Comments by "Brandon" (@gravoc857) on "Dennis Whyte: Nuclear Fusion and the Future of Energy | Lex Fridman Podcast #353" video.

  1. Hopefully within you and I’s lifetime :). Small fusion reactors are looking to be easier than large fusion reactors with all the recent advancement.
    2
  2.  @drmemento  For Tokamak reactors, yes. That ain't the only type of reactor, as said expert alluded to. The Tokamak is proving to be the most challenging design and new designs are in the beginning stages of proving that smaller = better in terms of fusion.
    2
  3. Your personal algorithm thinks you want to watch Lex. You have to train your algorithm. By allowing auto play to continuously play Lex Fridman, you’re only reinforcing your algo’s assumption that you want to watch Lex. Be refined in what videos you select and your algorithm will adjust.
    1
  4. I prefer he doesn’t do ad reads. We get barraged with artificial bullshit sales pitches all day everyday. Let this remain a safe haven away from the consumerist society bullshit that MUST sell and consume.
    1
  5. Issue is renewables and electricity are highly reliant on rare earth metals such as nickel, cobalt, and lithium. It’s sparked a gold rush of sorts known as the rare earth rush. As rare earths become more desirable, so does the desire to strip mine the ocean. By continuing the green revolution, it will inevitably bring on the total ecological destruction of the ocean floor as mining/extraction companies destroy entire ecosystems. The solution is fission until we get fusion. It has the least net negative effect on the globe as a whole, as well as a really high net positive energy output.
    1
  6. Good news is helium-3 is more abundant on earth than previously thought. This is puzzling to scientists though as it challenges our model of Earth’s proto-formation. The 2nd solution is harvesting Helium-3 from lunar regolith. Which Blue Origins, NASA, ESA, Russia (lol), and China are all currently engaged in a space race to do.
    1
  7. A fellow Isaac aficionado. People like us like to think about what humanity could achieve in a timeline far beyond you and I’s mortality. To me, it’s obvious that mega projects are to come when it’s the last frontier standing in humanities way. We’re too stubborn and too driven by a yearn to take on challenges and complexity to accept that it’s impossible.
    1
  8. Energy isn’t being created. Precisely as you’re on about, it’s being conserved as the input/output remains the same. The piece you’re missing is ignition. This is a sustained fusion reaction. It’s a bit different than a domino effect in fission. In fission, the domino effect exponentially snowballs if not controlled until it results in a nuclear explosion. This right here is what makes fission a really good and controllable energy source as you can control the chain reaction to produce a steady supply of convertible energy. In fusion, there is no exponential snowball. There is only ignition, and then the termination of ignition. Humanity can easily reach ignition. We’ve been able to ignite fusion reactions since the 1950’s. The challenge comes from sustaining ignition. It takes a HUGE amount of energy to reach ignition, which is why fusion hasn’t been viable as a fuel source. As once ignition is reached, the fusion reaction fizzes out before a net positive of energy gain can be reached. There’s two solutions to sustaining ignition. The first one is to pour energy continuously into the reaction, which obviously isn’t ideal as we’ll always be net negative with this approach. The 2nd solution is the one that scientists and engineers have been working on for basically 70 years. That solution is to spend the energy to trigger ignition and then enclose that ignition in an environment in which it can sustain itself. It’s been incredibly challenging and honestly the problems are so vast that I don’t know if true fusion will occur in my lifetime. But anyways back to the point. What makes a self sustained ignition a net positive energy gain? Where is this energy coming from because it certainly seems like it’s being created thus violating conservation of energy. The solution is simple. It’s alpha particles. When fusion occurs, a neutron is released, alongside alpha particles. Humanity cannot harvest the alpha particles and convert them to usable energy. That’s the role of the neutron. Humanity harvests the neutron and converts it to human-usable energy. The alpha particles that get knocked off the elements during fusion will add energy back into the ignition. If humanity can build an enclosed environment that is efficient enough at trapping the alpha particles within the reaction, then they can indefinitely sustain fusion until the fuel source is spent. Again this is where they’re currently at and no one has quite found the answer yet. Whoever can make an economic and industrially scalable containment device that achieves net-positive fusion ignition stands to make unfathomable wealth.
    1