How Far Away is Fusion? Unlocking the Power of the Sun

The Sun uses its enormous mass to crush hydrogen into fusion, releasing enormous energy. How long will it be until we’ve got this energy source for Earth?
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Team: Fraser Cain - @fcain / [e-mail]
Karla Thompson - @karlaii
Chad Weber - [e-mail]
I’d like to think we’re smarter than the Sun.
Let’s compare and contrast. Humans, on the one hand, have made enormous advances in science and technology, built cities, cars, computers, and phones. We have split the atom for war and for energy.
What has the Sun done? It’s a massive ball of plasma, made up of mostly hydrogen and helium. It just, kind of, sits there. Every now and then it burps up hydrogen gas into a coronal mass ejection. It’s not a stretch to say that the Sun, and all inanimate material in the Universe, isn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer.
And yet, the Sun has mastered a form of energy that we just can’t seem to wrap our minds around: fusion. It’s really infuriating, seeing the Sun, just sitting there, effortlessly doing something our finest minds have struggled with for half a century.
Why can’t we make fusion work? How long until we can finally catch up technologically with a sphere of ionized gas?
The trick to the Sun’s ability to generate power through nuclear fusion, of course, comes from its enormous mass. The Sun contains 1.989 x 10^30 kilograms of mostly hydrogen and helium, and this mass pushes inward, creating a core heated to 15 million degrees C, with 150 times the density of water.
It’s at this core that the Sun does its work, mashing atoms of hydrogen into helium. This process of fusion is an exothermic reaction, which means that every time a new atom of helium is created, photons in the form of gamma radiation are also released.
The only thing the Sun uses this energy for is light pressure, to counteract the gravity pulling everything inward. Its photons slowly make their way up through the Sun and then they’re released into space. So wasteful.
How can we replicate this on Earth?
Now gathering together a Sun’s mass of hydrogen here on Earth is one option, but it’s really impractical. Where would we put all that hydrogen. The better solution will be to use our technology to simulate the conditions at the core of the Sun.
If we can make a fusion reactor where the temperatures and pressures are high enough for atoms of hydrogen to merge into helium, we can harness those sweet sweet photons of gamma radiation.
The main technology developed to do this is called a tokamak reactor; it’s a based on a Russian acronym for: “toroidal chamber with magnetic coils”, and the first prototypes were created in the 1960s. There are many different reactors in development, but the method is essentially the same.
A vacuum chamber is filled with hydrogen fuel. Then an enormous amount of electricity is run through the chamber, heating up the hydrogen into a plasma state. They might also use lasers and other methods to get the plasma up to 150 to 300 million degrees Celsius (10 to 20 times hotter than the Sun’s core).
Superconducting magnets surround the fusion chamber, containing the plasma and keeping it away from the chamber walls, which would melt otherwise.
Once the temperatures and pressures are high enough, atoms of hydrogen are crushed together into helium just like in the Sun. This releases photons which heat up the plasma, keeping the reaction going without any addition energy input.
Excess heat reaches the chamber walls, and can be extracted to do work.
The challenge has always been that heating up the chamber and constraining the plasma uses up more energy than gets produced in the reactor. We can make fusion work, we just haven’t been able to extract surplus energy from the system… yet.
Compared to other forms of energy production, fusion should be clean and safe. The fuel source is water, and the byproduct is helium (which the world is actually starting to run out of). If there’s a problem with the reactor, it would cool down and the fusion reaction would stop.
The high energy photons released in the fusion reaction will be a problem, however. They’ll stream into the surrounding fusion reactor and make the whole thing radioactive. The fusion chamber will be deadly for about 50 years, but its rapid half-life will make it as radioactive as coal ash after 500 years. Do you know coal ash is radioactive?

[@earthwizz]

How Far Away is Fusion? About 1 AU away.

[@frasercain]

Oh snap. You win this time.

[@earthwizz]

And delivered daily for free.

[@Jaxen90841]

Think I have heard of using something called thorium for nuclear power. Have you done a video on that yet? Thought thorium was considered a viable element for nuclear fission as early as the 1940s, but uranium was preferred because of its military uses. Think I also heard that a thorium reactor would only be dangerous for 300 years after a meltdown compared to centuries for uranium. Just think, the Three Mile Island core could be more than 10% on its way to being safe by now, rather than hundreds of years away.

[@fireofenergy]

We need to globalize solar (powerlines spanning the hemispheres and continents to maximize capacity factor necessary for better EROEI) if artificial intelligence "says" we can't develop fusion with enough such positive energy ratio for cheap enough...

[@neeneko]

Thorium is showing some promise, but it wasn't just shelved because of its lesser military applications. When it was first explored it had a lot of engineering issues that could not be easily solved at the time. It is worth revisiting since various related fields have advanced so it might be more viable today and that is exactly what is happening. However, as with all panaceas it has taken on a lot of pop mythology that paints it as better and more ready than it actually is and produces various bits of mythologies about why we do not already have it.

[@farawaywayfarer7685]

Sunny D already unlocked the power of the sun

[@frasercain]

If only they could hook bottles of Sunny D up to the electrical grid.

[@ethanpoole3443]

Fraser Cain Well, many high tension lines are hollow (owing to the skin effect, beyond a certain point for any given frequency the center of a conductor contributes no further to current carrying capacity and using solid conductors just adds extra weight and material to support), so perhaps we could pump Sunny D through our grid? QED, Problem Solved! ;-)

[@Burt1038]

XD

[@secularmonk5176]

Waaaay better than Purple Stuff

[@cosmodeus1720]

And also making my teeth itch.

[@Tehom1]

Good episode. Fusion power is the power source of the future and always will be. 6:30 That explanation of the difference between a stellarator and a tokamak only begins to explain the difference. Starting with what's similar: Both stellarators and tokamaks confine plasma in a torus. Both need to solve the following problem: if the magnetic confinement rings the plasma in the obvious way, by just wrapping in circles around the torus, the magnetic field on the inner side of the torus will be more concentrated than that on the outer side, and this lopsidedness will cause the charged particles to be ejected from the containment area. No contaiment, no fusion. Both solve it by twisting the magnetic field, so that instead of a given field line being on the inside or outside of the torus, every field line spirals around the torus several times (generally 5); now the magnetic field is basically homogeneous, so problem solved. Here's where stellarators and tokamaks differ: In a tokamak, the circumferential component of the magnetic field that makes it spiral is generated from within the plasma, by running an electric charge thru the plasma. In a stellarator, that circumferential component is generated by a second set of external magnets. Both approaches have a certain appeal. The tokamak approach is more elegant, has fewer parts. The stellarator approach allows finer control of the magnetic field.

[@frasercain]

Yeah, that was a rabbit hole that I couldn't go down to deeply for this episode, but thanks!

[@MegaHarko]

+Tehom Also one (in my eyes: *the*) major difference is: Tokamaks can only run for a certain time. Got something to do with the current that has to be induced into the plasma to twist the field lines. Stellerators can, at least theoretically, run indefinitely.

[@mordant221]

Tony Stark built one in a cave, with a box of scraps... but we're not Tony Stark :/

[@frasercain]

Yeah, if only we had a Tony Stark, this wouldn't be a problem.

[@amphibiousone7972]

LOL yeah, that would be awesome! I worry it won't happen anytime within my lifetime. They are still teasing out funding for R&D on a design that they were saying would be up and running by 1983 in 1976. They've made small steps but.....we are looking at essentially the same device, without much change. We are about 35 years late. I would love to see it work. I have a very low expectation. I will believe it when I see it....for (fusion, flying cars, moon colonies and missions to mars) I'm jaded.

[@haggardkicks]

i think the greatest part of that plot thread was how the businessman said all of this before stark showed him his reactor. he said pointing at the large reactor " you know this wont work. it was't valuable, we both know it was a publicity stunt to get the hippies off our backs. " said by the dude his self lol !! good stuff.

[@hafashanum39]

Tony stark is a myth brother ... Get A Life will you

[@dedepradana7705]

@@hafashanum39 lol a myth? Your face is a myth

[@benrechakiewicz3594]

Hmm getting closer to being a type 1 civilization.😉

[@frasercain]

Yup, that puts us on the path.

[@IamGrimalkin]

Ben Rech In the original concept we already were a type 1 civilisation. The idea that a type 1 civilisation is something bigger than us was something introduced later.

[@jairon_2518]

Ben Rech Then the only civilization 0 in the Universe will come and destroy us to avoid us getting stronger than them.

[@AdrianReef]

Type WHAT ??? We cannot even feed the poor properly....

[@jairon_2518]

Adrian Reef We always imagine aliens as if they all were united (with no conflicts inside their society). If some day a meeting with them is real we will need to leave our differences to represent the human being race as one. Many conflicts and problems have to be resolved until we reach that goal: religion, poverty as you said, analfabetism, radicalism... I think all of them are still problems of a not developed civilization.

[@HansPeter-qg2vc]

"How Far Away is Fusion?" About 149.6 million km.

[@frasercain]

I see what you did there. :-)

[@rbrtck]

+Fraser Cain It may well be the only fusion energy we get to use, at least in any of our lifetimes. And its limitations may well be easier and faster to solve than the problem of controlled fusion.

[@_tyrannus]

Good thing North Korea brought it much closer recently, then.

[@itsallinthewaves1320]

LOLOL NICE! and no one got it.

[@itsallinthewaves1320]

Lolol nice one, uuuhhhhh watts that yello thing doin up there?

[@felixstraube2784]

"Our smug sun, would need to find a new job" XDDD. I always like your sense of humor. Great episode!

[@frasercain]

Thanks!

[@maverickdallas1004]

Felix Straube ...The sun might eventually take on a new job; Big Red Giant Earth Eater! Don't be too smug, fella!

[@felixstraube2784]

Yeah, luckily we still have some time for that to occure

[@Jellyf0x]

What would happen if a ball of oxygen equal to the mass of the sun crashed into the sun?

[@frasercain]

You would get a lot of water.

[@R.Instro]

+Jellyf0x This answer from a segment of "What If" by Randall Munroe, author & creator of XKCD.com : "... The extra mass also makes the Sun heavier. This crushes it together more tightly and makes fusion happen faster. This means it will burn more brightly and run through its fuel more quickly." what-if.xkcd.com/14/

[@ABaumstumpf]

You wouldn't get much water at all: it is soo hot that if you had water it would break down into h and O again. Water really starts breaking down in noticeable amounts at roughly 2000°C - the sun is quit a lot hotter than that.

[@chadpyle]

Jellyf0x A ball of oxygen equal to the mass of the Sun would quickly coalesce into another star. You'd get a big explosion and the resulting Sun would be twice as massive and energetic. Probably wouldn't be happy days for life on Earth.

[@royk7712]

if there is such a thing ball of oxygen that have mass like 1sun, its not massive enough to fuse oxygen, but if it collide with sun, they will be like sirius, bright short aged star

[@Barnardrab]

If I had nuclear fusion, I'd invest it in space travel.

[@frasercain]

Now we're talking!

[@Hellsong89]

Meh, i would start by building dyson sphere and beam solar energy from sun directly to planet and as launch system to move materials between planets to build infra, so we can even start talking about long range space travel.... then again most of the humanity is cancer and maybe the extinction would not be that bad of a thing for us... well not for us, but universe.

[@Erowens98]

A dyson sphere is a ridiculous concept that has no potential of ever happening. A Dyson swarm however could work, assuming we figure out how to transfer power from the satellites back to earth.

[@Yorickje1234]

That would be sucky for your bucks dude! Space capable engines are all about expelling exhausts from fuel, not about having tons of electric energy.

[@amirabudubai2279]

@Yorick La Riviere If we had access to the energy output of a fusion reactor, then we could use ion thrusters.

[@a.wolfgang6423]

40B is nothing compared to the U.S army budget

[@frasercain]

No kidding, it's like 500B. Imagine what could be developed with that kind of money.

[@mubeenshahid786]

Fraser Cain But then the oil and coal industry will go out of business which can't happen as long as congress is lobbied

[@user-nf3hh8kn5r]

Meme Fief You're fucking lying.

[@UnidentifiedAerialPhenomena0]

and 95% of it are just new debt lmao

[@jasonstevenson110]

@@user-nf3hh8kn5r I don't know the figures for the USA, but in Australia and I suggest most western democracies especially Europe defence spending is a fraction of social security spending.

[@natttomes4588]

we need spend more on science ..

[@frasercain]

Absolutely. And maybe less on wars.

[@royk7712]

600bn peryear on defense, give me a break

[@wassermelonewill5399]

roy k | 'defense' 😁

[@Simp_Zone]

I know its soooooooo frustrating thinking about all we could do if all the money spent on killing one another was used for science. Plus science makes weapons better lol

[@justicekreider2978]

Our budget is $600 billion on the military, give NASA $200 billion and i can see us colonizing the solar system, or give it to ITER and see reactors everywhere and hopefully working

[@IslandHermit]

There are a number of other groups working on fusion power: EMC2 (polywell), Focus Fusion, General Fusion, Wendelstein 7-X (stellarator), National Ignition Facility and others. While these are all long shots compared to ITER, there are enough of them that there's a significant chance of one succeeding. All of these alternative methods have the advantage that if they do pay off, they will do so sooner than ITER (within 5 years instead of 10) and they are all much cheaper and smaller than ITER and much easier to commercialize. So we could be looking at commercial fusion power in as little as 15 years. Fingers crossed.

[@LaurenceHuntKenora_Ontario]

I've made a list of ten compact fusion projects, though there is some overlap, and some are private companies, and others are research centres. • Levitated Dipole Experiment (MIT ARC “plasma pinch” - now shut down as new compact design using ReBCO superconductors is being feveloped) • Compact Spherical Tokamak - Tokamak Energy Ltd. - spherical tokamaks + high-temperature superconductors (see also “Spherical Tokamak” PPPL below) • Colliding beam reactor - Tri Alpha Energy Ion beams - aneutronic fusion power. • Polywell - EMC2 company • Magnetized target reactor (acoustic fusion) - General Fusion (Richmond, British Columbia) • Dense Plasma Focus - LPP Fusion • Compact Fusion - Lockheed Martin (Skunkworks - nothing published recently) • Sheared Flow Stabilized Z-Pinch - University of Washington & Lawrence Livermore Laboratory • Spherical Tokamak - US Department of Energy’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) - announced 16 August 2016 • CTFusion - Spun out from Univeristy of Washington. Focused on the development of economical, magnetic fusion energy based on compact, toroidal plasma configurations. Focused on the development of economical, magnetic fusion energy based on compact, toroidal plasma configurations.

[@rbrtck]

+mayaknife So 15 years from now, how far will it be away, 15 years again or 10 or 20 variety? Lather, rinse, repeat ad infinitum.

[@88Superphysics88]

Everyone who invests in developing fusion power will lose their money!!! Все кто инвестирует в разработку термоядерной энергетики потеряют свои деньги!!! Everyone who makes a working commercial fusion reactor won't make one, ever. They don't know how to make one. They make a useless experimental setup. For over 72 years, developers have not been able to make a working commercial fusion reactor. If 72 years of science has no result, isn't that already pseudoscience? To make a working commercial fusion reactor there is another way. The great scientific discovery of nuclear fusion in the Sun's atmosphere has been made. There is no nuclear fusion in the core of the Sun. Nuclear fusion starts at 5,000K, the ultimate temperature of nuclear fusion is 1,500,000K! On average. This can be seen on the surface of the Sun. It's simple to describe and calculate. There is a solution. kzbin.info/www/bejne/fJTcoaqli7R0d7s A small prototype of a working fusion reactor will be available in 2 years. It will produce commercial heat. Все, кто делают действующий коммерческий термоядерный реактор его не сделают, никогда. Они не знают как его сделать. Они делают бесполезную экспериментальную установку. Более 72 лет разработчики не могут сделать действующий коммерческий термоядерный реактор. Если 72 года в науке нет результата, разве это уже не лженаука? Чтобы сделать действующий коммерческий термоядерный реактор существует другой путь. Сделано великое научное открытие о ядерном слиянии в атмосфере Солнца. В ядре Солнца нет ядерного слияния. Ядерное слияние начинается от 5 000К, конечная температура ядерного слияния 1 500 000 К! В среднем. Это видно на поверхности Солнца. Всё просто описывается и рассчитывается. Решение есть. kzbin.info/www/bejne/fJTcoaqli7R0d7s За 2 года получится небольшой прототип действующего термоядерного реактора. Он будет выдавать коммерческое тепло.

[@feanorfeuergeist]

Ahh , the holy grail of energy productiuon.... Well basically we already are capable of nuclear fusion , in weapons...

[@bratimm]

feanorfeuergeist We could actually build a working fusion generator by dropping hydrogen bombs into a water pool and letting the steam run through turbines. It's not very practical though.

[@theophrastusbombastus8019]

Funny enough a proposed idea to harness fusion energy was to detonate H bombs in large water tanks and direct the generated steam in turbines.

[@frasercain]

It's just not that useful to light your planet on fire every time you want to cook a hotdog.

[@feanorfeuergeist]

I dream of using fusion energy in my lifetime , without detonationg anything if possible ^^ But could we actually even apply that techonlogy? Just think about the size and the amount of power and money behind our current energy system. There is a giant force living off the profit of burning fossil energy , and mining those fossils , and the industrie producing machines for those industries ect. ect. The amount of jobs that would instantly get lost , fusuion would somewhat break our economy. What would be the upsides? No pollution and almost no electricity bill. It would solve long term problems but would create critical short term problems. Edit : And you also have to consider the interests of powerful lobbies who live of the current system.

[@Tyler-sy7jo]

I think most of the governments (i.e. those currently buying oil at top dollar from those countries that still have it which is most of the modern world) would be happy to throw away oil in favour of something cheaper. Most countries have to buy their oil from others and it is very expensive. The oil crisis has also gotten to such a point that the methods we use to even get a tiny bit of it are extremely complicated and expensive (Look up the Alberta Oil Sands. It's a very VERY inefficient way of getting oil and very expensive). But in this world where most of the 1st world is buying most of their oil from other countries, it would be much more lucrative to use their own countries water to make their own power. Saudi Arabia might object because that's what's making them essentially king of the world atm, but I don't think they're gonna be able to stop the rest of the world from switching to a much cheaper power. I think it'd be easier for a country to make a profit off of home-grown fusion power than imported oil power.

[@CockatooDude]

Let's use that energy to make a shitload of antimatter to power spaceships.

[@frasercain]

Now that's a great idea. :-) And fusion will help us learn how to do magnetic containment, which'll be handy for holding the antimatter.

[@CockatooDude]

Ahh yes very good point, I wasn't even thinking of that potential benefit. Also, speaking of antimatter production, it is a common misconception that it can only be produced via particle accelerators. That would actually be a good idea for an episode I think, the methods of antimatter production. Because there are quite a few, and a lot of them are much more energy efficient than using particle accelerators.

[@smasher123ism]

We don’t need no gay unstable anti matter once we have fusion.

[@talltroll7092]

Antimatter is exactly as stable as matter. They just don't like each other very much

[@wildchicken679]

and use fusion to power our martian settlements.

[@FirstLast-fr4hb]

Its nice to see someone else who understand that physical material doesnt have a will , wants, desires, or satisfactions, but things like the sun are simply globules of hot pressurized atoms sitting there doing what physics does.

[@frasercain]

Hah, obviously, but I enjoy anthropomorphizing the Sun. :-)

[@Rose_Harmonic]

In March of last year an MIT professor gave a speech at a Californian university about fusion. He talked about how available super conductors were just improved massively, making it possible to build a workable fusion reactor that is only six times a person's height. Until then the only way to get around the weak magnetic fields was to build huge line ITER. I am of the opinion that ITER is already obsolete and a working reactor will be up before ITER is done.

[@frasercain]

I don't really care how it gets figured out, only that it does. ITER or small reactor. Yes please.

[@88Superphysics88]

Everyone who invests in developing fusion power will lose their money!!! Все кто инвестирует в разработку термоядерной энергетики потеряют свои деньги!!! Everyone who makes a working commercial fusion reactor won't make one, ever. They don't know how to make one. They make a useless experimental setup. For over 72 years, developers have not been able to make a working commercial fusion reactor. If 72 years of science has no result, isn't that already pseudoscience? To make a working commercial fusion reactor there is another way. The great scientific discovery of nuclear fusion in the Sun's atmosphere has been made. There is no nuclear fusion in the core of the Sun. Nuclear fusion starts at 5,000K, the ultimate temperature of nuclear fusion is 1,500,000K! On average. This can be seen on the surface of the Sun. It's simple to describe and calculate. There is a solution. kzbin.info/www/bejne/fJTcoaqli7R0d7s A small prototype of a working fusion reactor will be available in 2 years. It will produce commercial heat. Все, кто делают действующий коммерческий термоядерный реактор его не сделают, никогда. Они не знают как его сделать. Они делают бесполезную экспериментальную установку. Более 72 лет разработчики не могут сделать действующий коммерческий термоядерный реактор. Если 72 года в науке нет результата, разве это уже не лженаука? Чтобы сделать действующий коммерческий термоядерный реактор существует другой путь. Сделано великое научное открытие о ядерном слиянии в атмосфере Солнца. В ядре Солнца нет ядерного слияния. Ядерное слияние начинается от 5 000К, конечная температура ядерного слияния 1 500 000 К! В среднем. Это видно на поверхности Солнца. Всё просто описывается и рассчитывается. Решение есть. kzbin.info/www/bejne/fJTcoaqli7R0d7s За 2 года получится небольшой прототип действующего термоядерного реактора. Он будет выдавать коммерческое тепло.

[@Monster-jb6zb]

If I had a fusion reactor I would put it on my future yacht so I can sail anywhere without gas

[@frasercain]

And it would be floating around on its fuel source... water.

[@smasher123ism]

Hydrogen is a gas lmao

[@TeddyKrimsony]

wtf no it's not powered by regular water, it needs heavy water isotopes which sea water has in concentrations of 0.00034% ,,,, which will then be broken down into deuterium and tritium that fuels fusion.

[@sailorgeer]

I can do that already on my sailboat....

[@donsample1002]

I've been hearing people say that fusion is about a decade away for the last 40 years...

[@frasercain]

So now, it's merely 8 years away.

[@ebigunso]

If, it manages to pull off what it's supposed to do that is. If not, back to square one with the "decade away" statement.

[@stinger15au]

Don Sample and it would have been if given the appropriate funding. technological advancement is as much about money and politics as it is about the science itself

[@fireofenergy]

Don Sample On the national scale, this is the most important thing to do. Yet, we treat fusion like it's just a little solar project. Consider that, in the old days when something had to be done, they figured it out. Now, just politics (and fossil fuels) as usual.

[@kalcheat]

upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ab/U.S._historical_fusion_budget_vs._1976_ERDA_plan.png

[@MKy867]

It’s not that we can’t wrap our heads around it it’s that we don’t have the technology to do so.

[@frasercain]

It's one thing to know how to do it theoretically, it's quite another to actually do it at scale.

[@xfedoraxdavex7359]

Just found your channel and subscribed. Love your videos, keep up the good work.

[@Pandzikizlasu80]

I was ten when I heard that fusion power plants will be working in 20 years, now I'm over 30...and hear the same speach... Better we seriously start using thorium reactors like LFTR. If the same money was spend on them, as on fussion reaserch, we would all have clean, cheep, save energy from decades.

[@frasercain]

They'll always be 20 years away, forever.

[@Pandzikizlasu80]

Fraser Cain Yes, they behave as in the old Polish boysband song, in translation "it's not the priority to catch the bunny, but to chase it" - the bunny was beatyfull, but hard to reach girl ofc. In case of love, if "the bunny" decide to be catched you will end soon with a children and family dog, but the fusion is more like a popstar, you must give it a lot of expensive stuff like i.e. helium 3 to make it yours ;) Nethertheless we forget that we have nice single well known friend - thorium. There is also possibility that nuclear institutes pursue indirect costs refundation (i.e. menagment, administration etc.), not the save clean energy sorces and fussion is good topic only in lobbying for funds - but its only my fought... (sorry for my bad English)

[@bratimm]

Dziki z lasu We don't spend nearly as much money on fusion research as necessary.

[@Pandzikizlasu80]

bratimm The goal is cheep, realiable, save, clean energy not the fusion itself. We can have almost all of that with the IV-th generation of fision reactors like LFTR and we have money for that. It's like having an old car that doesn't meet your expectations and barly pass inspections, but trying to buy bugatti veyron because its the best car, without enaugh money. Buy the f..ing golf or so and be happy. If we don't start to think this way we will run out of fossile fuels and reaserch on the fusion will be continuated by the next earth civilisation.

[@CraftyF0X]

Its unlikely that fossil fuels are running out soon, yet the climate impact could destory this civilisation long before it runs out of fossil fuels. Im with you on this one, I too belive that MSBR(LFTR) could be a faster and easier solution, as its pratically demonstrated to work (in parts though). We could comfortably sustain our growing civilisation on thorium reactors and keep researchig and developing fusion until it works without the pressure of strong time limitations due to looming enviromental catasthrope. I can even imagine the two technology used in the same era for the common goal of clear and sustainable energy, since both has their own advantages. Thats being said, none of it gets the financial support it would deserve, you guys were righ about criticising the funding of such projects. Goverments tends to spend billions on useless and frankly counterproductive things like a hugh overbloated millitary and subsidies for coal and oil industry. In the mean time it claims that we don't have the money for such projects, which is an obvious bullshit and going to be a great regret for the future generations. This is really something that scientists should make the calls about not politicians. There was never in history when politics advanced the civilisation, it was always science and technology, but as long as we live in an age of politics (and greed) we should not be surprised that such projects have only insufficient funding. (or not at all like small fusion companies or thorium initiatives)

[@phi1394]

This may be a life-saver for humanity. Imagine if we had to rely on current power sources for any longer...

[@cubertmiso]

I dont disagree but just pointing the market structure. If we have more energy we tend to use it more. like if we have new car that is 1/10 of the price of the regular one to use then soon we tend to have 10x of them. And that makes things more or less the same for the whole ecosystem.

[@88Superphysics88]

Everyone who invests in developing fusion power will lose their money!!! Все кто инвестирует в разработку термоядерной энергетики потеряют свои деньги!!! Everyone who makes a working commercial fusion reactor won't make one, ever. They don't know how to make one. They make a useless experimental setup. For over 72 years, developers have not been able to make a working commercial fusion reactor. If 72 years of science has no result, isn't that already pseudoscience? To make a working commercial fusion reactor there is another way. The great scientific discovery of nuclear fusion in the Sun's atmosphere has been made. There is no nuclear fusion in the core of the Sun. Nuclear fusion starts at 5,000K, the ultimate temperature of nuclear fusion is 1,500,000K! On average. This can be seen on the surface of the Sun. It's simple to describe and calculate. There is a solution. kzbin.info/www/bejne/fJTcoaqli7R0d7s A small prototype of a working fusion reactor will be available in 2 years. It will produce commercial heat. Все, кто делают действующий коммерческий термоядерный реактор его не сделают, никогда. Они не знают как его сделать. Они делают бесполезную экспериментальную установку. Более 72 лет разработчики не могут сделать действующий коммерческий термоядерный реактор. Если 72 года в науке нет результата, разве это уже не лженаука? Чтобы сделать действующий коммерческий термоядерный реактор существует другой путь. Сделано великое научное открытие о ядерном слиянии в атмосфере Солнца. В ядре Солнца нет ядерного слияния. Ядерное слияние начинается от 5 000К, конечная температура ядерного слияния 1 500 000 К! В среднем. Это видно на поверхности Солнца. Всё просто описывается и рассчитывается. Решение есть. kzbin.info/www/bejne/fJTcoaqli7R0d7s За 2 года получится небольшой прототип действующего термоядерного реактора. Он будет выдавать коммерческое тепло.

[@PoeRacing]

Subbed 5 minutes in for the most succinct explanation ever of fusion power generation and humanity's current technological progress on the topic aimed at an average scientifically literate layperson. I look forward to exploring your other work.

[@frasercain]

Thanks a lot, welcome aboard. And let me know if there are any topics you'd like me to dig into.

[@METAL1ON]

I never realised that the Tokamak itself would become radioactive, shows my limited knowledge on this type of thing , but I have to say that even though a fusion reactor is still not currently viable the fact that we can make the immense conditions to briefly support it with our current technology is nothing short of breath taking. The pressure inside a star is beyond the comprehension of most people alive on this planet and is a true testament to how amazing our scientists are.

[@frasercain]

Yeah, that's the downside of deuterium fusion. Helium-3 fusion won't have the same problem, which is why they want to mine it from the Moon.

[@jiafjioawefjio3f9034]

At time index 4:13 I'm pretty sure you meant to say "high energy neutrons" instead of "high energy photons". The proton-boron reaction is anutronic and would release more energy than tritium or deuterium or even He3 fuels. Of course proton-boron takes more energy to fuse than those fuels, so that's why the current experiments use the lightest fuels possible. *If* progress is made, proton-boron would be the fuel to use in a production environment.

[@frasercain]

Yeah, totally meant neutrons. D'oh.

[@daveozip4326]

Thanks - I re-watched that bit a few times and thought I was missing something. Phew! - now it makes perfect sense. (It's okay Fraser - we're all getting older every day)

[@johncgibson4720]

2:13 , actually we are not trying to simulate the condition of the sun's core. Our formula is to use high temperature instead of high pressure. Compared to our method, the Sun is practically a cold fusion, high pressure reactor.

[@frasercain]

What the Sun does with gravity, we want to do with temperature.

[@johncgibson4720]

Yeah. Can't wait for ITER to go on line. It will be the front page news for a whole year, talking about every detail in joy all day every day for a whole year! Can you imagine. Every high school grad can do calculations with the output function in relation to the diameter of the machine with iphone.

[@CreeperDude-cm1wv]

@@frasercain because humanity are such hotheads

[@scatterit5717]

I AM DOING RESEARCH WORK ON FUSION..YOUR VIDEO HELPED ME A LOT.THANKS FRAISER...GOOD JOB MAN

[@CarlMahnke]

Can't wait for this to come! My electric bill is already too high! Here in Germany we pay on average 29,16 Cent per kWh which is insane!

[@frasercain]

Ouch, that's brutal. We only pay about 6 cents here in Canada. And it's largely renewable from huge hydroelectric dams. In fact, our power company is called BC Hydro.

[@noeraldinkabam]

Probably that includes tax and transport?

[@AmolLusk]

Could we use fusion reactors for converting chemical elements or compressing mass to create gravity for space habitats?

[@aclevernickname8560]

roku62 That depends on the chemical. We have barely even unlocked the true abilities of using nuclear fusion, yet making new elements with it. Chemicals are made in processes other than fusion. Fusion just makes heavier and heavier elements. In fact, all elements heavier than Iron are actually made in supernovae. This is why you hear about us being made of actual stardust from a star that died billions of years ago. I do believe that we could use fusion to create elements, but I also believe we would need to use fission to get some simpler elements back, if at all possible.

[@sebasse7956]

Carl Mahnke that's because currently you are also paying for upgrading/ further construction of the electric network.

[@tixeright9120]

fusion power, 25 years away since 1950. XD

[@frasercain]

Yeah, I do feel hopeful with the construction of ITER, though, let's see what happens in 8 years when they turn it on.

[@Buckykatt]

i bet its 2-3 hundred years before we start work on the dysen spheres

[@frasercain]

We covered that in this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/pGWtnJSEf71glbc

[@squirrel1620]

I'm watching this because 1. I love science and 2. Your name is almost like "Frasier Crane" which is one of my favorite shows lol

[@frasercain]

Thanks! I did have the name first, though. ;-)

[@jamesgjackson]

40 years ago the saying was "fussion power is 25 years away, and always will be"

[@frasercain]

That's true, but the purpose of ITER will be to finally build an experiment big enough to probably generate fusion. We'll see what happens when it goes online.

[@MrWoohoo]

Do a video about thorium reactors please!

[@frasercain]

Will do!

[@emersonharris142]

yes please!!

[@Tom-pk4gl]

would be great yes

[@WarBerJr02]

I would like to see a video about thorium reactors too.

[@bluemountain4181]

Did you make one yet?

[@MCNarret]

Now make it the size of a quarter.

[@frasercain]

Now that would be awesome. :-)

[@olehoiii]

WOW, this is good content and its on youtube in 2017! subbed

[@DaveBoxBG]

Awesome video , keep up the good work!

[@frasercain]

+jawbreaker thanks a lot!

[@Puffycheeks]

A few decades... that is too far away.

[@frasercain]

It always seems to be a few decades away.

[@daveozip4326]

If you have puffy cheeks then yeah you're probably right - it's too far away for you. Maybe you should use CRISPR to reprogram your genes to live longer. Sorry couldn't resist! - hey now there's a topic Fraser...

[@HighMojo]

Our smug sun will never find a new job even when we develop fusion power. Cause even the Helium 3 used to fuel artificial fusion comes from the sun.

[@frasercain]

Wait, so does that mean it's already figured out its new job? Providing us with Helium 3? The Sun might have outwitted us again.

[@jameswhitman5765]

Yay!!!I'm just glad I didn't have to wait 30 years for this episode.

[@frasercain]

This episode is always 30 years away.

[@amineghostdog]

the quality of tht video is insane, for 1080! so clear and clean

[@arkavick]

I'd use the power to generate a magnetosphere around the mars transit ship and any other space fearing vessel.

[@brade2681]

plasma/fusion shield that double as an engine that can accelerate a ship 9ms ish so it simulates gravity. nice

[@SuperSilentOps]

Can't we just mass fund this and get this done within 15 years?

[@frasercain]

That's the sad part. Governments have been defunding fusion research for years. We could have had these answers decades ago.

[@SuperSilentOps]

Fraser Cain but wouldn't it benefit whichever government invented it first? Like the Nuclear Bomb?

[@frasercain]

Absolutely, but that's not how this works.

[@SuperSilentOps]

Fraser Cain Maybe they are doing it in secret? I just don't get why you would defund the energy of the sun?

[@equilibrochu]

Interesting video. Love the blooper at the end. :)

[@ColasTeam]

The video Isaac Arthur made on the subject said something along the lines of us not actually having problems creating fusion, but that we did had problems containing the energy it generated.

[@frasercain]

The problem right now is sustaining the fusion reaction long enough to get a positive energy output.

[@muskyelondragon]

Fusion is only 20 years away....

[@frasercain]

It's still, only 20 years away.

[@muskyelondragon]

Yeah it's definitely been the running joke for decades. I think that this time it may be real. I think we may finally see a positive result in 10 years. Fusion is like space, really really hard!

[@ABaumstumpf]

It would have been 20 years away if we invested any considerable amount of money into it. But right now the US is spending more money on the military each year than all countries combined have spent in total on nuclear fusion.

[@henryjiang9664]

ABaumstumpf 2% of the total budget is only good for producing republicans not fusion.

[@rob1andrews]

Fraser Cain Has been 20 Years my whole life. They keep discovering new problems, solving them and discovering new problems. Until you are done, you do not know how far away it is. Meanwhile Wind Turbines and Solar are crushing everything based on EROI!

[@TheJollyGamerJoe]

I think it's inevitable the world will one day be lit up by mini Suns all around the world. Just think how cheap it would be to fill up your Car. As the demand for Fuel would plummet. Heck, maybe by then each Car will have mini Fusion engines themselves. 😜

[@davecarsley8773]

TheJollyGamerJoe You and I should become Sun-screen manufacturers. You in?

[@frasercain]

Mr. Fusion time machines. :-)

[@mesoth5848]

I don't think I would sit a meter away from plasma heated to 100 000 000°C.

[@tylerferguson3707]

Much more likely that cars will run on electricity since we could produce it cleanly. Also, gasoline would actually be even more expensive due to a lack of demand and reduced production.

[@SONSOFB1TCHES]

Think of the possible chain reaction.. and the inevitability "the world will one day be lit up by mini suns" takes new meaning.. The atmosphere is flammable. hardwood charcoal wont lite with a match you need to burn paper to get the temp up and when you get one little ignition of the coal it spreads. and These produces way more heat than combustion engines so even if it didn't cause literal fire and brimstone, it would increase global warming more than combustion.

[@polarisgemini52]

The fact that controlled fusion reaction takes decades and is a running joke tells you how mind-numbingly, ridiculously complicated this idea is. Imagine the kind of intelligence it takes, hundreds of our brightest minds working on it for decades and still no answer yet. Insane!

[@arkavick]

My body is ready for this episode.

[@MrKago1]

$14 billion sounds like a lot until you consider that last year the US spent $568 billion on defense alone. Too bad we dont have scientists in office instead of lawyers. One I didnt hear you mention is the Nova Laser Facility in Livermore. Had a teacher that went to see it pre911 (you cant now) and his descriptions are mind blowing. Hard to believe they reach the power they do when they start with these little LED diode lasers. Isn't China also the one wanting to pioneer going to the moon to mine Tritium for fusion fuel?

[@frasercain]

Yeah, I was actually amazed how little will be spent on this facility. $14 billion over decades didn't actually sound like much.

[@cornishcactus]

The UK spent 9 billion on 2 weeks of running and jumping in 2012. Thats a lot of science you could have bought

[@VerisimilitudeDude]

Perhaps a fusion reactor could be used to create enough energy to power the first warp drive space ship. As you probably already know, warp drive is possible. Let me know your thoughts.

[@smasher123ism]

Verisimilitude Dude Most definitely. The guys at NASA took the concept and reduced the insane requirements to much more reasonable ones, and are still doing so.

[@absalomdraconis]

USS Gerald R. Ford 12th CSG : As I best recall, the energy demand was reduced from "infinite" to "Jupiter" (I think it was specifically "run the entirety of Jupiter through a fusion generator"), so there's a long way to go yet.

[@talltroll7092]

No, not even close. And it's the "wrong sort" of energy. The Alcubierre drive needs to produce negative energy to reduce the local energy density below that of a vacuum, or use a lot of material with negative mass. We have no idea what either of those things would look like, just that the maths involved doesn't disallow them. Seriously though, what does negative mass look like? How does that even work? It's not antimatter either. Negative mass would produce anti-gravity, so a planet made of it would keep trying to push you off into space, and when you dropped something, it would fall upwards. If you stood on its' surface, you'd feel like you were hanging upside down as all the blood rushed to your head. It's weird, dude

[@Ryukachoo]

general fusions magnetized target fusion approach seems the most promising since it isn't as "finnicky" as other methods. magnetic confinement fusion (tokamak) won't work without high temperature superconductors honestly

[@BenjaminSteber]

So far fusion has reliably been ten years away from the experts telling us it’s ten years away.

[@frasercain]

It's always been 30 years away. Now I feel like it'll always be about 25 years away, so that's progress.

[@AllAboutYouTubers13]

*No unexpectedly it was achieved and today marks that Day*

[@theophrastusbombastus8019]

The balance of power of the last 200 years was based on who controlled fossil fuels to make energy, it will be interesting to see how the equilibrium will change when and if fusion becomes commercially avaiable.

[@theophrastusbombastus8019]

Also if the cost of energy goes down of orders of magnitude it would be amazing to see al the things we could do that now are not economically viable for the energy cost they require. Water desalinization, actively supported structures, cheap metals, gigantic supercomputers cooled to near absolute zero...

[@BiohazardPL]

High percentage of electricity cost is the cost of its distribution, so - no orders of magnitude difference. At least as long as you will not have a powerplant in your yard.

[@theophrastusbombastus8019]

Adam Kudelski Where did you get that value? On the energy information administration of US's site is stated that transmission is 10 percent of the total cost. And anyway you could cut that by putting high demanding application near the reactor.

[@JohnStephenWeck]

is fusion power cheaper than fission power?

[@BiohazardPL]

www.eia.gov/energyexplained/index.cfm?page=electricity_factors_affecting_prices Transmission + distribution adds to a 43%. +John Weck - it is not, for now.

[@seanK311y]

Yeah Sun go get a job ;-)

[@frasercain]

We just have to crack the fusion problem. It should be worried, though.

[@BenjaminCronce]

Best part of Celsius and Kelvin is one you get into the millions range, they're interchangeable. Even Fahrenheit and Celsius can be interchanged depending on your rounding.

[@frasercain]

It's all just... hot.

[@TrollBenable]

great video quality, production quality and cgi subscribed!

[@frasercain]

Thanks a lot, I'm glad you enjoyed it!

[@evollove19]

with this energy I would make more fresh water and work on space colonization.

[@frasercain]

Fresh water would be great. Fusion rockets... now you're talking. :-)

[@LaurenceHuntKenora_Ontario]

Make anything you want. The energy is going to be almost unlimited, and eventually, virtually free.

[@DamianReloaded]

Fusion powered ION rockets anyone? Can I haz one? ^_^

[@frasercain]

Absolutely, then we're really going to space.

[@defenderred1212]

Fusion powered fusion rockets o.O

[@8bitpothead]

more like a fusion powered fleshlight

[@aaronshed]

Silly idea, just release the plasma though a magnetic funnel, no need to capture the energy as electricity then use that in an ion engine.

[@peoplez129]

I think the idea is to use the fusion to power the electricity that powers the plasma engine, with a different kind of plasma, which would only make sense if you were building a huge vessel that couldn't gather the energy it needed from light or from a nuclear reactor.....but I would imagine all the benefits would be gone if such a reactor was bulky compared to a nuclear reactor. It would also probably be much less reliable, since once the reaction goes out, it's out. You need X amount of energy to start it up again. All of that sounds like it's be too heavy to be feasible.

[@electricshirt]

Here's an idea, put a half powered stellerator inside a half powered tokamak

[@frasercain]

That's just so crazy it just might work.

[@powelllucas4724]

I first read about fusion energy in 1963. The article claimed that with the revolutionary Tokamak design it was likely that the world would see fusion energy production on a large scale within 20 years, Its been nearly 55 years since I read that article and it seems that every 20 years or so, I learn that fusion energy production is just around the corner....must be long blocks between corners.

[@luongmaihunggia]

But we need special hydrogen to do it, normal hydrogen won't work as well

[@frasercain]

You can start with deuterium, that's easier, but eventually regular hydrogen will go into the old fusion reactor.

[@luongmaihunggia]

Fraser Cain yup

[@Fred-jc7sv]

No mention of NIF? Or that they had an energy output that exceeded that which went into the fuel, if not the total amount that went into the system?

[@frasercain]

NIF is very cool, I couldn't talk about all the experiments out there. :-)

[@neoraiden26]

Fraser Cain It's all about laser based inertial confinement fusion! please mention next video!

[@stephenhicks826]

I remember reading that nuclear fusion was about 20 years away when I was about 10 years old. I am now 64. Still waiting. I like the reactor that's 150 million km away, its already working.

[@frasercain]

It's still 20 years away, but now with the construction of ITER, I think that's a more realistic deadline. And if ITER doesn't work, then they'll have a better sense of what it'll really take. Of course, it's important to note that the US slashed fusion research funding back in the 80s and 90s, so we don't know how far along they'd actually be at this point.

[@mindovermath2042]

I found you through the suggested videos. Your videos are vey informative! I just made a KZbin Channel due to your inspiration. Keep up the Videos! Just Subbed!

[@frasercain]

Awesome! Thank you!

[@chlipecplusdoo6115]

I have noticed something interesting. I think that USA lost its leading role in science in the world.

[@frasercain]

Interesting to note.

[@Yora21]

Did it ever have it? Nuclear power is the only really big example I can think of, and that was with a very significant contribution from European scientists. I think the US really was only a dominating powerhouse in industry, but not so much in science.

[@handles_are_fucking_stupid]

what about that thing your using to communicate, you know the internet

[@coronal2207]

Which is made bearable by optical fibre from China :)

[@frankmalenfant2828]

That's many decades in the past. Ain't it?

[@JettQuasar]

Actually we already created fusion - it's called hydrogen bombs. The key is to get that energy in a useful form, other than blowing stuff up.

[@lexsduck6892]

Jett Quasar Dakka is all we need :D

[@TheRobster2007]

That reaction is over in less than a second. This plasma stuff is the real deal.

[@JettQuasar]

Ye they need to hurry up and get this fusion power generator working. I can't wait to see what Elon Must will do with all that cheap energy!

[@frasercain]

Yeah, it just seems like overkill to detonate a hydrogen bomb every time you want to recharge your cell phone.

[@TiagoTiagoT]

Do we have the tech to contain a nuclear explosion?

[@augustlandmesser1520]

There is an ancient joke circling among nuclear physicists: fusion power is energy of the future - and always will be.

[@frasercain]

Yeah, but part of the problem is that funding was slashed. ITER is the first mission with the right funding to doa a serious attempt at this. We'll see what happens in about 7 years.

[@Seb-de]

It was the first joke I heard when starting working in this field.

[@AllAboutYouTubers13]

*TODAY MARKS THE DAY THIS WAS ACHIEVED!* ☮️

[@nikithanayaer6302]

Can you do a video on thorium reactor

[@frasercain]

I'll put that on my list, really interesting idea.

[@emersonharris142]

yes please, it really needs to be done. Liquid Thorium Breeder reactors

[@Bountyhunter306]

Hello? Anybody down here?

[@zapfanzapfan]

Early bird gets the worm ;-)

[@frasercain]

Congratulations, your reward is knowledge!

[@mickvanderh.2948]

I,m here in my garage

[@nippy511]

hey this was really cool, subscribd!

[@bryanncampbellca]

Don't forget Canada's contribution to fusion. General Fusion is a company developing the technology in BC.

[@Drakcap]

We're from BC, so it's too bad General Fusion didn't get a shout-out. Maybe next time!

[@frasercain]

Very cool, maybe I'll stop in and see how they're doing.

[@vadimev]

Lol, heard that one before. We've been a decade away from fusion for the past 60 years...

[@gerardrbain1972]

Vadim Evstifeev When you have to compete against huge oil companies (who happen to have the majority of the world's governments in their pockets) progress towards alternative forms of energy will be slower than it should be.

[@frasercain]

But now we're merely 8 years away. So that's progress.

[@stinger15au]

Vadim Evstifeev funding and politics, the actual science has almost been the easy bit.

[@kalcheat]

upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ab/U.S._historical_fusion_budget_vs._1976_ERDA_plan.png

[@308_Negra_Arroyo_Lane]

Not a great time to be alive. We now know a whole lot of shit is possible, but we'll never live to see it.

[@gaminglegend3833]

Walter Black. Exactly I wished I was born like 50-60 years from now

[@Erowens98]

There is always a "next best thing" on the horizon, you've seen plenty, and will see plenty more as well as miss a lot. So will your children.

[@twirlipofthemists3201]

Walter Black Look around ffs.

[@alphatangovideo5308]

+Fraser Cain What would happen if the magnetic containment failed (e.g.: sudden loss of power/damaged by an earthquake/EMP/meteor strike or some other catastrophic event)? Fuel burning at over 150,000,000 Degrees C seems like it would take a while to cool down and could do a lot of damage in the process. Or is there so little fuel in the reactor at any one time that even if the containment failed, it would all burn off or be able to cool down before it hit the floor?

[@frasercain]

It would cool down pretty quickly once the fusion reaction fails.

[@billc.4584]

What's the old joke? "No matter when you ask a nuclear physicist how far away is fusion they'll always respond twenty years." Nice presentation Fraser.

[@frasercain]

Hah, totally. I think ITER is a serious enough experiment to find out once and for all if it's possible.

[@billc.4584]

Well, not to quibble but we know that nuclear fusion is possible we just haven't figured out how to make it work. I hope the brainiacs figure it out, it'll be a major paradigm shift. While I question the claims that it would mean free or cheap energy I think that, as far as we're concerned, it would be effectively limitless and that will be the major change. Stay Canadian Fraser we've got a lunatic down here creating chaos.

[@SafeAndEffectiveTheySaid]

Do mister Trump know that coal ash is a radioactive material?

[@frasercain]

If not, somebody should tell him.

[@ObliviouslyAware]

PREIDENT Trump doesn't empty the furnaces. That guy that empties the scrubbers knows it though. You do know there are scrubbers in coal plants here in the US right?

[@walt4908]

and do you knows we have no place to put the residue from the scrubbers safely? The fly ash byproduct is loaded with heavy metals and other toxic materials. Remember the massive leaks of stored fly ash a few years ago along the Tennessee river from coal fire plants. Still not cleaned up and there are many, many more storage facilities that the government regulators allow the utilities to self inspect their own dams and storage sites because the EPA is undermanned and under funded and has been for years. There are hundred acres of dumped fly ash all across this nation slowly leaching into the environment. There is no 'clean coal" and we need to get beyond this antiquated and pollution imbedded method to create power.

[@kennethgray2003]

I don't think fusion power will come on-line as long as there is a profit to be made on fossil fuels.

[@frasercain]

Well good news, the fossil fuel industry is in a world of hurt right now because of the rise of renewables, mostly solar power.

[@LaurenceHuntKenora_Ontario]

It's not a competition with carbon. Carbon is a fuel in finite supply, vs the infinity of fusion.

[@smasher123ism]

Much more profit with fusion. People don’t realise that the big companies want something like fusion, they love renewables rn. Fusion is cheap and whoever has the most infrastructure can create endless sellable energy.

[@livefire666]

Completely agree with you on Fusion, break even in 10 years or less. Lots of private companies and star ups using new idea's like Tri Alpha, General Fusion and Lockheed Martian are trying for 5 years or less..

[@frasercain]

Yeah, there are actually a lot of other groups working on fusion. As soon as new developments are announced I'll report on them

[@soylentgreenb]

Fusion is incredibly well understood and poses no problem whatsoever. The difficult problem in fusion power is plasma physics.

[@burt591]

So it also produces radioactivity? I thought the biggest selling point was that it didn't... So why don't we just keep using Fission reactors then?

[@frasercain]

Well, it produces radioactivity that doesn't last as long. A few hundred years versus hundreds of thousands. Also, the fuel is more readily available.

[@LaurenceHuntKenora_Ontario]

The first generation reactors will produce neutron radiation, which is a temporary development phase. It produces low grade radioactivity, not in any way comparable to the long half-life, heavy atomic weight products of fission reactions. Fission is extremely primitive compared to the fusion idea. Aneutronic fusion will be virtually radiation free (anything that powerful will produce some radiation).

[@gpellmind]

burt591 It's the metal structure of the reactor that becomes a bit radioactive, not the fuel.

[@jasonbauman1475]

Will it not give off gamma ray radiation, and what do we need to know about that? I.e. compared to fission reactor radiation.

[@mikep1361]

Laurence Hunt you do realize that the longer the half life the less dangerous it is to people right? And that not all radiation is the same, and most forms are blocked by a sheet of paper?

[@kenneymadsen5710]

Sound... is pretty bad in this one. Going up and down in volume.

[@frasercain]

Ouch, thanks for letting us know.

[@Dude-Smellmyhelmet]

Not hearing it here.... you been watching too much porn

[@billfroug]

Two mistakes... 4:13 It's not high energy photons that make the reactor radioactive but high energy neutrons. 6:12 The Wendelstein 7-X stellarator is not operated by KIT in Karlsruhe but by the Max-Planck-Institute for Plasmaphysics in Greifswald (as seen on the image). The "quarter of a second" statement only applys to the initial experiments at W7-X in 2015. Meanwhile we've managed to expand discharge duration to 26 seconds. In the next years, with more cooling structures being installed, it's planned to operate for up to half an hour. Besides that, nice video!

[@frasercain]

Oh, that's awesome, great to hear from someone working on the problem. :-)

[@FirstRisingSouI]

Tokamak is one of the coolest names we have given technology. Right up there with the Tevatron.

[@julianarnold5499]

You should mention that tokamaks can only run pulsed but stellarators can be constantly active which makes them more attractive for power plants

[@TheFarmanimalfriend]

Without the pressure, fusion is going nowhere fast.

[@thetraitor3852]

1 desalination stations to turn desert into normal land. 2 industry will be able to provide things like carbon fiber, alluminium and other materials for almost free. 3 we can use that cheap material and energy to create launchloop or space elevator.

[@frasercain]

Desalination alone would make a huge impact.

[@thetraitor3852]

Indeed. I always kinda laugh at those catastrophic predictions that in 100 years there will be giant wars for water when 2/3 of the surface is water that just needs some purification. I just looked on Wikipedia and it seems that with current technology we can get one ton of water for 1,5kWh. With fusion power it will be cheaper than building dams on rivers.

[@Erowens98]

Now, if only we had some breakthrough in the battery industry to get a green, safe, easily disposable battery running. So we can start replacing the vehicles on the road. Fusion is the future.

[@frasercain]

A revolution in battery tech would be amazing. Even for solar power, it would change everything.

[@DevinDTV]

From what I understand, tokamaks already work. They just don't produce net energy because they're too small scale with the currently deployed technology. It's not even an experimental issue, it's just a problem of building the thing large enough. I could be wrong. In any case, high temperature super conductors reduce the necessary size to reach >1 efficiency.

[@atomipi]

Easy. Gather and combine hydrogen to induce a self driven mass fusion reaction, but in enough empty space to safely contain it. Near this fusing hydrogen mass, we assemble a large orbiting stable spheroid of solid elements. Then we use the energy output of the fusion mass we created to nurture forms of life on the surface of our sphere.

[@frasercain]

You'd need to gather together a red dwarf's worth of material.

[@TheJaybird1984]

You my friend have gain another subscription :-)

[@frasercain]

Thanks, welcome aboard.

[@niaschimnoski882]

8:31 -"The toilet is backing up!!" (Cosmic inflation! Lol!!)

[@10snik]

Step 1 - Make fusion work Step 2 - Make electric rocket thruster Step 3 - Fly away into space Step 4 - Go "Where no man has gone before"

[@JohnJohansen2]

2:48 The fusion chamber isn't filled up with gas. Only a few grams is in the chamber at any given time. 3:12 No the walls won't melt hence there is so little gas. The reaction will stop instantly.

[@BlackFragFilms]

Hi! What camera are you using? Looks phenomenal.

[@frasercain]

It's a Lumix GH5.

[@WeRemainFaceless]

I think a big part of the problem, is that we're currently trying to compact monumental magnetic fields into relatively small areas. The field lines of the magnetosphere for the sun is so incredibly complex that you cannot possibly replicate that on such a small scale. Conventional electromagnets just won't cut it. I believe that until we're able to create magnetic super-fluids that have extremely low viscosity; I think self-sustaining Fusion will elude us.

[@tamasmihaly1]

Unless the alien craves disappointment, refrain from telling a human being that something is impossible. I imagine that given enough time, the very limits of Physics will be tested.

[@frasercain]

Yeah, it's never wise to say that something is totally impossible, but there are many things which, if discovered, would totally violate every other law of physics as we understand them.

[@ian5576]

Fraser Cain, I have a comment about what you stated at ~7:45. ITER expects to have first plasma by 2025, but will not run deuterium + tritium reactions (those that are likely required to beat break even fusion) until 2035, so we are 18 years away from break-even, assuming there are no delays, which there likely will be.

[@MrTeen-ul7yc]

My dad predicated this a long time ago. He'd always say "Get a job Sun".

[@MyMy-tv7fd]

when I was in school, thirty years ago, the 'fusion power energy dream' was thirty years away...and today it is still thirty years more research grants away...