Tokamaks seem to require very precise alignment of the confinement magnets. Is this going to be a lot harder on a rolling, heaving, vibrating ship?
Launch HN: Maritime Fusion (YC W25) – Fusion Reactors for Ships
221–230 of 267 posts
Re: Launch HN: Maritime Fusion (YC W25) – Fusion Reactors for Ships
#222Earlier quoted context omitted.
Back of the envelope (and some quick googling), a large container ship burns hundreds of tons of fuel per day, at a cost of 700-1000 $/t. Plus, all that fuel occupies tonnage that isn't carrying paying cargo. If you can save on that with a magic new reactor, the cost of a well trained tech on every ship isn't going to break the budget.
Fusion fuel isn't going to be free. Fusion reactors aren't magic: in a sense they're very traditional in that they will be used to turn water into superheated steam that spins a steam turbine to drive the propeller. Just like in 1897. Even if the fusion reactor could somehow magically be made maintenance free, the steam plant will be maintenance intensive. Ask any engineering officer who worked on a steam plant, rega…
Fusion fuel will be close enough to free. Deuterium is less than a thousandth of the hydrogen in water, and there's enough in your morning shower to provide all your energy needs for a year. A liter of heavy water costs about a thousand bucks.
For DT reactors, lithium is the other side of the fuel equation, and at the scale we need that's really cheap as well.
Re: Launch HN: Maritime Fusion (YC W25) – Fusion Reactors for Ships
#223> if we’re deploying thousands of nuclear reactors globally, they need to be meltdown-proof. Fusion is the only way to guarantee that. Regulation also isn’t as bad. "What's a molten salt reactor"
MSRs can melt down, but the steps to get there are rarer. Also the number of things that can go wrong and release radioactivity might be higher than LWRs.
Might be, but probably aren't. The most troublesome fission products all end up chemically bound in the fuel salt, and most designs are passively safe, and inherently pretty stable since the reaction slows down significantly as the fuel heats. There's a good safety margin since the salt is liquid over a wide range.
A "melt down" isn't exactly a thing for them since the fuel is melted already by design, but if the fuel manages to overheat, then a plug melts and either the fuel dumps into cooling tanks, or neutron poisons spread through the fuel.
Re: Launch HN: Maritime Fusion (YC W25) – Fusion Reactors for Ships
#224Greybeard former fusion founder here. Wishing you guys all the luck in the world! Email in profile in case you wish to chat. For all the naysayers, as a fusion startup, targeting the marine market is a good move. They aren't even the first fusion startup to do so; IIRC Rostoker's group got their first major funding from the NRL. The marine market pays a premium for not having to refuel, and historically emerging ener…
> I'm sure these guys could work somewhere getting paid to get more people to click on stuff.
That, right there, that is what makes me go: You know what, go for it. Best of luck, go make something, go try something.
You're absolutely right. So much talent is wasted on getting people to click an ad, stay on a page just a few minutes longer, watch the next video. So much time, so much money thrown into the dumpster fire of social media, ad tech and stupid "but as-a-service" solutions. It's better for everyone if the funds are directed towards something that might actually make the world a better place.
Re: Launch HN: Maritime Fusion (YC W25) – Fusion Reactors for Ships
#225Greybeard former fusion founder here. Wishing you guys all the luck in the world! Email in profile in case you wish to chat. For all the naysayers, as a fusion startup, targeting the marine market is a good move. They aren't even the first fusion startup to do so; IIRC Rostoker's group got their first major funding from the NRL. The marine market pays a premium for not having to refuel, and historically emerging ener…
No naysayer here, just curious: - What does this bring to the table beyond marine fission power? - Why do they think they can make it cheaper than military fission marine power?
Their plain hinges on having net positive fusion in the first place, something that still remains a fantasy even in the largest reactors on land. I think those questions already take so much good faith that you couldn't possibly be a naysayer.
Re: Launch HN: Maritime Fusion (YC W25) – Fusion Reactors for Ships
#226Why focus on maritime? Plan for interstellar ships already. This changes nothing about the viability of your „startup“
Re: Launch HN: Maritime Fusion (YC W25) – Fusion Reactors for Ships
#227This feels a bit like launching a startup that offers services based on fully working quantum computing, depending on others to provide their fully working quantum computer.
Seriously, why people are falling on this scam??
Re: Launch HN: Maritime Fusion (YC W25) – Fusion Reactors for Ships
#228Don't understand how that could have somehow been vetted by a YC committee. I mean I'm all in for fusion power, but so far it remains in the state of utterly edge-case research project into which governments all over the world have been pouring insane amounts of money in the hope for the holly grail of energy. And you are spawning a private company that is discussing the nitty-gritty details of applying that non-exis…
Helion Energy ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8178450 ) has been going 11 years and building prototypes and raising many millions by saying power is 5 years away or so and not publishing any results. So I guess that model works sort of. Currently "Helion claims it will build the world’s first nuclear fusion power plant by 2028 and has already secured a purchase agreement from Microsoft." but Sabine is sceptica…
Helion's timelines were always conditioned on funding, which they didn't get until years had passed. Adjusted for when they did get funding, they're pretty much on track.
Building seven prototypes, each larger and more advanced, doesn't seem to me like a knock against them.
Re: Launch HN: Maritime Fusion (YC W25) – Fusion Reactors for Ships
#229I had a startup in the bunker fuel market (BunkerEx - acquired a few years ago) - if you need any on the ground help let me know!
not a fusion founder myself - but would love to chat/validate a green maritime concept
email is in my profile, or leave email here
Re: Launch HN: Maritime Fusion (YC W25) – Fusion Reactors for Ships
#230Hey, how small do you think a fusion generator can get? Like, ships, sure. But how about car sized? Phone sized?
The scaling laws for fusion follow a power law for size and magnetic field (see https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/175830/nuclear-f... ), which allow for better break even for commercial applications for larger fusion reactors like ITER. All of the smaller fusion reactors proposed need to use high Tc superconducting wire to generator higher magnetic fields for smaller reactors.
And at the sizes CFS is building, we're already maxing out the structural strength of the reactors. We can't go much smaller with tokamaks, even if the superconductors get even better.