Q&A - Helion Energy, NIF, Space and more
Improbable Matter2 HN recommenders · recommended in 2 months, 2023–2023
lecture · advanced · 2023–2023 on HN
A roughly three-hour technical livestream Q&A on Helion Energy's fusion approach and the National Ignition Facility. It covers neutron production, shielding, energy recovery, diagnostics and why tokamaks might fare better.
HN commenters cite it as a detailed critical counterpoint to Helion's claims, for those who want more than the hype.
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4 comments from Hacker News
Additional resources for people who want to read or watch more on the subject: ▶ this video link /u/ValAslanyan is Improbable Matter and he gets into some interesting debates about Helion link link
The new video by the same guy who created the original criticism ▶ this video starting from 2:03:00 explains that 95% recovery efficiency is not the whole story.
The Q&A mentioned is likely this [0]. Do you have any hints which section would cover the upsides? [0] ▶ this video
The new video by the same guy ▶ this video from 32 min describes how Helion will get a lot of D+T neutrons from the secondary reactions despite all their efforts. Even without that the neutron flux from D+D reaction by Helion own admission will be enough to do a lot of damage within days of operation based on experience with slower fission neutrons.