A New Way to Achieve Nuclear Fusion: Helion

If you want to learn more about Helion, I recommend you watch this excellent video by Real Engineering ▶ this video

Regarding fusion - have you seen Helion’s approach? [0] It seems their approach removes many of the issues with Tokamak or Laser Pulsed fusion. It also reduces most of the feedstock issues with the two part fuel breeding approach. Their approach seems easier to be optimistic about. [0] ▶ this video

There's a fusion startup called Helion near Seattle working on this, it'll be really exciting if it pans out at scale. This video was a fascinating watch: ▶ this video

Video regarding Helion that sama just posted: ▶ this video . Note that Helion says it can get D + D to work, which eliminates much of the OP's concern about tritium. The company is also hiring: link I do not personally have the ability or knowledge to independently evaluate claims, but the history of "it will never work" for something that does not outright violate the laws of physics as we understand them is notable too.

I'm far more excited by the innovative Helion fusion design, which unlike the NIF is intended for commercial use, and is in an advanced stage of development. NIF seems more like a way to conduct military related nuclear physiscs research rather than intended/suitable to ever be used for power generation. ▶ this video Helion seems far more practical than the Tomahawk designs such as ITER, which seem they'll be too expensive to compete with solar/wind.

They've been through a few generations of test machines. They have something called "Polaris". It was supposed to be finished around the end of 2024.[1] Their own site still talks of it as being under construction. Discussion on Reddit.[2] They previously built something called "Trenta".[3] That generates two balls of plasma and fires them at each other. There's no fusion or fusion fuel. It's a test rig for plasma generation and manipulation. That was running two years ago. "Polaris" is a scale-up of Trenta, with something to fuse, and with energy recovery. It's very unclear how far that project has progressed. If they were getting energy out, that would be big news. Helion is vague about how that's progressing. [1] link [2] link [3] ▶ this video

Or the fact that Microsoft believes they have cracked *fusion* power. Sun in a bottle. Microsoft is breaking ground in WA state building a new fusion reactor. link EDIT: Adding description to video link Video from Real Engineering showing Helion's Pulsed Compression Fusion reactor prototype (2022). The same kind of reactor Helion is building in WA state for Microsoft. ▶ this video

The steam reactor I guess you might be describing is tokamak, which i agree will be a dead end technology. There are interesting small fusion reactors that skip the steam step. They compress plasma magnetically, and when the fusion happens, the expanding plasma in turn expands the magnetic field, and the energy is harvested directly from the field. No steam and turbines. Here is the video where I learned about it: ▶ this video Maybe any physicists in this thread could share insight on how feasible this is? Your main point stands of course: this is a moonshot project, and solar works TODAY!

No, there are multiple projects and companies that are making good progress toward commercially practical fusion reactors. Helion Energy has a contract to deliver Microsoft a fusion reactor by 2028. It's only four years away so we don't need to speculate about it. Helion will either deliver or they won't: link ▶ this video link MIT's Commonwealth Fusion Systems has started construction of their small scale SPARC reactor. Once that has proven itself they will build a larger scale ARC reactor. They should get to first plasma in 2025: link link link link

I just realized it's THAT Helion. Their fusion experiments are not without controversy. Here's a video on explaining how it works: ▶ this video And here's a video explaining what's wrong with the scheme: link But the TLDW version is that environment required for fusing He3 with deuterium also leads to deuterium fusing with itself, a reaction that creates neutron radiation that irradiates its environment.

Helion Energy link : > They are developing a magneto-inertial fusion technology to produce helium-3 and fusion power via aneutronic fusion, [2][3] which could produce low-cost clean electric energy using a fuel that is derived exclusively from water. [4] Here's the part of the Real Engineering video where it is explained how 3He and 4He Helium isotopes are fusion byproducts and fuel used to generate electricity with nuclear fusion: ▶ this video (From "When Will Fusion Energy Light Our Homes?" (2023) link ) Doesn't this new nuclear fusion process also change the valuation of the Tritium in [Fukushima Daiichi,] heavy water? Why would you dump money into the ocean?

We have that part covered; though unclear that we could get four systems into close enough proximity without negatively impacting each other. ▶ this video Still, if it allowed for more complete burning and/or less power input per axis…