Helion Energy to demonstrate net electricity production by 2024

[mvanwink5]

Very nice.

[mvanwink5]

Coils arrived! Building is ready! Wow! Go Helion.

[Skipjack]

Piiiiiicture....

HelionTweetCoils.JPG (57.64 KiB) Viewed 4798 times

[Carl White]

If only the webcode here offered upvoting.

[mvanwink5]

Piiiiiicture....

Beautiful sight to behold...

[crowberry]

It's nice to see the progress possible when funding is not the limiting factor.

That building is quite large so a lot of activities will fit in there. I wonder how much space is required for Polaris with the needed capacitor banks and other equipment?

[Skipjack]

It's nice to see the progress possible when funding is not the limiting factor.

That building is quite large so a lot of activities will fit in there. I wonder how much space is required for Polaris with the needed capacitor banks and other equipment?

This is the Antares building, the larger facility that they are building the Polaris building right next to. Antares is essentially where they build and assemble their machines (not just the Polaris machine, but future machines as well). From what I remember, Trenta was recently moved there as well.
Antares is huge compared to Polaris. Helion has recently acquired a 3rd facility in Everett as well. That one will house their toolshop, where they are making the machines to make the machines...
Picture: Antares is the building to the left, the red outline marks the rough size and location of the Polaris building:

HelionLocationMarked.jpg (175.04 KiB) Viewed 4678 times

[Skipjack]

Small video of plasmoids merging in Trenta. Unfortunately Twitter only for now:
https://twitter.com/Helion_Energy/statu ... khp-nWy9pg

[Skipjack]

David Kirtley will be presenting at the White House Fusion summit tomorrow:

KirtleyWhiteHouse.JPG (56.27 KiB) Viewed 4096 times

Other FIA members like ZAP, CFS and TAE also have representatives there. This could be a very interesting event to watch!
https://www.whitehouse.gov/ostp/events-webinars/

[Carl White]

The panel David Kirtley is on begins at 2:20:17 (https://youtu.be/oUknjLH4HEo?t=8417).

Pretty much the first thing that the moderator says is, "We've just heard some really amazing, concrete ways that we can pull people in and make this community bigger... get these companies to share what they're working on to promote diversity and energy justice at their organizations".

A quick skim of the preceding material suggests it's in the same vein.

I hope this kind of politics doesn't get in the way. The emphasis should be on clearing away hurdles at this point.

[mvanwink5]

diversity and energy justice

Word salad.

[Skipjack]

Great info at yesterday's NRC meeting. Lot's of new details about Helion's machine and power plant concept:
https://adamswebsearch2.nrc.gov/webSear ... L22081A057
Key takaways:
Machine will be 20 meters long and 3 meters in diameter (roughly what we anticipated but this is the first time we see a firm number). That means it will be road transportable like a Falcon 9 first stage.
They still aim for net electricity generation in 2024.

[Munchausen]

Very interesting!

A little reflection on the dosage estimations in the accident scenarios on page 119: They are given no time dimension. Why? Are they designating total accumulated dose relating to the released core content?

I have seen a lot of maps of charted dosage from Fukushima and they are depicting microSievert per hour.

Anyway, if dose scenarios from from even remotely plausible accident scenarios ("Entire vacuum vessel wall turned to dust") fall in this range, it must be questioned whether this technology should be regulated at all.

Nuclear safety regulations somehow fails to recognise the dangers of not producing the energy. The ultimate result of not using nuclear power is energy scarcity.

Which is way more dangerous than any nuclear power plant has ever been. It kept human population numbers low for millennias and made life a misery for the few that still managed to make a living.

[Skipjack]

Very interesting!

A little reflection on the dosage estimations in the accident scenarios on page 119: They are given no time dimension. Why? Are they designating total accumulated dose relating to the released core content?

I have seen a lot of maps of charted dosage from Fukushima and they are depicting microSievert per hour.

Anyway, if dose scenarios from from even remotely plausible accident scenarios ("Entire vacuum vessel wall turned to dust") fall in this range, it must be questioned whether this technology should be regulated at all.

Nuclear safety regulations somehow fails to recognise the dangers of not producing the energy. The ultimate result of not using nuclear power is energy scarcity.

Which is way more dangerous than any nuclear power plant has ever been. It kept human population numbers low for millennias and made life a misery for the few that still managed to make a living.

I fully agree with everything you said. I think the dosage is total accumulated dose, but I can ask David for clarification on this.

[mvanwink5]

Great info at yesterday's NRC meeting. Lot's of new details about Helion's machine and power plant concept:
https://adamswebsearch2.nrc.gov/webSear ... L22081A057
Key takaways:
Machine will be 20 meters long and 3 meters in diameter (roughly what we anticipated but this is the first time we see a firm number). That means it will be road transportable like a Falcon 9 first stage.
They still aim for net electricity generation in 2024.

What this means is that Helion's fusion electric generator will be manufactured, then delivered to the site rather than the other alternatives which will be built on site from parts shipped in. Massive advantage in cost, beyond the already advantage of not needing huge heat rejection systems like cooling towers seen on fission or fossil plants, with the large consumption of cooling water.