addition to that original energy? How is there conservation of energy if a DD fusion only gives a low energy neutron and a low energy tritium nucleus?
@@jonathanlehmann2059 Yep, Helion has declared in the past that they make the magnets from aluminum, and I don't see any reason to doubt them. Regarding the implied energies, there are many sources were you can find them (for example the wikipedia article about "Fusion Power"). Fusing two deuterium nuclei gives either: D+D -> T (1.01MeV) + proton (3.02MeV) or: D+D -> He3 (0.82MeV) + neutron (2.45MeV) The energies of the original deuterium particles is much lower, as I said about 20 to 30 keV per particle, the rest results from the fusion itself. All those energies are kinetic, aka speed. By the way, the ratio of D-D reactions versus D-He3 reactions depends on the plasma temperature and the relative concentration of deuterium to helium-3. For instance, with a temperature of 250 million C and a 50%-50% fuel mix, the number of D-D reactions is half of D-He3 reactions, and the number of neutrons half of that (so, one neutron for every four D-He3 reactions). This number of neutrons per D-He3 reaction can be further reduced by increasing the temperature further, of by reducing the deuterium to helium-3 ratio.
This thing kind of reminds me of a standard internal combustion engine, with energy being extracted from repeated cycles of squeezing the fuel and then making it explode.
God, let's hope it doesn't explode! Come to think of it though, that would be some really interesting physics! An explosion like the kind you get from conventional flammables should be impossible, here. You're not wrong, though. From what I watched, it's kind of an "electromagnetic piston", if you want to think of it, that way. It seems like a more viable method of skipping the steam turbines and going right to direct conversion.
Except far more efficient.
That's a really great analogy. The piston is instead the magnetic field.
@@Mindbulletz , the problem with analogies is that they tend to get overused. The water pipe analogy to explain Amps, Volts and Ohms is a good example. Worse is when the analogy is used to explain the entire concept, without any other context, or it's used as the thumbnail to get clicks. "Electromagnetic piston will change how we make power, forever!" kind of thing. As much as it's a useful shorthand for talking about it, I kinda hope it stays buried in the comments.....
@@Coffreek So what your saying is that analogies are kind of like Wikipedia; over-used, overrated, and often inaccurate.
Easily my favourite fusion project ❤
A number of folks commenting on Helion's use of D2+H3 fuel noted that a portion of the D2 will react with itself and yield neutrons. I have to believe that Helion is super-aware of that, but has chosen to stay silent on this point, perhaps it's part of their closely held IP.
They of course know that. They are not idiots. They want the D-D side reactions because that is how they make the He3. They even have a patent for that fuel cycle. The D-D neutrons would only occur in 1/3 to 1/4 of the reactions and they are comparably low energy (compared to D-T neutrons) and thus a lot easier to handle.
I get some Enterprise machine room vibes here. Lets hope they let it happen. Is there a time table for how long they think it will take to get to the full size reactor?
The NIF fusion room (the one in the news recently) was used as the set of the Enterprise's engine room in one of the Star Trek films years ago.
That's what I thought too. Looks like the warp core from star trek tng enterprise D. It pulses too.
They want to complete a full size in 2028 and if the 2024 demonstration works they'll begin a factory eventually capable of producing 20 a day or 1 GW a day (equal to one fission reactor)
Came here to say this. They're building a warp core!! Starting to think half of our high technology comes from kids watching star trek and becoming scientists
@@charlesreid9337 You have no idea how true that is.
Some issues, it still requires massive energy input and I'm not convinced their extracting efficiently the energy out. helium3 as a fuel is extremely expensive and rare on planet earth, mostly a by-product of nuclear decay. Also That's a extremely small amount of time to get energy back using coils. Furthermore repeative strain to the vessel could turn it into an EMP bomb.
They make their own He3 by fusing Deuterium in the same machine.
This was super interesting, thank you for sharing!
Wow, sounds promising! I love the innovative approaches.
The Helion solution is so elegant and efficient compared to other kinds of fusors. Amazing to watch. Thanks for bringing this to us, Plasma Channel.
no is not because they using D-He3 as fuel which is less reactive. so no still less efficient
not necessarily. the methods of getting high temp plasma and energy extraction itself are very cool and efficient. yes. but the fuel is bad. and they lose power to neutrons and the fact a lot of reactions wont be the ones they need (d d instead of d he3). the fuel at 100mil Kelvin I think is about a few orders of magnitude worse then tritium deuterium (dont remember exact numbers). it gets better beyond 300 million kelvin but they are far away from those temperatures... it's quite a one sided overview I feel. still a long way till fusion but I do really hope they manage some day. the methods are cool.
@@scipug3048 AFAIK Polaris will go to 20 keV plasma temperatures (220 million K). Note that it is not just the temperature that counts, but also the density. With high beta FRCs you can almost linearly scale between density and temperature. Their plasma also has a very low ratio of electron to ion temperature which really helps. Also not that they actually want D-D side reactions because that is how they make the He3 in the first place.
@@scipug3048The fuel is not bad, it is the right fuel for this type of machine. Deuterium and Tritium is the only thing that makes sense for Tokamaks and other fusion designs that cannot reach very high temperatures without sacrificing all the energy generated to losses (mostly Bremsstrahlung and Cyclo/Synchrotron). Helion's machines losses grow slower with temp, so while a Tokamak tops at about 15 keV with D-T, one of Helion's reactors tops at about 50 keV with D-He3. At this temperature, a Deuterium-Helium-3 mix has 50 times the reactivity than at 15 keV. This is the main reason but there are more.
@@charliem6590 yea the fuel is good for this specific machine. but all in all the reactivity of T D is orders of magnitude higher. I dont remember but I think I said that helion has potential to reach higher temperatures which can negate some of that issue, but there is inherently flaws and drawbacks in this design just like with ANY other fusion, and I dont like saying only the good stuff about smth bc it gives people falls hope. also D and D can still react which produces no charged particles and is a source of losses for helion (ik they say they want that to make He3 from that, bc it's very rare. But it's still a los. Tokamaks also produce fuel on the side but in that process heat is still generated to turn turbines. here if two deuterium react, 0 energy of that neutron will reach the power grid.)
You should run your audio through "Krisp" noise cancelling for some of these sections. Or if you have an NVidia GPU, use their noise cancelling solution with something like Virtual Audio Cables to provide input/output channels for re-recording.
Izotope is the best solution and is perfect for a constant noise source
Did you just try to sell monster cables?
Or just use better mic technique in the first place
It is an electronic version of a diesel engine. The piston is magnetism, the air is plasma and the fuel gets injected when everything is squeezed up
How can they prevent Deuterium from reacting with another Deuterium? which makes the whole thing terribly radioactive?
This is amazing technology, and glad to see you sharing this with your audience! I can't wait to see what Helion can accomplish in the next few years. Very exciting!
Wait 50 years, then another 50 years.
@@nonoyorbusness yeah yeah, everything knows the meme. Just stop and enjoy the science will ya.
@@DoubsGaming I'll Wait 50 years, then another 50 years!
@@nonoyorbusness I agree. It's hard to make a sun on the Earth's surface! I love the old names for some of the original fusion reactors: Perhapsatron, Maybeatron! This could take a while!
@@nonoyorbusness That is correct. Helion is not using Nature's Clean Energy approach to plasma fusion. Hence, why Helion can not sustain their plasma fusion. There is another way!
More information on their capacitors would be interesting. I wonder what design software and PDM they're using.
Wow these guys the only ones DOING IT RIGHT! Stuff I've imagined 25 years ago! Things always takes time..... Unfortunately some could die. Thanks for scientists that couldn't be here to make it!
there are dozen of other private companies that says that they found the holly grail of nuclear fusion. Helion has very similar concept to others. There is even one company that want to make nuclear fusion by hydraulic press...
Oh, my... this is beautiful!
What I like about helion is they already have a way to harvest energy from the fusion reaction. I know for typical fusion reactor designs the goal would be to boil water, but that seems a lot easier for a fission reactor where you can use conduction with the reactor fuel. The plasma being suspended seems inherently more difficult to extract thermal energy from. To me it now seems like an unnecessary step like using a wind turbine to build water first or using sunlight to boil water for a steam engine (though a stirling engine might technically be more efficient than PV). It just seems like something that is simpler and would be more efficient. And the fact that the reaction they use only produces energy and charged particles and not neutrons just makes it so much cooler that they don't need to extract energy from a chargeless particle. It seems to me that in theory this method would be the most efficient fusion reactor possible. As an electrical engineer I may be biased, but its so cool being able to divert much of the mechanical problems into electrical ones (though thats not to say there aren't plenty of mechanical problems to solve with this design).
Their reaction DOES produce neutrons, they just don't mention it. H2 + He3 is aneutronic, but H2 + H2 -> H3 + H1 and H2 + H3 -> He4 + N . All of the research reactors are trying to raise Qplasma as much as possible, and experimenting with containment and tritium breeding. Things that must be solved before trying to even design a Fusion power plant.
also the magnetic coil in ITER are in the WAY and cannot be removed!
While they may have decided how they want to take energy out of the system once they achieve fusion, they haven't achieved fusion yet. If their plasma gains 1MJ of energy per pulse, I predict that "regen-braking" the extra energy out of the plasma as it is being ejected from the reaction zone at relativistic speeds is going to cause problems with turbulent plasma flow such as hitting the walls. Also, 0.1Hz firing rate? That sounds like an awful long time to hold plasma between pulses in something that looks like it wants to be a ~1MHz resonator.
@@teardowndan5364 They don't hold the plasma between pulses. Each cycle starts with the creation of two brand new FRC plasma "donuts", and end with the total evacuation of the reaction chamber.
@@ayybe7894 The Tritium side reactions are greatly reduced because the Tritons are too hot and non- collisional on the timescale of the pulse (
Can't wait to hear more on their progress and schedule. When do they expect to deliver a Q>1?
You can hold onto your horses, it’s not likely to actually produce more power than it consumes, let alone become commercially viable. The problem with fusion is that you either go big or go home.
They will never produce Q-plasma > 1 never mind Q-total >1, the whole thing looks like a gullible investor scam if I'm honest. Their approach would produce high energy neutrons and they don't have any shielding so again it all looks like a scam.
@robertbelongia6887 Helion has declared they think the machine in construction presently, Polaris, will be able to reach Q(wall-plug)>1 (although barely) next year. Q(wall-plug)>1 means the device gives back more electricity that it took initially. Not exactly the same a Q(science)>1 like (what NIF achieved last year) but related.
@@cezarcatalin1406it has already been done but tax payers having free energy isn’t very profitable. if you do the math it isnt very business orientated to release it to the public. underground military type dark projects are working 24/7 on technology that we wont see for another 100 years. it’s been that way for centuries. there were cars that ran on hemp and water but they aren’t released to the public for some weird reason, im not sure why they could be, hmmmm. could you help me with that? im not sure if it was withheld for our safety, because our safety is #1 priority, that’s why.
@@charliem6590 Towards the end of next year, from what I know, give or take a few months, probably... Still not a long wait.
This is the most promising approach to fusion I have seen.
WOW and then some!!! Compressing plasma to obtain results. The forth state of mater makes the elements vulnerable to change. Very good video.
Mastering this tech has the potential to solve so many of society's problems. I'm happy to see so many teams with so many different ideas all working on this at the same time. It gives me some level of hope for the future.
It will be weaponized/politicized and used to exploit humanity, I'm very sure
Not really. Most approaches currently being pursued for fusion derived electricity are more complicated than existing fission based electric power plant systems. Consequently, one should expect fusion derived electricity to be more expensive than existing fission based electricity. Rather critically, it needs to be pointed out that solar photovoltaic panels and wind turbine derived electricity has gotten very cheap in the last 15 years, so much so, that it is now considerably cheaper than fission based electricity production. Rechargeable batteries based on lithium iron phosphate chemistry have also gotten quite cheap, and even when added to the cost of the electricity from solar panels and wind turbines, the resulting overall output electricity is still cheaper than fission derived energy. In other words, for use on earth, it makes more sense to build solar photovoltaic, plus wind turbine, plus rechargeable battery based energy generation infrastructure, than fission powerplants. Additionally, since future fusion powerplant designs are likely to produce electricity more expensive than existing fission power plants, solar photovoltaic panels, wind turbines, and rechargeable batteries are still likely to be considerably superior, at least when deployed on the earth. That said, fusion energy, potentially including a design like that which Helion energy is pursuing, is potentially very valuable for use on planets and on space craft farther from the sun, than the orbit of the earth. Solar energy production potential is "okay" on Mars, but it is quite poor at the orbit of Jupiter and beyond. Consequently, fusion energy is a valuable technology for the future of humanity, but one should not expect it to actually solve any real problems on the earth. There is no current shortage of energy supply on the earth, and the earth gets plenty of solar insolation for solar power to become a truly dominant energy source for earth based human society. The current problems of human society on the earth, are not due to lack of technology. Humanity already has adequately good technology to greatly improve the standards of living of everyone on the earth, if deployed in an appropriate manner. The low average standards of living on the earth are due to lack of deployment of renewable energy, combined with a need for major increases in mining and manufacturing activity, based on the renewable energy. Monetary policies must also be adapted to ensure that factories and mines are never left in an idle or underutilized state. Wealth comes from factories and mines. Most of the problems of humanity are related to inadequate total wealth availability. These problems can be readily resolved, through increasing wealth substantially, by way of dramatically increased renewable energy production, dramatically increased industrial production, and associated increases in mining output. Eventually, increased use of recycling would also become necessary, but this primarily only becomes relevant, when the earth is close to depletion of one or more existing elements, which it currently is not. The problems holding back humanity today, are not technological, but rather, are one of mismanagement by the current figures with political and economic power. Most of the figures currently in charge of earth's economic and political systems lack vision for the future. In general, they do not understand how to build a future that is better than the past, through better utilization of existing earth technologies. However, the problem is not simply one of understanding. Many of the figures in charge of earth's economic and political systems also have no personal interest or motivation to make the future better than the past. Many such individuals are already wealthy, and they do not understand what economic hardship and personal limitations feel like. Consequently, even if they had the know-how to do so, they would still have little motivation to make the necessary changes to the existing earth systems, in part because they commonly do not perceive that there are any major problems with the existing systems. If hypothetically someone was to take away their money, their power, and their freedom, then they would begin to realize that there are in fact problems with the existing earth economic and political systems. However, in that scenario, they would no longer have any power left to be able to make any changes to actually try to fix the problems. To fix these problems, major shifts in thinking must take place within society. New technology is not humanity's "savior". New technologies offer increased flexibility and sometimes new capabilities, but they are not actually needed at this time, since lack of technology is not the root cause of the vast majority of the existing earth problems.
I want my breeder reactors@@Fritz_Schlunder
There's one problem I have noticed with this design, It's too simple: the basic principal that it uses of firing two plasma torroids at each other has been well understood for a good while now, but none of the labs that did it in the 80's are even bothering with plasma in their fusion reactors now. Upon further examination it's because the plasma being produced isn't sufficiently charged to get energy from through magnets alone.
No one else has bothered to do it because they know it won't work. Heliion design is No better than Rossi's e-Cat (fake cold fusion).
@@guytech7310LOL. No.
@@scottslotterbeck3796 You'll see. Its just fraud & a scam.
I bloody well hope this works out! Exciting stuff!
how did you get through to the lab with all those guns? Nice tech , super interesting and delivered well enough that I can follow, thank you.
I’m skeptically optimistic about Helion. I think what they’re doing is amazing but I can’t get over the fact that they never address the issue of unintended D-T reactions caused by side reactions that generate T and then allow D-T fusion. I’m sure the neutron level is a fraction of what normal D-T’s have but it’s still slightly radioactive and neutrons are no joke. However, it DOES seem like this may have influenced some changes in past designs I see. Iirc, they used to just take the electrons from the D-H3 reaction and allow them to drive their own current. With the new approach, it seems like that might be reducing the efficiency losses due to the side reactions (since D-T doesn’t produce e- iirc). Still would like to hear how they’re planning to solve/address side reactions tho. Overall, awesome video
The Tritons produced by D-D reactions are too hot and non- collisional on the time scale of the pulse (
Video to watch to balance opinions on Helion feasibility: kzhead.info/sun/ZtqOgMyrfaGknK8/bejne.html
Beat me to it!
Sad to see another well-meaning but uninformed KZheadr being preyed on by yet another VC startup peddling snake oil. I'd hoped to see the last of Helion on SciTube channels after this debunk, but here we are again 🙃
I was sitting the whole video with a confusion on my face. I knew there was something fishy about them, they just don't give off a vibe like they know what they are doing
It is not a very good video, though. Most of the points are nonsense because they are based on insufficient information.
Was thinking the same thing, this video feels like one big Helion ad
This is so exciting! Thank you!
Thank you Plasma Channel Team:)
While I like your channel, this video goes so far away from your usual content. @PlasmaChannel You are sponsoring a very likely snake oil startup. Their setup, at the temperatures they announce (100M K) is likely 1000 times less reactive than any D-T reactor running at 300M K. If they were at 300M K instead of 100M, it would be still 50 times less reactive. On another note, they claim their "reactor" produces no neutrons in the process. While, I'd like to point out, at thermonuclear temperatures, pairs of deuterium atoms will also fuse together yielding an 3He atom and a neutron. I see no barrier around the reactor to stop such neutrons. I would like to point you to this video, which explains the flaws far better than I could have done here. kzhead.info/sun/ZtqOgMyrfaGknK8/bejne.html
That is nonsense and quite frankly the IM video is pretty dumb since he did not understand the concept at all.
This looks a great way to sidestep the containment problem, and issues other Fusion designs have. What is their timeline to break even?
It's not a breakeven goal so much as it is a "how long can we keep building cool sci-fi stuff until our investors get impatient and we need to dissolve the company?" goal That's mainly because the issues of confinement time, plasma density, and sustained temperature haven't been sidestepped, they've just been ignored. They're only heating their low density plasma to 100 million C for a few microseconds, whereas ITER is attempting to reach 150 million C for minutes or hours, and ITER is expected to probably just break even thermally. I can't say this enough: fusion is possible in theory but is very technically difficult, and very far away from being economical. But it's a buzzword right now so a few companies are cashing in on the hype and paying some youtubers to cover them. If you're interested in viable commercial nuclear energy, I'd guide you to the numerous clunky, old and imperfect nuclear reactors currently powering millions of homes; there is a candidate for technological upgrade that is actually feasible
Next year. Not just net plasma energy but net electricity vs the energy directly delivered to the plasma 2024 may see their competitor Zap reach a similar milestone as well as an energy drilling geothermal company Quaise using a fusion heater to go a mile deep. Whether they succeed or fail, the fusion experiment parade begins next year, NIF was just the beginning!
@@Canucklug .. what? Geothermal fusion drilling? What are you talking about? And where is this 2024 goal stated exactly because Helion hasn't committed to that
@@Spencergolde Helion has mentioned 2024 for the electricity recapture demonstration often, the geothermal company is called Quaise Energy
@Canucklug Okay, so can I ask you why you believe these.. let's just say less thought out and tested, companies would be ready to present net positive power next year? Much more sound and collaborative fusion research efforts, from say ITER or the NIF, do not make anywhere near such claims
Love - when people tell you that's impossible: you are now a pioneer.
Thank you Helion plasma fusion team:)
Dude I’m a huge fan of helion’s idea. So excited you’re talking to them! Everything I’ve seen from their ceo is he seems pretty genuine
The fact they are trying to capture energy directly instead of relying just on steam generation is what really draws me to the design.
It is important for people to try to inovate, but helion's idea have an huge drawback. Helium have two protons, so twice the the repulsion to the approach of the hydrogen's proton, even in stars helium only fusion in old and really dense stars. I understand that the CEO is a sellsman too. who needs to attract investors for their experiment, so in this video they didn't want to be clear about this issue
Refreshing to see a team working for a positive future instead of all this 'gloom and doom' reporting nowdays. Best wishes and success to you all :)
Give them a medal for reporting company propaganda.
All the good news gets overshadowed by bad news because bad news spreads faster.
Last time I checked helium 3 is extremely rare on earth. It's kind of why we don't have fusion reactors coming online back in the 80s or earlier because everybody knows about it who works on fusion but there isn't enough here. The moon is baked with it I here and you could get some off of gas giants. You might even be able to synthesize it at cost in fission reactors or particle accelerators. But we don't have enough here on the blue marble.
They fuse Deuterium to make Helium3.
Ive seen this company and heard all about them on another youtube channel, i still watched this video because this tech is awe inspiring.
This is amazing 🤩
How did they address the two types of deuterium-deuterium fusion reaction that release neutrons and gamma ray, which eventually makes the equipment radio active and kills everyone in the room?
They explained it at 8:02... were you even paying attention?
@@Dinnye01 Thanks for the pointer, but that only explains they are expecting deuterium-helium reaction to happen which emits protons. But in such a hot mix of plasma, deuterium-deuterium fusion reaction is inevitable. It seems they don't have a meter of lead wall surrounding their machine. So either this is a test chamber and no fusion is actually happening, or something else.
@@generaldronesLead is useful for shielding against X-rays, not neutrons. For neutrons lighter elements are much better, like hydrogen (that's why so many nuclear fission reactors use water), or boron. Borated concrete is popular for this use, as are some plastics. In any case, once build this machine will be set in a chamber sorrounded be these kind of materials.
Man seeing this stuff really gets me going
Man you actually explained this so well. I had watched a few other things about Helion energy before but I didn't fully understand what made their design so unique until I watched this. I like that you focused on how having no moving parts and being all solid-state can greatly reduce expenses and maintenance costs. I think I didn't fully get that before, but you made it straight forward and easy to understand why they're doing this. Thanks!
I had a similar conversation with a detractor of this technology. I had to break it down to the most basic forms to get my point across. I don't have any nuclear physics criteria behind my name but I don't need it to see the obvious. All forms of generating electricity except solar, and hydro, use the same basic concept: generating a motive force to move a conductor through a magnetic field. That motive force is most often steam, produced by heating water which turns turbines to introduce either a moving conductor through a static magnetic field or a static conductor through a changing magnetic field. This applies to every electrical power plant we have from fossil fuel, to geothermal to fission and will even be used with some of the fusion plants. So you have a 3 step process. You heat water to produce steam (change of state). You utilize steam pressure to turn a turbine (mechanical force) and you harvest the electricity from the induced current. At each step, you are losing potential energy. You are also generating waste and producing the need for maintenance of components. If you can remove or reduce any of the intervening steps, you will increase the overall efficiency. That's just a simple observation. The human body, possibly the most efficient machine we've ever tested, is only just over 55% efficient and it owes some of that efficiency to reclaiming and utilizing its own 'waste heat'. Most machines are terribly inefficient. So even if the D-Tr reaction produces 2X the energy of D-He3, if you are losing 50% of that energy to heat water, 20% to move a turbine and 5% to induce a current; if you skip the first 2 steps and just induce a current, you are way ahead of the game.
Great Video, they're doing good work; it'll be nice to see what they achieve in 20 years.
Bro this was uploaded mere minutes ago how were you able to comment 14 hours ago
@@ekisdee2546 Patreon early view.
Spoiler alert, the same what humanity have achieved in fusion 50 years ago. Same old ideas just being regurgitated over and over again. We're better off using fusion bombs in an underground chamber to make heat for power generation.
@@recramorcenlemniscate7945 oh i see
@@PrinceAlhorian I don't disagree. Nukes can be scaled down these days too.
I’ve always wondered if it’s possible to create a FRC electrostatically using a geoflux-shaped coil.
it is not.. not one strong enough to hols plasma at this small of a scale. this is a very elaborate scam.
@@zool201975 According to what specific calculations? Got a formula that you’re using to call Helion a scam or just commenting for the fun of it?
first time i can understand how Nuclear reactor works!!! thank you for the video
Nice showcase but a lack of hard facts. I dunno what I'm supposed to think after this. I mean its normal that a private company won't release any numbers on their prototypes, but without numbers they're just promises.
Reactor walls don't like a lot of heat over an extended period of time, I get that. But most materials don't like rapid temperature changes 6+ times per minute either, so how does Helios handle this problem? And optaining Helium-3 is actually not that easy. You can either create it using a fission reactor or use the 3000t of He3 in our atmosphere, which doesn't sound that much when thinking about global energy generation for the next decades. And you still have to get it from the atmosphere in great ammounts. What are Helions ideas for that?
They do consider heat to be a challenge while it's much much easier than some other fusion devices for their fuel. Their reactors can fuse D-D which creates He3 as well as tritium which can be sold or held as it actually decays into He3 over time
Pointless since the reactor will never fuse He3. All of the D will undergo D-D fusion before any D-He3 happens. D-D requires 1/3 of the temperture as D-He3. Nature always chooses the easier path. That said Helions reactor will not work as they have a lot of major problems not addressed such as the Plasma scattering problem. They get very little fusion reactors for the amount of energy used. Its Dead on Arrival
Thank you! This video is inspiring
This is so brilliant!
Why does this sound like techbro cheerleading like we heard Elon do regarding HypeLoop? All I'm hearing is technobabble intended to impress VCs ignorant of plasma physics throwing money around to see what sticks. Where's all the HypeLoops we were promised??? Physics is a cruel mistress. Don't tell me how it's going to work -- show me it working AT SCALE.
Wait 50 years, then another 50 years.
they have shown it working at scale with their previous prototype reactors, the direct electromagnetic energy conversion means they only need a fusion efficiency of 6% or higher to make net energy, as opposed to the 71% or higher tokamak fusion reactors like ITER need due to carnot efficiency of turbines. we have had reactors capable of higher than 6% efficiency since the early days of fusion around the 1970s.
Helion works extremely well. At making them money. They keep promising things and then delaying them, year after year. And people keep giving them money! How great is that?! That's some amazing technology right there. Not at producing fusion, but at getting money from gullible people.
first of I like your show. interesting topics . After waiting and waiting for fusion. (always 20 years away) I think the this is pointless. The money used is wasted. We have a free fusion reactor in the sky. Just think if we had spent that money on solar, wind and battery. Think after they have finished building that fusion reactor and if it works and that's a big if! to pay off that cost makes the electricity overpriced compared to solar and wind. With all the cost overruns, just like nuclear reactors. I feel this is just a way of taxing people out of there money. Just follow the money...
wind, solar, really lack density, and really aren't a stable power source, nuclear is the way.
Nuclear reactors are delayed due to NRC nuclear regulatory commission that made a typical build out from 5yrs to 25-30.
Love the BEMF capture idea!
Excellent approach and very good explanation for us mortals. wish you the best
It's a lot easier to just do it the same way the Sun does it. Take a look at the SAFIRE project using what is basically a glorified terrella.
The sun uses gravity and billions of times the mass of earth to overcome the charge. It also relies on low probability reactions at this point in its life. "Just do that" sure.
Without the solar mass of the sun and the subsequent gravitational forces to exploit, that will be far-fetched at best.
@@bort6414 kzhead.info/sun/qbOvYb16qYafZXk/bejne.html
"same way the Sun does it" by gravitationally collapsing everything until it pushes back?
I interviewed twice for a job here. In the end the job I accepted was Aerojet Rockodyne to work on the Artemis program
Electricity flows on the outside of the wire. The trick to energy conservation is to use copper tubing on the coils so that a coolant can be pumped through to reduce heat loss.
Thanks for the video! The world needs this ASAP. Direct energy transfer cuts out so much inefficiency from the power generation cycle, if this works you can bet it will be on an interplanetary Space X ship.
I did a presentation on helion for my 9th grade science class! So cool you got to go to their facility!