Very cool. If you could also make a smaller one with ~3kw output that fits on a locomotive frame you'd literally have the entire freight rail industry the world over as customers.
Launch HN: Maritime Fusion (YC W25) – Fusion Reactors for Ships
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Re: Launch HN: Maritime Fusion (YC W25) – Fusion Reactors for Ships
#12Re: Launch HN: Maritime Fusion (YC W25) – Fusion Reactors for Ships
#13Re: Launch HN: Maritime Fusion (YC W25) – Fusion Reactors for Ships
#14Very cool. If you could also make a smaller one with ~3kw output that fits on a locomotive frame you'd literally have the entire freight rail industry the world over as customers.
Would you though? A lot of freight lines in europe are already electric, wouldn't it be much more efficient to have a stationary high-power reactor than carrying around a smaller one on each locomotive?
Re: Launch HN: Maritime Fusion (YC W25) – Fusion Reactors for Ships
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
We can get pretty far along! From magnetic system design, vacuum vessel, RF heating system, cryogenic system, tritium fueling, etc we can start making a ton of progress today. The main things we still need to learn that can influence the design is advanced divertor scenarios and what are best material choices for plasma facing components (PFC's).
How certain is it that a tokamak is even able to be run in a stable manner? What if it turns out that a stellarator would be better? Or is that already validated by now?
https://www.proximafusion.com/press-news/proxima-fusion-and-...
Problems are still many, though (Paper:)
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S092037962...
Re: Launch HN: Maritime Fusion (YC W25) – Fusion Reactors for Ships
#16Really excited about this! Congrats on the launch. Ships make sense as a first target, but I'm curious -- do you see a future in which we have household fission reactors? E.G. power an entire house (city block, etc...) with fission reactors?
Re: Launch HN: Maritime Fusion (YC W25) – Fusion Reactors for Ships
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
Would you though? A lot of freight lines in europe are already electric, wouldn't it be much more efficient to have a stationary high-power reactor than carrying around a smaller one on each locomotive?
That might be balanced somewhat by not needing to maintain thousands of miles of caternary wire.
Re: Launch HN: Maritime Fusion (YC W25) – Fusion Reactors for Ships
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
Would you though? A lot of freight lines in europe are already electric, wouldn't it be much more efficient to have a stationary high-power reactor than carrying around a smaller one on each locomotive?
That might be balanced somewhat by not needing to maintain thousands of miles of caternary wire.
Unfortunately, so far exactly 0 working fusion reactors have been build, so currently, I would not demolish electric lines just yet.
Re: Launch HN: Maritime Fusion (YC W25) – Fusion Reactors for Ships
#19Really excited about this! Congrats on the launch. Ships make sense as a first target, but I'm curious -- do you see a future in which we have household fission reactors? E.G. power an entire house (city block, etc...) with fission reactors?
Thank you! Household fission reactors: my take is that from a technical perspective we could definitely do it. It's more from a proliferation and nuclear waste perspective, will it be allowed and accepted by the public? Not sure, maybe though.
Re: Launch HN: Maritime Fusion (YC W25) – Fusion Reactors for Ships
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
How certain is it that a tokamak is even able to be run in a stable manner? What if it turns out that a stellarator would be better? Or is that already validated by now?
The stellarator design makes more sense to me as well and speaking of it, those guys will build a stellarator on land: https://www.proximafusion.com/press-news/proxima-fusion-and-... Problems are still many, though (Paper:) https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S092037962...