Helion Energy to demonstrate net electricity production by 2024

Point out news stories, on the net or in mainstream media, related to polywell fusion.

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Skipjack
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Re: Helion Energy to demonstrate net electricity production by 2024

Post by Skipjack »

mvanwink5 wrote:
Sat May 21, 2022 1:30 pm
SJ,
Thanks for that insight, besides, 50 MWe is a good modular size.

On the subject of Musk, in an interview he voiced the opinion that he believes that fusion will never be economical. I have no idea why he holds that view, who he is listening to.
Yeah, that is what I remember him saying. I think he is just thinking of the big fusion projects at the national labs. The guys there are still very skeptical of Helion and ZAP. Boy are they going to be in for a surprise!

Carl White
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Re: Helion Energy to demonstrate net electricity production by 2024

Post by Carl White »

Skipjack wrote:
Sat May 21, 2022 5:44 pm
I think he is just thinking of the big fusion projects at the national labs. The guys there are still very skeptical of Helion and ZAP.
Quoting Upton Sinclair:

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it."

Skipjack
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Joined: Sun Sep 28, 2008 2:29 pm

Re: Helion Energy to demonstrate net electricity production by 2024

Post by Skipjack »

Our electrical engineering team has successfully tested our new continuously operating pulsed semiconductor switch technology for the Polaris program. Tested to 52% higher switched energy than required!
HelionSwitchTechnology.JPG
HelionSwitchTechnology.JPG (91.68 KiB) Viewed 4292 times
https://twitter.com/Helion_Energy/statu ... r1kCn-3_Gw

Carl White
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Re: Helion Energy to demonstrate net electricity production by 2024

Post by Carl White »

David Kirtley's retweet:

"These new switches are great! In the photo is an impedance-matching toroid for the single switch test bed. Phase 2 requires more switches!"

https://twitter.com/dekirtley/status/15 ... fsrc=email

Although we hear about the successes, naturally companies aren't as ready to talk about any snags or problems they've encountered. I hope it's been smooth sailing for them.

mvanwink5
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Location: N.C. Mountains

Re: Helion Energy to demonstrate net electricity production by 2024

Post by mvanwink5 »

Although we hear about the successes, naturally companies aren't as ready to talk about any snags or problems they've encountered.
Helion has not only demonstrated the ability to scale but to also improve their performance rather than lose performance. Therefore news of technical build successes and building milestones reached are what I am looking for, so the switch updates are welcome news for me.

edit for wording, LOL
Counting the days to commercial fusion. It is not that long now.

Skipjack
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Joined: Sun Sep 28, 2008 2:29 pm

Re: Helion Energy to demonstrate net electricity production by 2024

Post by Skipjack »

https://twitter.com/Helion_Energy/statu ... poMVFTpk1g
Our team has successfully installed and pumped down the fused silica formation chamber for the Polaris program's FRC plasma formation test! This test will form and accelerate millions of FRC plasmas, providing more data to improve our plasma formation capabilities.
HelionFRC_Formation.JPG
HelionFRC_Formation.JPG (64.59 KiB) Viewed 3866 times

Skipjack
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Re: Helion Energy to demonstrate net electricity production by 2024

Post by Skipjack »

Inside of the building that will be housing Polaris. The name of the facility that will house Polaris is now "Ursa", after Ursa Minor, the constellation that Polaris (the star) is a part of:
HelionUrsa_interior.JPG
HelionUrsa_interior.JPG (47.9 KiB) Viewed 3642 times

Skipjack
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Re: Helion Energy to demonstrate net electricity production by 2024

Post by Skipjack »

Seems like Helion encountered a small snag with the vacuum seals for their Polaris FRC formation test, but they managed to fix that quickly from the looks of it:
HelionFRC_Formation_Update.JPG
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mvanwink5
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Re: Helion Energy to demonstrate net electricity production by 2024

Post by mvanwink5 »

Larger systems, tougher vacuum sealing. Details.

Love the pictures.
Counting the days to commercial fusion. It is not that long now.

Skipjack
Posts: 6805
Joined: Sun Sep 28, 2008 2:29 pm

Re: Helion Energy to demonstrate net electricity production by 2024

Post by Skipjack »

mvanwink5 wrote:
Thu Jul 07, 2022 8:22 am
Larger systems, tougher vacuum sealing. Details.

Love the pictures.
It is pretty normal for a first test to find problems with seals. They got it fixed already. No biggie.
I love how the picture of Ursa gives a sense of scale of the facility and Antares is much bigger even.

Skipjack
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Re: Helion Energy to demonstrate net electricity production by 2024

Post by Skipjack »

And more Helion News today!
Helion_EmailNewsletter_07072022.JPG
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mvanwink5
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Re: Helion Energy to demonstrate net electricity production by 2024

Post by mvanwink5 »

Large vacuum equipment sealing takes great care at the high vacuum levels these guys work with. I have great respect for the perfection needed. Exciting to see the progress.
Counting the days to commercial fusion. It is not that long now.

kurt9
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Re: Helion Energy to demonstrate net electricity production by 2024

Post by kurt9 »

Do these fusion reactors require ultra high vacuum (10-10 torr) or do they work with regular high vacuum (10-6 torr)?

I've worked a lot with high vacuum tools, but not ultra high vacuum tools. The only process tools I've worked with in the ultra high vacuum regime are MBE (molecular beam epitaxy) systems that required a three day "bake out" process to get them down to the UHV regime.

Carl White
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Re: Helion Energy to demonstrate net electricity production by 2024

Post by Carl White »

kurt9 wrote:
Thu Jul 07, 2022 4:04 pm
Do these fusion reactors require ultra high vacuum (10-10 torr) or do they work with regular high vacuum (10-6 torr)?
There was a Reuters article that provided an image with the following text appended:

"Fusion energy startup Helion Energy's engineers test turbo pumps under ultra-high vacuum for their next generation generator Polaris, in Redmond, Washington, U.S. in this undated handout image obtained by Reuters. "

https://www.reuters.com/business/energy ... 021-11-05/

kurt9
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Re: Helion Energy to demonstrate net electricity production by 2024

Post by kurt9 »

Turbo pumps alone will not get you to UHV. You need a cryo-trap as well. Diffusion pumps can get you to UHV and they have the benefit of having no moving parts. But they are finicky to use in other ways and create quite a mess if shut down improperly.

The spacing between the bolts on the flanges look like that of UHV. The middle section looks like a cryo-trap as well.

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