Helion Energy to demonstrate net electricity production by 2024

[Munchausen]

New video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oswGdRTyppg

It certainly looks like a serious operation.

[baking]

Running out of 2025 days. I wonder what the issue is?

"Q: It's just that gradual process of just doing more and more tests? A: And every day you add a system, you upgrade, you go to higher power, honestly, some days you break things."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oswGdRTyppg&t=586s

You know, science.

[mvanwink5]

I wonder if the issue is tuning the electronics, massive power in, timed, then massive power back out to the capacitors, **add in plasma dynamics**, fusion reaction timing. (we had 10,000 HP or 7.5 MW, variable speed inductive motors driven by power electronics, key a radio nearby & watch them shutdown, & these power circuits were a commercial product, Helion builds their own power supplies for GW’s & microsecond pulses).

Crazy.

[baking]

I wonder if the issue is tuning the electronics, massive power in, timed, then massive power back out to the capacitors, **add in plasma dynamics**, fusion reaction timing. (we had 10,000 HP or 7.5 MW, variable speed inductive motors driven by power electronics, key a radio nearby & watch them shutdown, & these power circuits were a commercial product, Helion builds their own power supplies for GW’s & microsecond pulses).

Crazy.

Helion recently released a couple of videos describing full-size "bench-top" setups in which they connect a large capacitor bank to a coil to work out potential bugs in the system.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1R51Z9-TM4&t=213s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyOL2S3N6Kw&t=456s

[mvanwink5]

Baker, TY for pulling the vids & links. Insight into the reality of Helion Fusion Generator build is helpful in calibrating time expectation. As a guess, the hard engineering is behind Helion by now, but we will just have to wait for the plasma optimization results.

[Skipjack]

Much of the show was background information. My notes from latter part of the interview:
1:41 With FRC, one can recover the input energy at 90 or 95%, and the fusion energy at 80%

that's funny, 80% was actually my BOE/WAG a year or so ago... don't think they've given out a number before

I have said that before.

[Skipjack]

From all I have heard, they are still carefully ramping up power to the compression magnets and doing tests with "simulators" at the same time. They are deliberately careful with ramping up to "15 Tesla". Think about one of those pulsed magnets failing catastrophically! It is not "pretty". So, they are cautious.
My take:
The problem they have with Polaris is that it turned into a large and expensive machine with a lot of parts that are not easily replaced because they had to produce many of them in- house rather than being able to buy them off the shelf. It is sort of ironic because that was what they originally wanted to side- step with their design. But after COVID and the ensuing supply chain problems a lot of things changed (not just for them, btw).
Don't get me wrong here! I am not saying that Helion is on a bad trajectory, but they have certainly not been able to move as quickly as they thought they would be because of that (who is not behind, though?).
IMHO COVID and everything that came with that has made everything worse for everyone and might have cost humanity years (not just in the fusion field). Sometimes I wonder whether it would have been better to just take the deaths and move on (in the long run) and I am high risk person.

[TallDave]

yeah, that makes sense

I guesstimate D-He3 breakeven around 12T given Kirtley's stated B^3.77 scaling

I did ask if they could drop a power emoji when it happens (I don't need details and will take them entirely at their word) but again, if it was my billions on the line I'd delay that announcement as long as possible, preferably not until I was actually delivering power

the Chinese knockoffs are already underway