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Helion’s fusion power purchase agreement with Microsoft

helionenergy.com

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Re: Helion’s fusion power purchase agreement with Microsoft

#251

Post by gfodor »

aww_dang wrote: post #76
gfodor wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're making the mistake of thinking the person you were replying to was actually wondering why they would do this - and not just jumping to their own cynical conclusions (which they did before "asking" their question) and cathartically posting them here.

Is engaging with good faith a mistake? It seems less perilous than mind-reading. I found the reply informative.

No, engaging with good faith isn't a mistake, but the person you were replying to admitted in the sentence before their question that they already had decided what the answer was. This is a common communication pattern I try avoiding engagement with since it's set up to sound like a person is asking a question when they're actually making a statement. (Though agreed that it's not always a fruitless effort.)

Re: Helion’s fusion power purchase agreement with Microsoft

#252

Post by Apofis »

thepasswordis wrote: post #58

HN, what the heck has happened to you? What is with all of these cynical comments? Helion is an awesome company, their technology is real, and this is cool. >oh no this might not work! Do you guys not understand that you’re posting on the forum of a venture capital firm/startup accelerator?

Considering less than 30% of startups are successfully by any measure, HN should be way more optimistic. I wonder where that sentiment is coming from.

Re: Helion’s fusion power purchase agreement with Microsoft

#253

Post by DubiousPusher »

bequanna wrote: post #250
DubiousPusher wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is one of those all too common misunderstandings of how engineering works. There's some idea that once designs and theory are done, that engineering is some kind of straight forward act of stamp collecting and that the best thing is always to wait until the problems are worked out on paper before we start to build. But in fact the engineering itself is exploratory. And often times, to understand something, you j…

Right... But given how quickly our understanding is evolving on how we can create fusion, did it make sense to take on a project this big and settle on a specific design type?

I don't think that was the case when ITER was conceived or started. The flood of fusion news we see is relatively recent.

And to be perfectly frank, a lot of it bursts onto the scene with sensational claims, never to be heard from again. At the end of ITER, there will be a thing. And probably, it will do most of what it was projected to do. We can't say the same for almost any of these other advances, compelling as they may sound.

Lastly, I'll point out this. "Breakthroughs" are rarely made in isolation. Are you so sure that without the billions that have gone into Lawrence Livermore, ITER and such that these other "breakthroughs" would even be happening? If there is no market for nuclear engineers, there will be fewer nuclear engineers. There's fewer people to bounce ideas off of and peer review your work. There's fewer people to come up with the small innovations that add up to a big result. There's fewer colleagues to get you that next gig where your team might beat a hard problem.

Re: Helion’s fusion power purchase agreement with Microsoft

#256

Post by Gud »

throw9away6 wrote: post #245
Gud wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No it didn’t. The world is an amazing place. I am thankful to be alive.

Must be nice to be a 1% er

I'm not rich, I'm broke af. Doesn't stop me from choosing happiness. What's the alternative? Spend my life in misery? I tried that for a decade, didn't work out well for me. Now I choose to be happy. I choose to be the best I can be. Moping around sure as shit didn't fix my problems

Re: Helion’s fusion power purchase agreement with Microsoft

#257

Post by tim333 »

YetAnotherNick wrote: post #147
ramraj07 wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean I won’t put MY money in to Helion. From whatever I’ve read it’s not that simple for Helion to get their reactor to work and even if they did it likely won’t produce meaningful net power. But let’s see.

Of course you shouldn't unless you have billions lying dedicated for leaving your legacy. It is a semi moonshot semi charity project, I don't think even investors would disagree with this. Similar to what OpenAI was like 4 years ago when it raised $1B as a non profit.

Well as a small investor there's no way to get in really. But if they sold shares at a modest valuation I'd give it a punt.

I mean I kind of agree that the microsoft thing is probably a bit of a stunt give that I think they haven't generated any net electrical output at all yet. But I think they have a reasonable chance of getting it working at some point.

Re: Helion’s fusion power purchase agreement with Microsoft

#258

Post by pfdietz »

tigerlily wrote: post #254
pfdietz wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, I don't believe that works.

I took a brief dive, and have to admit that I think your conclusion was right.

p-11B fusion is really hard. Fortunately, the folks at Helion have found ways to greatly reduce the DT neutron production in their reactors. They still will have neutrons from DD reactions, but those neutrons are much less damaging due to their lower energy.
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