Nuclear Fusion: Who'll Be First To Make It Work?

Sabine Hossenfelder
Sabine Hossenfelder
533,327
0
Published 2023-03-18
Try out my quantum mechanics course (and many others on math and science) on Brilliant using the link brilliant.org/sabine. You can get started for free, and the first 200 will get 20% off the annual premium subscription.

Correction to what I say at 25:08 -- That should have been 100 million Kelvin, not 100! Sorry about that.

In this video we survey the biggest and most interesting nuclear fusion startups which want to make nuclear fusion commercially relevant. What are the different approaches, how far along are they, and what are the pros and cons. This video has been in the works for months and it's the longest video we've made so far, almost half an hour, so I hope you have a comfortable seat!

Many thanks to Jordi BusquΓ© for helping with this video jordibusque.com/

πŸ‘‰ Transcript and References on Patreon ➜ www.patreon.com/Sabine
πŸ’Œ Support us on Donatebox ➜ donorbox.org/swtg
πŸ“© Sign up for my weekly science newsletter. It's free! ➜ sabinehossenfelder.com/newsletter/
πŸ”— Join this channel to get access to perks ➜
youtube.com/channel/UC1yNl2E66ZzKApQdRuTQ4tw/join

00:00 Intro
01:35 Nuclear Fusion Pros and Cons
04:37 Approaches to Nuclear Fusion
07:34 Field Confinement, Tokamaks
12:57 Field Confinement, Stellarators
16:19 Field Confinement, Plasma Beams
21:15 Inertial Confinement
24:04 Hybrid Approaches
27:31 Summary
28:20 Learn Physics With Brilliant

#science #tech
All Comments (21)
  • @JustPassingThrough404
    What a star. Sabine manages to provide an excellent overview but in an interesting ,entertaining and actually humorous way. Speaks for 30 mins whilst maintaining one’s interest. Marvellous - love the videos. Thanks.
  • @tremkl
    For April’s Fool Day, you should release an episode of Gobbledygook without the Science.
  • @matthewgillam-lewis6831
    I had to be rushed to the emergency department while I was watching this video because your joke about Elons favorite child ST80-HTS had me literally dying. Omg. Dr Hossenfelder, you’re often very funny, but that was solid gold! πŸ™Œ Thank you so much for your detailed and in-depth science videos. I learn so much from you and love your sense of humor. (And I’ll be sending you the bill from my hospital visit as a token of appreciation. πŸ˜†)
  • @mikeconant4777
    Sabine, this is one of your best videos yet, especially for those of us most interested in how physics principles translate into useful applications. Well-researched, balanced, un-hyped, and succinct.
  • @aaronohrt1907
    My three takeaways from this video about fusion: 1. Wow. I too am now actually optimistic. 2. Sabine is an international treasue. 3. I need to do more with my life. Absolutely inspiring human ingenuity and effort. Incredible.
  • @datup09
    I almost spat out my Flammkuchen when you said it was named after one of EM's children 🀣...top notch!
  • @earthknight60
    It's not a startup, but Lockheed's Skunkworks department has been working on small, 'portable' fusion reactors for a long time and have an interesting design. As a continuation of this episode it might be interesting to talk about the non-startup organizations working on fusion.
  • @davidgunther8428
    I'm hopeful Helion's approach with direct electrical conversion works. If they're able to avoid a steam generation cycle entirely that will be is own breakthrough!
  • @ignispurgatorius5297
    I don't know, between fuel scarcity, durability and general net-gain issues (all of them being frankly understatements on my part), I still remain rather skeptical that we will see a comerically viable fusion reactor any time soon.
  • @shadowdragon3521
    I like that Helion produces electricity directly rather than having to spin a big turbine. If it works, then that seems like it would be a huge boost in efficiency.
  • @DEtchells
    Brilliant overview and summary, Sabine! I find it amusing that two of the approaches involve respectively gunpowder and steam pistons. Steampunk fusion πŸ˜‚
  • @Sarafan92
    Thanks for reuploading with the corrections! Great overview on the subject. Exciting times lie ahead :)
  • @azdgariarada
    I've been intrigued by Helion for awhile now, and I was happy to see they made Sabine's list. I just wish she'd spent a bit more time on them, perhaps explaining why she's skeptical about their timetable. Overall great video, and I'm also very enthusiastic about the future of this technology.