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Re:Helion’s fusion power purchase agreement with Microsoft by next_xibalba on Wednesday May 10, 2023 @12:09PM (#35889411)
While you’re probably right about GP’s cynical tone, this announcement does seem fairly meaningless. Does Helion have a working prototype that can be reasonably moved into production? Or is that still years away?
Re:Helion’s fusion power purchase agreement with Microsoft by DennisP on Wednesday May 10, 2023 @12:25PM (#35889636)
Their sixth reactor achieved 100M degree temps, ran for 16 months under vacuum, did thousands of fusion shots, and demonstrated D-He3 fusion.

Their seventh will start up in 2024, and is supposed to demonstrate net electricity from D-He3.

Their eighth is supposed to be the commercial reactor. If they don't achieve that, they will have to pay penalties to Microsoft.

Re:Helion’s fusion power purchase agreement with Microsoft by chasil on Wednesday May 10, 2023 @12:34PM (#35889761)
Divorced from both cynicism and hype, how does this compare to the recent advance in hohlraum laser fusion?

https://www.llnl.gov/news/lawrence-livermore-national-labora...

Re:Helion’s fusion power purchase agreement with Microsoft by gpm on Wednesday May 10, 2023 @12:44PM (#35889883)
It's a completely different approach to fusion.

Lasers are really inefficient (poor at transforming electrical energy into light energy). They got more energy out than they put into the pellet, but nowhere near as much energy as they put into the lasers. Which means that turning that experiment into commercial fusion is... "not straightforward".

Re:Helion’s fusion power purchase agreement with Microsoft by DennisP on Wednesday May 10, 2023 @12:49PM (#35889957)
NIF's lasers are only 1% efficient but they date back to the 1990s. Equivalent modern lasers are over 20% efficient. If they had modern lasers they'd have produced fusion power of about 20% of the input power.

They seem to scale well, too. In their big shot they increased the laser power by 8% and output went up 230%.

That said, compared to Helion it'd still be a lot harder to make a practical reactor with NIF's approach.

Re:Helion’s fusion power purchase agreement with Microsoft by pfdietz on Wednesday May 10, 2023 @01:15PM (#35890350)
It's much more promising than the laser approach, IMO.
Re:Helion’s fusion power purchase agreement with Microsoft by zardo on Wednesday May 10, 2023 @03:06PM (#35891959)
> Their sixth reactor achieved 100M degree temps, ran for 16 months under vacuum, did thousands of fusion shots, and demonstrated D-He3 fusion.

I don't have anything near the expertise to evaluate Helions approach, but I know enough about fusion to say that just because you have a design that can achieve fusion conditions does not mean the approach could even theoretically lead to a power plant. e.g. electrostatic fusors

Re:Helion’s fusion power purchase agreement with Microsoft by DennisP on Wednesday May 10, 2023 @03:21PM (#35892194)
True, but FRCs like Helion uses are thought to be workable.
Re:Helion’s fusion power purchase agreement with Microsoft by julienchastang on Wednesday May 10, 2023 @12:26PM (#35889647)
Re:Helion’s fusion power purchase agreement with Microsoft by aetherson on Wednesday May 10, 2023 @12:21PM (#35889582)
Helion in 2014: We're about 3 years away from break-even energy.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/BL-VCDB-15246

Re:Helion’s fusion power purchase agreement with Microsoft by DennisP on Wednesday May 10, 2023 @12:26PM (#35889652)
They didn't get the funding they needed until 2021.

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