Amazing that this kind of research can be funded with a mere .0015 Instagrams (or even better, .00008 Whatsapps).
Y Combinator And Mithril Invest In Helion, A Nuclear Fusion Startup
131–140 of 201 posts
Re: Y Combinator And Mithril Invest In Helion, A Nuclear Fusion Startup
#132Earlier quoted context omitted.
Perhaps low cost (25L, ~$600) is relative, depending on the purity, but am unsure how much scale a project like this would use.
I wouldn't be surprised if that cost is still a drop in the bucket compared to salaries though. How much deuterium is a startup like this likely to go through in a month?
Totally correct. Right now we simply purchase D2 gas in small quantity so the price is relatively high. But even at those prices we'll probably spend on the order of only $100 per month on D2 when we're operating.
Re: Y Combinator And Mithril Invest In Helion, A Nuclear Fusion Startup
#133Earlier quoted context omitted.
or dead; possibly both (i dearly hope not for both cases!). a working fusion reactor with advertised properties will disrupt the current political balance of power on the planet. intelligence agencies of certain fossil fuel-driven countries might get orders to not let the situation go that far. hopefully certain other intelligence agencies will be able to protect the effort.
This is needlessly conspiratorial. Oil companies and sovereign wealth funds are some of the biggest investors in renewables on earth. Everyone knows we will reach peak oil at some point, whether through increasingly costly extraction/taxation or increasingly cheap renewable competitors. There is no 'grand conspiracy' to quash alternative energy sources.
i'm not talking about any grand conspiracy, i'm far from it. what i'm concerned about is what is happening about a thousand miles east from where i live - in eastern ukraine - and what happens to russian economy when europe stops buying their natural resources because we don't need them anymore.
Re: Y Combinator And Mithril Invest In Helion, A Nuclear Fusion Startup
#134For that kind of money they could've just kickstarted it.
Focus Fusion tried that, and it netted them only $180k plus some private investments. https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/focus-fusion-empowerthewo...
True but their goal was only $200k, and they started with minimal funds for marketing.
Re: Y Combinator And Mithril Invest In Helion, A Nuclear Fusion Startup
#135Earlier quoted context omitted.
Both GF and us (Helion) are attempting to dramatically shrink the size and cost of fusion reactors. We are doing that by compressing a fusion plasma repeatedly to generate energy, rather than trying to heat and confine it for long periods. The main difference is that Helion uses high field pulsed magnets to compress the plasma, GF uses pistons to generate liquid metal shocks.
Are you guys thinking in a crowdfounding campaign, I'll give money to help projects like yours.
Not yet, right now we are focused on pushing the technical milestones as fast as possible. This is a great question, what do people here think about a crowdfunding campaign for something like fusion, is it worth it?
Re: Y Combinator And Mithril Invest In Helion, A Nuclear Fusion Startup
#136Earlier quoted context omitted.
Great reply. The wiki also has a long discussion about Helium 3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium-3 Fusion produces neutrons either in the first or secondary reactions, but there are ways to minimize the amount of them and their energy (and damage/radioactivity)to where you don't generate "nuclear waste". There is an interesting continuum of fusion reactions from pure D-D (which produces little energy, but lots of…
He3 is never added? How long can a reactor run without supplying He3? (This thread is having a hard time settling on a single isotope notation.)
The best way to make Helium 3 is with Deuterium fusion. Its a very interesting bootstrap question -- how do you build new reactors, if you have to have working reactors to generate fuel?
Re: Y Combinator And Mithril Invest In Helion, A Nuclear Fusion Startup
#137It's interesting that you can justify this investment in at least four separate ways, independently: 1) Even if there is a low chance of success, it would be wildly profitable if successful, and investing early gets you a good share if it's successful. 2) Fusion power would make the world a better place; investing in this way, when you already have huge returns and it's someone else's money, is actually rational even…
It's insanely cool that YC is now part of this. Also love that pg credits Sam for making it happen.
On a somewhat related note. Despite the setbacks and the bad rep nuclear gets, fusion really could be a better future. The energy density is in a class of its own, compared to that of renewables. Prof David MacKay demonstrates this quite effectively here[1]. This of course is not to take anything away from renewables or imply we shouldn't pursue funding both.
One group of companies I find particularly interesting, are those attempting aneutronic fusion.[2]
Like many good ideas, that became bad ideas (in the 60's), it appears to now be back in fashion.[3] Theoretical advancements have pushed the achievable temperature ceiling northwards, allowing a move towards commercialization.
Whether this particular line of fusion innovation will ultimately pan out, is perhaps anyone's guess. Personally however, I suspect there is a chance it can work. The benefits would be almost too good to pass up. Small, modular, cheap and safe (with almost no radioactive waste)
Some examples in the industry:
Raman-budget: Focus Fusion [4]
Secretive and heavily funded: Tri Alpha Energy [5]
[1] http://www.ted.com/talks/david_mackay_a_reality_check_on_ren...
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aneutronic_fusion
[3] https://www.sciencenews.org/article/proton-boron-nuclear-fus...
[4] https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/focus-fusion-empowerthewo...
Re: Y Combinator And Mithril Invest In Helion, A Nuclear Fusion Startup
#138Earlier quoted context omitted.
I won't deny it's complicated, but there's more to thinking about how we conduct war than just the proximal individual act of killing. Two cultures that, for instance, respect military vs. civilian distinctions may war with each other with much less total damage than two cultures that practice Total War, even if the political outcome is the same in the end. Just because war is bad does not mean we are forced to throw…
War, itself, is a pretty damned sophomoric thing.
This is a simplification. Defending yourself against unprovoked attack is not juvenile, although there are moral systems that advocate rolling over and giving up if you are attacked. And there is a whole spectrum of combat actions where "defense against unprovoked attack" is one extreme.
In industrialized countries, wars of aggression are usually never profitable, but the same can unfortunately not be said for less-developed societies. Even Europe didn't find this obvious until after World War 2. So I guess it ends up being a question of how you define "sophomoric".
Re: Y Combinator And Mithril Invest In Helion, A Nuclear Fusion Startup
#139Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are you guys thinking in a crowdfounding campaign, I'll give money to help projects like yours.
Not yet, right now we are focused on pushing the technical milestones as fast as possible. This is a great question, what do people here think about a crowdfunding campaign for something like fusion, is it worth it?
What kind of money would make such an attempt worthwhile? I'd imagine we're talking sums well above your average Kickstarter.
Re: Y Combinator And Mithril Invest In Helion, A Nuclear Fusion Startup
#140Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The risk of #3 is that they don't create fusion but they do develop a machine that can emit streams of hot plasma which is then turned into the Navy's weapon of choice for close weapons support on carrier battle groups. The possibility of pivoting your business model to "building plasma cannons for the Navy" is less of a risk and more of an awesome opportunity. I mean, defense contracting is a bit of a drag and the…
"I mean, defense contracting is a bit of a drag and there's tons of red tape" Not to mention the tremendous moral hazard. I am unclear as to how anyone can function as a reasonable moral actor when they profit from war. Calling it "defense" does not solve that problem.
Plasma cannons don't kill people, people kill people, and we've already invented those.