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A comment on China to supercharge uranium race with 150 new nuclear reactors. Parent comment

Re:China to supercharge uranium race with 150 new nuclear re... by moffkalast on Monday November 08, 2021 @03:40PM (#29153942)
They're a company that's showed nothing so far and claims to know how to do something that's apparently eluded a dozen other fusion power projects with quite literally 1000 times more funding. The likes of ITER and Wendelstein, or the NIF.

Helion's only got about 80M of venture investments, which in the field of energy innovation is basically chump change.

I mean call me a sceptic, but I have a feeling they may not be able to completely deliver on their promise hah.

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Re:China to supercharge uranium race with 150 new nuclear re... by BurningFrog on Monday November 08, 2021 @09:02PM (#29156836)
They announced a $500M - $2200M series E funding round on Friday:

https://techcrunch.com/2021/11/05/helion-series-e/

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Re:China to supercharge uranium race with 150 new nuclear re... by justicezyx on Monday November 08, 2021 @03:47PM (#29154016)
Relatively tiny budget is not a sign of weakness. The history is teemed with well-founded ventures beaten by much less funded ones.
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Re:China to supercharge uranium race with 150 new nuclear re... by moffkalast on Monday November 08, 2021 @03:54PM (#29154124)
Well I sure hope that ends up being the case, but unfortunately history is also teeming with startups promising the world, getting funding and then collapsing while getting nothing done.
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Re:China to supercharge uranium race with 150 new nuclear re... by heavyset_go on Monday November 08, 2021 @05:00PM (#29154821)
ITER is commonly cited as the most expensive science project of all time. I just don't believe a start up is on the forefront of research that even everyone involved with ITER is behind.
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Re:China to supercharge uranium race with 150 new nuclear re... by BurningFrog on Monday November 08, 2021 @05:48PM (#29155321)
ITER is committed to a certain large scale design.

Helion is trying to do something very different and much smaller.

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Re:China to supercharge uranium race with 150 new nuclear re... by threeseed on Monday November 08, 2021 @03:46PM (#29154006)
They’ve shown nothing to you.

That doesn’t mean investors haven’t seen prototypes.

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Re:China to supercharge uranium race with 150 new nuclear re... by moffkalast on Monday November 08, 2021 @03:52PM (#29154093)
If they had something substantial it would make sense to patent it, instead of keeping it hidden and the potential for it to be stolen as an option. Either the principle their reactor will work on isn't conceptually done yet or they're being seriously irresponsible with their achievements.
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Re:China to supercharge uranium race with 150 new nuclear re... by myownpetard on Monday November 08, 2021 @04:55PM (#29154754)
I think it's a reasonable assumption that US fusion companies would have the same patent policy as SpaceX.

Elon is quoted in HBR, “We have essentially no patents. Our primary long-term competition is China. If we published patents, it would be farcical, because the Chinese would just use them as a recipe book."

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Re:China to supercharge uranium race with 150 new nuclear re... by rmbyrro on Monday November 08, 2021 @05:58PM (#29155435)
Or even the US government. Good luck to SpaceX asking the government to enforce its patents against... the government itself!
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Re:China to supercharge uranium race with 150 new nuclear re... by credit_guy on Tuesday November 09, 2021 @03:01AM (#29158960)
Wait, what? The Government protects you against the Government itself all the time. What exactly is tha Bill of Rights?
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Re:China to supercharge uranium race with 150 new nuclear re... by kragen on Tuesday November 09, 2021 @01:38AM (#29158473)
That's the whole point of patents: to be used as a recipe book.
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Re:China to supercharge uranium race with 150 new nuclear re... by VintageCool on Tuesday November 09, 2021 @02:49AM (#29158904)
The deal is that you provide the recipe book in exchange for legal protection and a short-term legal monopoly. The other side of that deal is not honored by China, which is Elon's point.
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Re:China to supercharge uranium race with 150 new nuclear re... by kragen on Tuesday November 09, 2021 @02:57AM (#29158946)
The legal monopoly (which is the same thing as the legal protection) has always been geographically limited, and has always existed at the pleasure of the government granting it.
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Re:China to supercharge uranium race with 150 new nuclear re... by kragen on Tuesday November 09, 2021 @01:42AM (#29158501)
Patents usually take a few years to issue. In the US, for the first six months, the patent application is confidential
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