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First Light Fusion to Build Demonstration Facility at UKAEA’s Culham Campus

firstlightfusion.com

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Re: First Light Fusion to Build Demonstration Facility at UKAEA’s Culham Campus

#3
post #2

> Although the machine itself will not generate power, it will be used to develop technology needed for future inertial confinement fusion energy powerplants. 5 years away and it will not even generate power. Seems a risky bet.

Prepare to be shouted down and told we'll all be running personal fusion generators by summer...

Re: First Light Fusion to Build Demonstration Facility at UKAEA’s Culham Campus

#5
post #2

> Although the machine itself will not generate power, it will be used to develop technology needed for future inertial confinement fusion energy powerplants. 5 years away and it will not even generate power. Seems a risky bet.

It took me far to long to realize this, but the incentive on research grants is not to deliver a final product. In many cases the individuals responsible for delivering would be rewarded by no longer having a career.

Hence, these programs tend towards infinite research proposals- the same is true in applied ml research in private corporations.

Re: First Light Fusion to Build Demonstration Facility at UKAEA’s Culham Campus

#6
post #4

I think there’s a lot of promise in FLF’s designs (especially for in-space fusion propulsion), but they’re moving too slowly.

Sometimes research is hard to scale. What would you do differently?

Build variations of devices ahead of outcome, so that additional experiments can be executed almost in parallel?

Prioritize the research equipment delivery on a planetwide level?

Get the state to sponsorthose cushy wages and pensions nuclear scientists had, back in the 70s?

Re: First Light Fusion to Build Demonstration Facility at UKAEA’s Culham Campus

#7
Helion seems to be the only Fusion startup that is confident of net energy gain at a system level within the next few years. If they can pull of Fusion Reaction direct to Electricity ie eliminating steam generator stage would be a game changer - but seems too good to be true. Sam Altman believes in it, he put in $375M of his own money.

Re: First Light Fusion to Build Demonstration Facility at UKAEA’s Culham Campus

#8

Helion seems to be the only Fusion startup that is confident of net energy gain at a system level within the next few years. If they can pull of Fusion Reaction direct to Electricity ie eliminating steam generator stage would be a game changer - but seems too good to be true. Sam Altman believes in it, he put in $375M of his own money.

Yeah me too, to layman that looked really promising, but then I watch this[0] video, and now I do not know what to belive.

[0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vUPhsFoniw

Re: First Light Fusion to Build Demonstration Facility at UKAEA’s Culham Campus

#9
post #8

Helion seems to be the only Fusion startup that is confident of net energy gain at a system level within the next few years. If they can pull of Fusion Reaction direct to Electricity ie eliminating steam generator stage would be a game changer - but seems too good to be true. Sam Altman believes in it, he put in $375M of his own money.

Yeah me too, to layman that looked really promising, but then I watch this[0] video, and now I do not know what to belive. [0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vUPhsFoniw

This is great, thank you. Real Engineering's video was amazingly well done, I just wondered where the potential pitfalls could be.

Re: First Light Fusion to Build Demonstration Facility at UKAEA’s Culham Campus

#10
post #5
post #2

> Although the machine itself will not generate power, it will be used to develop technology needed for future inertial confinement fusion energy powerplants. 5 years away and it will not even generate power. Seems a risky bet.

It took me far to long to realize this, but the incentive on research grants is not to deliver a final product. In many cases the individuals responsible for delivering would be rewarded by no longer having a career. Hence, these programs tend towards infinite research proposals- the same is true in applied ml research in private corporations.

First Light isn't a research program funded by grants, it's a startup company attempting to develop a product. If they actually deliver before someone else makes them obsolete, they won't lose their careers, they'll make an absurd amount of money and be quite busy improving their reactors.
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