Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Y Combinator And Mithril Invest In Helion, A Nuclear Fusion Startup

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

161–170 of 201 posts

Re: Y Combinator And Mithril Invest In Helion, A Nuclear Fusion Startup

#161

Post by malandrew »

malandrew wrote: post #61
TillE wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We've already weaponized nuclear fusion into the most destructive bomb ever created. It probably couldn't get a whole lot worse than that. I think there are other paths to sustainable energy, but certainly viable fusion power is the holy grail.

I don't understand why this was downvoted. I'm not going to discount the possibility to invent something worse then our most powerful fusion bomb, but if we talk probability here, developing processes that allow greater control is likely to result in a worst case scenario where we have a weapon that is at most as powerful as what we already have, but more focused. IMHO focused fusion destruction is likely to be far m…

I regret posting this comment due to all the completely unrelated commentary it generated, detracting from the startup in question. If you read this comment, please skip my comment above and all the replies. Your time is better spend reading about what this startup is doing.

Re: Y Combinator And Mithril Invest In Helion, A Nuclear Fusion Startup

#162

Post by phaemon »

wamatt wrote: post #137
rdl wrote: post #23

It'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 o…

Prof Mackay's talk pretty much says that in order to use renewable energy the whole UK would have to be covered in electricity generating equipment.

However, 15% of UK energy is generated from renewables (excluding nuclear), which would mean that currently one seventh of the landmass of the UK was covered in wind turbines etc. Which it isn't. You'd be able to tell.

So, one of us has made a mistake with our calculations somewhere.

Re: Y Combinator And Mithril Invest In Helion, A Nuclear Fusion Startup

#163

Post by mschuster91 »

phaemon wrote: post #162
wamatt wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 o…

Prof Mackay's talk pretty much says that in order to use renewable energy the whole UK would have to be covered in electricity generating equipment. However, 15% of UK energy is generated from renewables (excluding nuclear), which would mean that currently one seventh of the landmass of the UK was covered in wind turbines etc. Which it isn't. You'd be able to tell. So, one of us has made a mistake with our calculatio…

> However, 15% of UK energy is generated from renewables (excluding nuclear), which would mean that currently one seventh of the landmass of the UK was covered in wind turbines etc. Which it isn't.

Most likely brought in from other countries, and the wind parks in the North Sea.

Many local utilities in Germany hold stakes e.g. in a Norwegian (iirc) dam project, so they recieve a given amount of electricity output. This increases Germany's renewable-source amount even if the energy itself isn't produced in Germany.

Re: Y Combinator And Mithril Invest In Helion, A Nuclear Fusion Startup

#164

Post by mschuster91 »

kumarski wrote: post #86

The reasons Nuclear Fusion presents a difficult problem: 1.) There's no chain reaction mechanism. 2.) The probability of a reaction constrains reaction size. 3.) The absurd amount of heat generated by fusion. I think I once heard it was 100M degrees. Curious, anybody know how they design around this? Are they using some form of magnetized containment? Excited to see this funded.

> Curious, anybody know how they design around this?

Usually the stuff is hidden in a vacuum, which is a pretty good shield for heat.

Re: Y Combinator And Mithril Invest In Helion, A Nuclear Fusion Startup

#165

Post by phaemon »

mschuster91 wrote: post #163
phaemon wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Prof Mackay's talk pretty much says that in order to use renewable energy the whole UK would have to be covered in electricity generating equipment. However, 15% of UK energy is generated from renewables (excluding nuclear), which would mean that currently one seventh of the landmass of the UK was covered in wind turbines etc. Which it isn't. You'd be able to tell. So, one of us has made a mistake with our calculatio…

> However, 15% of UK energy is generated from renewables (excluding nuclear), which would mean that currently one seventh of the landmass of the UK was covered in wind turbines etc. Which it isn't. Most likely brought in from other countries, and the wind parks in the North Sea. Many local utilities in Germany hold stakes e.g. in a Norwegian (iirc) dam project, so they recieve a given amount of electricity output. Th…

Nope, Scotland over produces and sells to England, but that's still UK, at least for another month ;-)

Offshore wind was included in the impossible. There's something off in his figures. Perhaps wind turbines have become more efficient since he first made his calculations?

Re: Y Combinator And Mithril Invest In Helion, A Nuclear Fusion Startup

#166

Post by omegant »

dkirtley wrote: post #135
omegant wrote: post #123

Earlier 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?

Well there've been campaigns out there that have reached above $1 mill. It's difficult but doable, I don't know what kind of money will you need this three years, probably it's not worth the (PR) risk of failing to reach the goal quantity. On the other side it could be a way a good PR move on it's own. I'm sure there is some people at YC that are able to give an autoritative opinion.

There it's also the option of getting some scientific teams(universities, institutes) to help in a crowdsourcing way. For no money, just stock and the possibility to help with a world changing project like yours.

I know it's possible because I've got some high level volunteers (NASA, European level matematic institute, Airbus ingeneers) in contact with Dirk Ahlborn (Jumpstart) to work on the Hyperloop (they got more than 80 volunteers selected).

I don't know if having ingeneering, designers and matematician teams working remotely could be helpful to you at this moment, but it's another way to get people around the world to help, and now that you have YC backing it'll be easier.

Re: Y Combinator And Mithril Invest In Helion, A Nuclear Fusion Startup

#167

Post by rdl »

FiatLuxDave wrote: post #106
swalsh wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nuclear bombs aren't that dangerous though... in the grand scheme of things. That's because their use could trigger a chain reaction which creates a virtual apocalypse scenario. Basically ensuring their use impossible. What's scary is a weapon that can cause massive damage, that we are actually willing to use.

In the grand scheme of things, the situation that held during the Cold War was a historical accident. Not every nuclear bomb in the future will necessarily be possessed by nations who are facing adversaries who can respond in kind to the use of nuclear weapons. Nuclear weapons are very scary indeed, and we are very lucky to have made it decades since they have last been used in war. I have good faith that we will mak…

I think MAD between a small number of (mostly rational) actors was the best case scenario.

Sure, nuclear states vs. non-nuclear traditional states is the most likely use right now, but we're not that far off from non-state actors being able to make nuclear weapons. Right now the only real protection is limiting access to fissile material.

Re: Y Combinator And Mithril Invest In Helion, A Nuclear Fusion Startup

#168

Post by cududa »

pinaceae wrote: post #8

is this the equivalent of throwing shit at the wall and see what sticks? why do vcs with a specialty in software suddenly stray into completely unknown territory? nothing left to fund in software? rarely does this end well.

Sam switched from physics to software, so no. Not really

Re: Y Combinator And Mithril Invest In Helion, A Nuclear Fusion Startup

#169

Post by erkkie »

rdl wrote: post #167
FiatLuxDave wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the grand scheme of things, the situation that held during the Cold War was a historical accident. Not every nuclear bomb in the future will necessarily be possessed by nations who are facing adversaries who can respond in kind to the use of nuclear weapons. Nuclear weapons are very scary indeed, and we are very lucky to have made it decades since they have last been used in war. I have good faith that we will mak…

I think MAD between a small number of (mostly rational) actors was the best case scenario. Sure, nuclear states vs. non-nuclear traditional states is the most likely use right now, but we're not that far off from non-state actors being able to make nuclear weapons. Right now the only real protection is limiting access to fissile material.

What's worse, it's gonna soon be trivial for non-state actors to do similar (or worse) damage via bio. Fun times ahead.

Re: Y Combinator And Mithril Invest In Helion, A Nuclear Fusion Startup

#170

Post by bjelkeman-again »

ghshephard wrote: post #84
marcell wrote: post #60

Can someone explain why this team is confident that they can build a commercially viable reactor in 3 years? Conventional wisdom is that nuclear fusion is "decades away". What does this team know that others don't?

The type of Nuclear Fusion they are talking about is quite different than what ITER is working on. It's on a much smaller scale - around 50 MW, which is on the scale of a large diesel generator. The cost is also not that ground breaking - around $0.04/kWh, which is around where Natural Gas and Coal plants are.

To say that electricity from fusion at a price similar to coal is "not that ground breaking" is quite the understatement. That would be huge.
Post reply on HN