An Exotic Approach to Nuclear Fusion (Helion Energy BTS)

[@HelionEnergy]

It was awesome to have you here, Jay. ⚡ Thanks for geeking out with us over high voltage capacitors, electromagnets, and fusion!

[@PlasmaChannel]

It was an honor to see the work you folks are doing.

[@miclowgunman1987]

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.

[@jimmyhackers8980]

im waiting for what thunderfoot has to say :)

[@ayybe7894]

@@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?

[@Christian-lh7ux]

​​@@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

[@frank-mg3bx]

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

[@StoneKathryn]

I was thinking something similar. Kind of like back pressure from an engine to slow it down too.

[@riotcelestian4587]

Yes, exactly.

[@daveprice74]

yes and traditional reactors like ITER are literally steam engines -- you need them burning continously but you don't want your gas engine on fire, you want the fuel to explode in the combustion chamber similarly in Polaris (ideally) the MeV charged products produced in the ~20KeV (I'm guessing) plasma heating from the initial pulse energy will further heat the fuel ions to something even more useful like (say) 50KeV and quickly use them up like the explosion in the combustion chamber, this reaction is fast (less than 10ms) and doesn't require ignition which is good because ignited fusing plasmas mostly heat the electrons, which radiate brem

[@YodaWhat]

@@daveprice74 Yes, hot plasmas radiate a LOT of energy due to *bremstrahlung* (literally, "braking radiation") that comes mostly from electrons crashing into heavier particles like protons, deuterons, etc. The resulting x-rays and gamma rays carry away a LOT of energy, which thereby _cools the plasma._ As for the duration of these fusion pulses, I expect them to be less than ONE millisecond long, with the main energy output happening in just a few microseconds.

[@ganweidi1382]

So, its a plasma electromegnetic engine

[@enlightendbel]

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.

[@chrizzlybearlol]

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…

[@techattack]

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

[@toosas]

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

[@TlalocTemporal]

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.

[@neomdye]

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 posible. 14:14 hä also im ernst was soll denn das darstellen so ein schrott ich hau mich weg🤣

[@harvey195]

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!

[@Architect172]

Fussion is cutting edge tech *laughs in November, 1, 1952 *

[@connerwiseman4876]

Easy there Ivey

[@Sciurus]

If you think the governments of the UN security council havent had 50q+ compact fusion reactors since the 60s, then you are delusional... they are just really good at keeping *important* military secrets. 😝

[@Verrisin]

it's just a very long edge

[@Verrisin]

just like NNN - omg, what an out of place and horrible joke of me, but I just could not help myself XD

[@chrise8720]

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!

[@Aurumk1]

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.

[@kayakMike1000]

That's cool man. They probably need lots of weird parts for their vacuum chamber...

[@yeyuan6273]

We call it fraud, to be frankly......

[@chrise8720]

@@yeyuan6273 what?

[@jannehokkanen8175]

@@yeyuan6273 of course it is a fraud. They need these videos by believers to keep funding going on.

[@TheIllya]

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.

[@beelzebub3920]

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

[@StoneKathryn]

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!

[@Bob_Adkins]

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.

[@kingmasterlord]

everything in our society is a ham fisted half-assed primitive first attempt. profit motive has made us centuries behind where we could be

[@Dynoids]

​@@StoneKathrynits just because energy capture is pretty difficult.

[@MusicInUniverse]

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.

[@Canucklug]

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

[@charlesreid9337]

as i understand it there is no way to accomplish fusion without creating neutrons

[@Canucklug]

@@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

[@MusicInUniverse]

@@Canucklug I know but they should have taken 30 seconds (in the already too short video) to explain that.

[@guytech7310]

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.

[@ModernVintage33]

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

[@andrewparker318]

Oh shit I had no idea this was a plasma channel video because you changed your channel logo lol. Been ignoring this video for over week a week now even though KZbin kept recommending it to me, I had no idea it was a plasma channel video lol

[@catabasian]

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.

[@paulroberto2286]

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.

[@animal579]

So y'all watched two videos and think you have a better outcome synopsis than dozens of fusion researchers and financial analysts at Microsoft?

[@Spencergolde]

@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

[@catabasian]

@@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.

[@ihydf]

@@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.

[@user-yq7hd9wg5o]

I’d suggest watching Improbable Matter’s video on Helion before you drink the Helion koolaid

[@Ryukachoo]

Note: helion is under a lot of scrutiny by nuclear engineers and this recent bout of KZbin videos are essentially advertising to get their bame out and hopefully get more funding Im a little suspicious

[@elmarmoelzer2229]

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.

[@guytech7310]

@@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.

[@Ryukachoo]

Improbable matter did a pretty damning teardown of their entire setup

[@elmarmoelzer2229]

@@Ryukachoo He did not. He showed a complete lack of understanding of their concept.

[@charliem6590]

@@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.

[@profwaldone]

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.

[@felixmcphie]

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.

[@gorkskoal9315]

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.

[@vilefly]

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."

[@Spencergolde]

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

[@jonathanlehmann2059]

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.

[@charliem6590]

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.

[@guytech7310]

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.

[@jonathanlehmann2059]

@@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?

[@charliem6590]

@@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.

[@nuklearwanze]

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...).

[@d4rk0v3]

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 KZbin, go look up their published results.

[@jonathanlehmann2059]

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).

[@guytech7310]

@@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.

[@nuklearwanze]

@@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)

[@tiefensucht]

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?

[@johnpublicprofile6261]

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.

[@mhvenom80]

That's what I thought too. Looks like the warp core from star trek tng enterprise D. It pulses too.

[@Canucklug]

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)

[@charlesreid9337]

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

[@KnightsWithoutATable]

@@charlesreid9337 You have no idea how true that is.

[@ScottieD369]

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!

[@thePavuk]

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...

[@fjore_starseer]

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.

[@DarklordWarlock]

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.

[@FalconWing1813]

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.

[@relientker]

also depending on the reaction style, its less wear on the entire system which means better longevity

[@monad_tcp]

@@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.

[@hockeyguy820]

@@monad_tcp: Except it apparently will produce plenty of neutrons if it ever becomes viable. Check out the KZbin video "The problems with Helion Energy - a response to Real Engineering" here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/aae4gZupe9Shn9k

[@RMX7777]

@@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.

[@charliem6590]

@@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.

[@markwatney1490]

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.

[@StoneKathryn]

I wonder about that too.

[@guytech7310]

Yup! You're way much smarter than Helion! You have to be brain dead to not figure that out.

[@Power_to_the_people567]

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

[@pirojfmifhghek566]

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.

[@luimackjohnson302]

Brilliant! Superb & Amazing! A Real Slice Of Genius Helion Energy BTS! I am blown away by this video & having some background in microwave radio in telecommunications & solar power & now retired & travel often between various villages. Just several weeks & months ago I was taking & educating some of our people in Kambaramba villages, Sepik River & Nubia village in Angoram & in Bogia Districts respectfully of Papua New Guinea (a Third World country in the South Pacific Region) about better heat concentration & different methods of improving their basic open air firewood stoves out of discarded metal sheets & clay mud to utilize 1st & secondary burning using fresh heated air to assist the burning of firewood more efficiently and therefore using less firewood to cook their meals. I actually built a working model for our people to see 1st hand & experience the difference in cooking with less firewood. My talk also covered different heating systems & gave simple explanations like the heat from firewood when cooking in the villages on earth as compared to different heat generated from our nearest star our sun & the heat & light generated in the sun has to travel about 168 000 miles per second (close to 300 000 km per second) in a vacuum to reach earth & this heat & light travels in an electro- magnetic wave. I also tried to explain very basic fission & fusion in very simple terms for villagers to appreciate & gave examples of electric cookers, induction cookers they may see when they go into towns & cities and that mankind is yet to control the plasma generated using different methods. I tried to explain the use of electric induction motors for electric propulsion in: cars, boats, ships, drones, VTOLs & in electric airplanes & the use of electric hydrofoils in open seas is far more efficient compared to using mechanical 2 stroke or 4 stroke outboard motors as the ice (internal combustion engines) are only 35% efficient compared to electric induction motors are over 92% or more efficient. Thank you for sharing this video! As there is indeed some light at the end of the tunnel in the use of controlling the plasma generated using induction magnetic fields & hence once mastered mankind may produce unlimited power to feed the ever power hungry citizens of various countries.

[@BlaziNTrades]

This was awesome! Helion: please go public. We want shares!

[@plainText384]

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.

[@StoneKathryn]

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.

[@cajampa]

They don't it is just a scam.

[@elmarmoelzer2229]

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.

[@guytech7310]

@@elmarmoelzer2229 2.45 MeV are fast neutrons, and will activate any materials nearby. Its a scam as cajampa commeted.

[@Suppagappa]

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.

[@Hippida]

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.

[@Caribeancrysis]

The push-pull generation is such an elegant solution. Makes other tech look overcomplicated and inefficient.

[@mrhomely]

A very comprehensive explanation of exactly how this form of fusion works. Its truly amazing stuff.

[@mtpaley1]

Some obvious questions for Helion Where does the He3 come from? It is extremely rare. You will get many D+D side reactions which produce tritium and neutrons. Given that the reaction is pulsed what happens to the tritium as it probably wont have time to be burnt. What proportion of the energy output do you anticipate is collectable? What happens to all the heat that you cannot collect via your direct process? This is going to be substantial. What is the efficiency of reactions on each plasma collision? Just a gut feel without doing any sums but I suspect that most nuclei will pass through without fusing. How is the extremely valuable He3 extracted and resused? What percentage of fuel do you predict reacts on each toroid collision? How are the plasma toroids compressed down to a small and relatively dense size as they are accelerated? Plasma is notoriously hard to compress without instabilities, the sun does it via pulling which is stable but pushing is just asking for trouble. Calculating how two probably unstable toroids of plasma interact as they approach then pass through each other while emitting charged particles, gammas and neutrons as they do so other sounds like a very hard task. Have you attempted to simulate this?

[@mtpaley1]

Continuing my musings. Clearly the linear velocity of the plasma blobs is irrelevant so what it the thermal energy of nuclei in the blobs or does it rely on some non thermal distribution? I cant see any reason why it is not thermal. What is the bremsstrahlung emission of the H2,He3 nuclei and probably even more important from the electrons? What is the optical density of the plasma to the bremsstrahlung X rays? How good a vacuum is required in the chamber before the H2+He3 is introduced and ionised? How is this vacuum maintained after each pulse?

[@charliem6590]

@@mtpaley1 Helion does not publish much but they've given answers to some of those questions: 1. "Where does the He3 come from?" From D-D fusions; half the time that reaction gives one He3 (helium-3) nucleus, and the other half a H3 (tritium) nucleus. This may be done in the same machines used for producing electricity, or maybe in dedicated machines (at a small net energy loss). 2. "What happens to the tritium". It is extracted from the reactor after each cycle with every other byproduct and all unreacted fuel, then it is separated in an adjacent treatment section and stored, either for selling, of to wait for it to decay into He3 after a few years. 3. "What proportion of the energy output do you anticipate is collectable?" They have declared at least 90%, maybe as much as 95%. 4. "What happens to all the heat that you cannot collect via your direct process?". They plan to extract it from the reactor walls using traditional cooling circuits. Afterwards, at least for the first machines, they intend to simply dump it outside. 5. "What is the efficiency of reactions on each plasma collision?" Not sure what you mean with "efficiency" in this context, if you wonder how many encounters two ions have to suffer before one fusion, can't give you an answer but quite a lot. 😉 6. "How is the extremely valuable He3 extracted and resused?" See my previous answer number 2. 7. "How are the plasma toroids compressed down to a small and relatively dense size as they are accelerated?" By increasing the strength of the magnetic field around them. 8. "Have you attempted to simulate this?" Yes they have, and I understand that they still trying to perfect their simulations further. I hope it helps.

[@Jkesler85]

7:05 ok, so someone tell me if I am conceptualizing this correctly... This is basically a cylinder for a type of fusion 2-stroke engine, right? Except that the piston/drive rod/doo-hickeys are now magnet doo-hickeys. Right?

[@AbdulBido]

Nice analogy.. I guess two opposed cylinders would be more correct.. And like diesel.. It's set off by the pressure rather than a SP with gasoline. 👍🏻 I could be wrong..

[@CharlesGriswold]

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.

[@Coffreek]

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.

[@scottslotterbeck3796]

Except far more efficient.

[@Mindbulletz]

That's a really great analogy. The piston is instead the magnetic field.

[@Coffreek]

@@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.....

[@CharlesGriswold]

@@Coffreek So what your saying is that analogies are kind of like Wikipedia; over-used, overrated, and often inaccurate.

[@graysonsmith7031]

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).

[@ayybe7894]

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.

[@esecallum]

also the magnetic coil in ITER are in the WAY and cannot be removed!

[@teardowndan5364]

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.

[@charliem6590]

@@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.

[@elmarmoelzer2229]

@@ayybe7894 The Tritium side reactions are greatly reduced because the Tritons are too hot and non- collisional on the timescale of the pulse (

[@peetiegonzalez1845]

Incredible video, Jay. One of your best. But to be honest I'm surprised you didn't get demonetized, showing dem guns on screen.

[@glenmenas9424]

Please keep us updated on this company's progress. This is very exciting

[@bodiddly12]

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.

[@chupamishuevos303]

no is not because they using D-He3 as fuel which is less reactive. so no still less efficient

[@scipug3048]

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.

[@elmarmoelzer2229]

@@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.

[@charliem6590]

@@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.

[@scipug3048]

@@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.)

[@ThantiK]

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.

[@scottslotterbeck3796]

Izotope is the best solution and is perfect for a constant noise source

[@larryscarr3897]

Did you just try to sell monster cables?

[@MattNolanCustom]

Or just use better mic technique in the first place

[@plumpdolphin]

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!

[@nonoyorbusness]

Wait 50 years, then another 50 years.

[@DoubsGaming]

@@nonoyorbusness yeah yeah, everything knows the meme. Just stop and enjoy the science will ya.

[@nonoyorbusness]

@@DoubsGaming I'll Wait 50 years, then another 50 years!

[@StoneKathryn]

@@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!

[@quantumkineticscorporation]

@@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!

[@MrRolnicek]

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.

[@StoneKathryn]

That sounds about right. How do you control that reaction? Just a proton gun shot into plasma Boron fuel?

[@MrRolnicek]

@@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.

[@StoneKathryn]

@@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.

[@MrRolnicek]

@@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.

[@StoneKathryn]

@@MrRolnicek Are they doing this to "clean" up the waste then. Have the waste problems been "solved"?

[@Coffreek]

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.

[@Mellwehn]

This was so awesome, can't wait to see future developments and hope you get to document it for us, to partake.

[@ptrkmr]

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

[@elmarmoelzer2229]

The Tritons produced by D-D reactions are too hot and non- collisional on the time scale of the pulse (

[@magnetospin]

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.

[@karl0ssus1]

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.

[@waltertoki1]

Has Helion published any of their recent measurements in any refereed science journals? For example, NIF the laser facility at Lawrence Livermore Labs has published results of their laser fusion results in Physical Review Letters and Physical Review E. Apparently, there were 1000 authors on their paper describing their evidence of fusion ignition. More recently, NIF has replicated their results. Does the Fusion energy Sciences program from the Dept of Energy fund Helion? If so, has there been a review of the Helion claims?

[@elmarmoelzer2229]

They published them back in 2018. Those were reviewed by ARPA-E. Since then all of their machines and experiments have been fully privately funded and they are publishing some results but not all of them.

[@nathandfox]

How can they prevent Deuterium from reacting with another Deuterium? which makes the whole thing terribly radioactive?

[@WernerEngel1]

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

[@esahg5421]

skeptical on this solution for the same reasons.

[@philmorton4590]

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.

[@elmarmoelzer2229]

They make their own He3 by fusing Deuterium in the same machine.

[@iniqy]

@@elmarmoelzer2229 Fusing 2 deuterium atoms gives 4He doesn't it?

[@elmarmoelzer2229]

@@iniqy Nope. D-D => He3 + n OR D-D => Tritium + p Both reactions have an equal likelihood of happening. So, Helion will have to do two D-D reactions for every D-He3 reaction (until they have enough He3 from Tritium decay, which can take a while though).

[@iniqy]

@@elmarmoelzer2229 Thanks. Is there an official table somewhere that lists probabilities of fusion and fission reactions?

[@elmarmoelzer2229]

@@iniqy There is the general fusion cross section graphs. I would recommend Scott Hsu's and Sam Wurzel's "Progress toward fusion energy breakeven and gain as measured against the Lawson criterion" as a good primer on most things related to fusion.

[@oogahboogahman]

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.

[@guytech7310]

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).

[@scottslotterbeck3796]

​@@guytech7310LOL. No.

[@guytech7310]

@@scottslotterbeck3796 You'll see. Its just fraud & a scam.

[@alexanderglass2057]

So you seem like the type of guy who can actually inform me on what this self containing plasma is. Is it essentially a vortex ring like you do with a smoke cannon but this was produced magnetically? I mean rotating copper has an effect like an electromagnet especially when you put it near magnets, so it's the idea that a vortex tourus of plasma self contains because it has a magnetic field generating current through it because it's rotating, around the loop of the ring. Actually which direction are they having the vortex flow because with the smoke cannons the inside is blowing out to the outside and then rotating back into the inside? I'm thinking the direction of rotation would matter as far as what magnetic charge and pole you use to affect it. Something we could do with this tech is potentially figuring out how to do pulse fusion engines, have enough gas expand out of the collision out of one side to where that energy recoup is making everything net zero, for a sort of cruising or normal operation throttle level, what would be pushing the fuel out would be just having less resistance on the exhaust side. You would almost need another reactor, maybe a fission reactor, if you wanted to do a wep or full throttle mode where you're just dumping all the possible energy into thrust/exhaust speed. What would be interesting is if this pulse method could lead to a constant burning fusion torch where the fuel just gets compressed to fusion and then is released out of a nozzle that can either use all the speed and energy it has to recoup the compression or just focus the exhaust.

[@papato20]

first time i can understand how Nuclear reactor works!!! thank you for the video

[@goober-ll1wx]

Fusion is the industry thats overpromised and under-delivered for the past 50 years...

[@nonoyorbusness]

Wait 50 years, then another 50 years.

[@0113Naruto]

Luckily we have solar and fission for now.

[@timothysuhr7903]

More information on their capacitors would be interesting. I wonder what design software and PDM they're using.

[@reatcas]

It's an internal combustion engine on steroids. An internal fusion engine.

[@triadxtechnologies]

Helion is the one to watch. If I was to place bets, this would be where all my money would be placed...

[@RealPelekito]

what did you study? I would like to make things like these! : )

[@FigyNewton]

Awesome stuff, wish I knew a company like this existed before leaving school

[@chmchn]

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

[@NexGen-3D]

Great video, their approach is really interesting, I look forward to seeing how they progress.

[@SisavatManthong-yb1yn]

It's always complicated!🙀📡🌐 We're your laptop 💻 now Kitty's? There copying % to complete there planets! It's like 📡🦠👄

[@robertbelongia6887]

Can't wait to hear more on their progress and schedule. When do they expect to deliver a Q>1?

[@cezarcatalin1406]

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.

[@schrodingerscat1863]

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.

[@charliem6590]

@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.

[@dexterslab3]

@@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.

[@elmarmoelzer2229]

@@charliem6590 Towards the end of next year, from what I know, give or take a few months, probably... Still not a long wait.

[@johnslugger]

*Heat and PRESSURE are needed! They are all missing the 3800 Bars of Pressure which are the same as a gun barrel!*

[@JSDudeca]

Please look into Copenhagen Atomics. They are currently leading the space in Throrium MSR reactors including small research test reactors for Universities.

[@FirstLast-vr7es]

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.

[@OverAndOverAndOver]

It will be weaponized/politicized and used to exploit humanity, I'm very sure

[@Fritz_Schlunder]

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.

[@averagelithuanian]

I want my breeder reactors@@Fritz_Schlunder

[@Sky6Knight]

Video to watch to balance opinions on Helion feasibility: kzbin.info/www/bejne/aae4gZupe9Shn9k

[@TheDemolitionMonk]

Beat me to it!

[@jimbobur]

Sad to see another well-meaning but uninformed KZbinr 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 🙃

[@MsDimalo]

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

[@elmarmoelzer2229]

It is not a very good video, though. Most of the points are nonsense because they are based on insufficient information.

[@dalirkosimov4623]

Was thinking the same thing, this video feels like one big Helion ad

[@Kyedo2022]

I have done a ton of research into various topologies, This is the one that hold the MOST potential.

[@xanderjames8682]

Fr! Nice pun too

[@ManyHeavens42]

the trick to any motor is finding Neutral.high,/low point,this is the future of the flux capacitor, are we there yet.😢

[@shazmunchdylbertoid]

ok, I get why no one talks about them because they have all the hallmarks of crackpottery, but I've loved watching the amateurish progress of lpp fusion with their z pinch device. i don't believe they will win the fusion race but it's kind of the small scale plasma fusion device you'd probably enjoy reading about. to be clear they are very fringe but it's fun watching the device and experiments over time.. you should check it out just for the plasma.

[@guytech7310]

Yup Super-duper Crackpottery. They don't have a clue. no different tha Safire guys who thought vacuum-plasma sputtering was fusion!

[@cammccauley]

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

[@gdheib0430]

The fact they are trying to capture energy directly instead of relying just on steam generation is what really draws me to the design.

[@ShakaZoulou77]

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

[@paprika1716]

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.

[@zenzen9131]

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 :)

[@stl1321]

Give them a medal for reporting company propaganda.

[@theepicbruhman2254]

All the good news gets overshadowed by bad news because bad news spreads faster.

[@MrDj232]

So many cool fusion updates the past couple years. I think fusion is no longer permanently 30 years away.

[@LINKedup101]

It would be really cool of you did a video on the Focus Fusion project by Lawrenceville Plasma Physics in New Jersey, their eventual goal is pB11 fusion which is totally aneutronic thus no radioactive waste after the fact

[@elmarmoelzer2229]

LPPX has been working on the same thing for many, many years. I even donated to them, but they are not any closer now than they were back when I did. Helion won't have any radioactive waste either. D-D reactions produce neutrons but if you choose your materials right (which Helion is doing), then you have very short decay- chains. The entire machine would be below background radiation levels after a year (even after many years of operation) and it would be possible to fully decommission it without any risk to workers after a mere two weeks.

[@Alexander_Sannikov]

this is just so misleading that they're even talking about extracting energy from the reaction at the stage when nobody can even produce a reaction that yields more energy than was put into it. and by pretending to be solving the next problem (extraction on energy) they make it look like the current problem is not a big deal and they pretend it's already solved (which it most definitely is not).

[@Mjoll87]

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. kzbin.info/www/bejne/aae4gZupe9Shn9k

[@elmarmoelzer2229]

That is nonsense and quite frankly the IM video is pretty dumb since he did not understand the concept at all.

[@lohphat]

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.

[@nonoyorbusness]

Wait 50 years, then another 50 years.

[@infinitech_industries]

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.

[@LordDragox412]

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.

[@Argyle117]

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.

[@krynosisdreamer1421]

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!

[@Ratlins9]

I’m certainly not well versed in physics but hopeful that nuclear fusion will be attainable in the not so far off future. The world has an insatiable appetite for energy and fusion will go a long way in preventing war, at least based on energy needs.

[@610-OM]

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.

[@elmarmoelzer2229]

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.

[@KeithSkates]

I can't wait to see where this tech is in 10 years time. It's already at such an incredible pace.

[@LTrotsky21stCentury]

Within 10 years, the plant will be a radioactive wasteland covered in burned and melted items.

[@BetzalelMC]

Finally a fusion/power company that does Not rely on Victorian era steam turbine but rather harnesses power directly, skipping two middle men (neutron & the water/hps [high pressure steam] energy capture) ; I agree absolutely brilliant (& finally)!

[@YellowRambler]

There’s actually a few projects in this area, the one I like the best is called Focus Fusion, it’s one of the older aneutronic fusion projects that been under funded, but is far more simple in design. The fuel is a highly abundant hydrogen and boron.

[@YellowRambler]

There’s actually a few projects in this area, the one I like the best is called Focus Fusion, it’s one of the older aneutronic fusion projects that been under funded, but is far more simple in design. The fuel is a highly abundant hydrogen and boron.

[@YellowRambler]

There’s actually a few projects in this area, the one I like the best is called Focus Fusion, it’s one of the older aneutronic fusion projects that been under funded, but is far more simple in design. The fuel is a highly abundant hydrogen and boron.

[@SixStringShredder]

I remember hearing about this about 2 years ago, it’s really cool to see actual working prototypes instead of concepts and talk 🙃

[@M.C.Escher2018]

Love - when people tell you that's impossible: you are now a pioneer.

[@samcerulean1412]

Would You please consider looking at LPP Fusion. They are criminally underreported and also underfunded. They deserve some recognition.

[@KillbarrackShoppingCentre]

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.

[@among-us-99999]

The problem with D+He3 as I understand it is the D+D side reactions?

[@mitchellwilley7208]

Ive seen this company and heard all about them on another youtube channel, i still watched this video because this tech is awe inspiring.

[@The_Oddity]

I did a presentation on helion for my 9th grade science class! So cool you got to go to their facility!

[@jbreezy3146]

This video is mind numbing good im sitting here like a sponge getting it all in. Excellent!

[@williwonti]

Finally! Usable fusion reactors are now only a constant 15 years away instead of 20!

[@guytech7310]

LOL! with Helion make that 2 Billion years away. Dead on Arrival, This is a board-line scam, as they made so many simple technical errors its unbelievable they are that stupid.

[@MarMonkey2606]

i've seen fantasy settings tackle this kind of stuff before, they did it by just " unziping an atom" and passing the energy through a conversion spell sphere, even with a multi-layered containment and conversion barrier it produced enough energy from just air particles to create an intolerably bright pin-prick of light, AND animate an ENTIRE MOUNTAIN made of stone

[@naiboz]

Easily my favourite fusion project ❤

[@brentlidstone1982]

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!

[@malachiXX]

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.

[@jerrylumpkins1259]

I love how efficiently the energy is captured. Directly capturing the charged particles and the expansion kinetic energy?

[@reinheitsgebot490]

8:40 It's fascinating but I am curious if the net output would also exceed the production, refinement and transport of the He3. I'm afraid I have no idea how that fuel is produced or extracted, so I'm not even sure that's a valid concern.

[@elmarmoelzer2229]

He3 is produced in the same machine (or a separate machine of the same or similar design) by fusing Deuterium. D+D => He3 + n or D+D => T + p (the Tritium eventually decays into more He3). The D-D reactions by themselves are probably just about breaking even. But the D-He3 reactions release so much more energy that it does not matter.

[@hassantqatqa6165]

So now that's new thing on KZbin love it ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

[@M19pickles]

Did I miss the part where they said what the net energy gain of any of the tests so far have been? Or what gain they are expecting at any future point in their plan.

[@elmarmoelzer2229]

Helion has not published detailed results of Trenta yet, but they did publish them for the much smaller predecessor, Venti. Venti achieved 10^11 neutrons/pulse and a triple product of 10^19 kev s /m3. Trenta is 3 times the radius of Venti (and has other improvements). Gain scales at rs^2.1. There are some other things that help them massively, like the ratio of ion- to electron- temperature. So, you can do your own guess where Trenta is. My personal estimate puts it above JET, potentially even pretty close to D-T break even. Polaris is supposed to demonstrate net electricity from fusion around the end of 2024.

[@M19pickles]

@@elmarmoelzer2229 That doesn't answer my question. Or my physics level isn't high enough to understand it. I was looking for something like they used X kWh to produce y kWh. Maybe add in how much helion they used as fuel to produce it.

[@elmarmoelzer2229]

@@M19pickles Trenta was a subscale prototype (it was very cheap). It did not produce electricity as it did not have the equipment for it. Polaris is supposed to demonstrate that towards the end of 2024. Then you will get kWh in vs kWh out.

[@M19pickles]

@@elmarmoelzer2229 Thanks. At this point is there any proof that their method of gathering power using the electromagnets described in this video will work?

[@spearsboy4]

So many questions. Is energy out purely inductive? What about photons? pressure waves from thermal expansion? etc. I'm NOT a physicist, so forgive my ignorance, but to collect all the energy out would require multiple transducers as a means of collection, wouldn't it?

[@elmarmoelzer2229]

There are losses to neutrons, X-rays and simply particles leaving confinement. They are relatively minor, though. Most of the energy will be in the charged particles. One could try to capture the energy lost, but that would most likely require a heat engine which adds to the cost of the power plant is most likely not worth it.

[@AORD72]

Impressive. High hopes for this succeeding. Seems to be a way better design for electricity generation.

[@MozartificeR]

I am a layman in nuclear fusion terms. The way I see it is that there are two main philosophies. The first is heating the plasma up to a higher temperature, and then the theory is that you get fusion. This method is unproven. The second philosophy, has been proven. And that relies on imitating the gravity that happens in the sun. This is the one that achieve fusion ignition, which I consider to be proof of concept. Therefor fusion is now on the clock, as engineers go wild. I like NASAs fusion rocket that is to reach Saturn with in approximately a month or two:) I hope this captures the imagination of you scientists and engineers that becomes a warm fuzzy feeling inside about the layman. Resulting in simple but detailed content for the layman:)

[@Mattlon3]

always impressed with new fusion plans!

[@CZEError]

Oh, my... this is beautiful!

[@rev.donkbonkers3244]

Where's the part in which you disclose the input and output?