MIT Club of Northern California - 2016-02-25
Nuclear fusion is the holy grail of energy generation because by fusing two hydrogen atoms together into a single helium atom it releases enormous amounts of energy, yet represents a clean, safe, sustainable and secure form of power. The most tried and true approach for generating nuclear fusion energy has been a tokamak fusion reactor, which uses very high density magnetic fields to compress and contain a plasma to 100 million degrees. But none has been able to generate more electricity than it consumes. Until now. Director Whyte will describe the ARC nuclear fusion reactor (shown above right), based on a new superconducting material, for achieving very high density magnetic fields. It will be used as a research center, but could ultimately become a prototype for an inexpensive 200MW power plant, vaulting nuclear fusion from scientific curiosity to potential commercialization. The ARC reactor is being designed to produce at least 3 times the power required to run it, which has never been done before and is the result of several new technologies which dramatically reduce the size and cost. The biggest breakthrough is a new superconducting material which produces a much higher magnetic field density, yielding a ten-fold increase in fusion power per volume. Molten salt will be used as a liquid cooling blanket for fast heat transfer and easy maintenance. And 3D printing techniques will allow the fabrication of reactor components in shapes that cannot be made by milling machines. The result is a much smaller, lower cost and highly efficient modular power plant with zero emissions and abundant fuel. Dennis Whyte, recently promoted to run MIT’s Nuclear Science and Engineering Department and Director of MIT’s Plasma Science & Fusion Center, works in magnetic fusion and specializes in the interface between the plasma and materials. Dennis received his PhD from the Universite du Quebec in 1993. A Fellow of the American Physical Society, Dennis was awarded the Department of Energy’s Plasma Physics Junior Faculty Award in 2003 and won the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Nuclear Fusion Prize in 2013. He is a two-time winner of the MIT Joel and Ruth Spira Award for teaching excellence. Among his many lectures on fusion energy research, Dennis was an invited speaker at CERAWeek and the National Science Foundation’s Engineering Distinguished Lecturer in 2015.
4:24 introduction ends (finally).
Doin God's work, son.
Sigh of relief! Ta! 🇬🇧
I don't think the introduction has ended at 12:21. I am out of here or out of hear.
"The lightbulb went off?" Doesn't he mean, "The lightbulb went on?"
I respect human beings that are actually working towards betterment of the Planet and the human species.
I am what many would call a climate warming denier. But who cares, we need fusion to make the world a better place. Cheap energy will turn salt water into fresh and deserts into gardens. It could save many millions of people. No more limits to resources. What we can't get on earth, with unlimited power we could bring it here from about anywhere in the solar system.
@Keith Howard
Hear this 10:03 😆
YouR A Fool Slave Of Greed Lies Of Nuclear KILLING THE EARTH ARE YOU A FOOL ? OR JUST GREEDY ?
Yes, this is my best hope that my infant granddaughter will grow up in a world that still has Boston, New York, London and polar bears despite Trump and the Koch brothers. :-)
Fusion's cheaper as well as cleaner, and it makes vastly more power available for everyone at low cost, so it will make producing vastly more of everything people want possible. This will give a vastly better future for everyone, the only issue being how much damage the fossil-fuel interests can do as their wealth and power go away. :-(
Improvements in efficiency in the process to produce a good or service provides an advantage in a capitalistic economy thus there is major pressure to invest in researching better ways to produce an output such as in this case energy. A by product of this is the betterment of the economy, society and the environment. Waste, is just that waste. Regardless it be energy or physical goods, where there is waste there is opportunity for increases in efficiency to reduce the waste and convert it into profit.
As a fusion researcher myself, though on a very different path - if anyone is going to make thermalized magnetic confinement fusion work, I'd bet it's this guy and his team. I'm rarely impressed. But this impresses me. If there are flaws, they're not mentioned - perhaps Bremsstrahlung radiation loss is higher at higher B? It's always the things you leave out that turn out to be the problem....
Otherwise, excellent job picking up on the fact that new superconductors change the game a lot.
This is just such a waste of money and man hours. Sigh... Such a joke.
@David Andrews everything at MIT sounds like a sales pitch. it's the culture coming out of Sloan that is infusing the rest of the school. but it's fine at least they gets shit done once in awhile
@Doug Coulter hey Doug where is the update champ?
@bonob0123 Now there's a blast from the past! I continue to work on this - more on my site at coultersmithing.com/forums. After proving a couple hypotheses unworkable, I believe I've found another of some interest, and this winter have been building some new gear to take data on it to see if it has merit. It seems right, but hey - they all do, and in the harsh light of real life, only some of them are.
@Doug Coulter I like your humility and that you try to actually test your ideas before spouting off like many others. cheers to you and good luck with your efforts!
30:23 - "Stark" contrast REBCO in the ARC reactor. I see what you did there.
You can call it a breakthough when I can go uptown and buy one.
Congratulations on getting SPARC funded!! I tip my hat to you guys :D BRING ON THE FUTURE!
But then there's this: Jul. 3, 2018 , 2:00 PM
Plans for a controversial multibillion-dollar U.S. nuclear research reactor are coming together at lightning speed—much too fast, say some nuclear policy experts. With a push from Congress, the Department of Energy (DOE) has begun designing the Versatile Fast Neutron Source, which would be the first DOE-built reactor since the 1970s. It would generate high-energy neutrons for testing materials and fuels for so-called fast reactors. But U.S. utilities have no plans to deploy such reactors, which some nuclear proliferation analysts say pose a risk because they use plutonium, the stuff of atomic bombs.
Researchers are divided on whether the reactor, which would likely be built at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) near Idaho Falls, is badly needed or a boondoggle. "Definitely, there is a lack of capability in the U.S. and a shortage of such facilities worldwide," says Massimiliano Fratoni, a nuclear engineer at the University of California, Berkeley. But Frank von Hippel, a nuclear physicist at Princeton University, says, "It's a pork-barrel project."
The reactor does enjoy extraordinary congressional support. In March, Congress gave the project $35 million for this year, although DOE only requested $10 million. The House of Representatives and the Senate have passed separate bills that call for completing the facility by 2025, with the House bill authorizing DOE to spend $2 billion. Von Hippel speculates that the cost could end up reaching $10 billion.
Yep You Kill Of The Rest The Earth Hope The Cancer Get YOU ALL GREED Lies ALL
"MIT club"?
In another state on the other side of the US?!?!
Moore's law is more of guideline than a law, the laws of physics have hindered the expected improvements recently.
Take a shot everytime he says "in fact". And great talk ;)
"ACTUALLY" I thought it was "IN FACT", an interesting presentation.
Intelligence is inversely proportional to verbal skills. It's the price we pay to learn from them.
Shorten the intros for the love of God
Talk starts at 4:25.
Hey, be thankful you're in an era where you can fast forward through an intro without having to drive your ass out to a campus and sit somewhere for hours just to learn about fusion breakthrough technology. I'm in my underpants drinking coffee right now.
Finally! A design that answers my question of how they get energy out!
its nearly 2018 still nothing?
This was a truly magnificent talk. Great talker and great content, aswell as the coherent structure of the talk...
33:40 Hehehe humans don't change, look at that ear rub followed by a "literally"
Not related to the topic of the video but interesting nonetheless.
We are only 30 years away where have I heard that before?. Let's do the Thorium LiFTeR reactors it is doable
You ought to heard all the crap we were supposed to have by now from when I was in school in the 70s. They haven't even made any real progress on cure for cancer. No progress on the antibiotic resistance pathogens. We are still using a electric motor invented in the 1800s. We are still using piston power devices invented in the 1600s. People are actually getting dumber
Yip.. Thorium could be used now.. India started already
Mpho Zulu
I don’t think India’s program is LFTR.....like we did in the 70’s !!!!!!!!
@Karl Jensen hi.. The kalpakkam reactor supposed to be ready.. Only minor things to sort out.. But should be ready by now.. Will check later.. First a good breakfast :)
Mpho Zulu
This is a breeder reactor, something India is very good at. It is still a solid fuel reactor, much different from a LFTR (the holy grail use of thorium). The only nation that seems to have a highly aggressive pursuit of LFTR technology is China.
i actualy making some design and have tested similar capacitors, that include mono atomic gold/ colloidal gold and cooper zinc and iron. it is open source technology. disclosure science!
4:20 for science mens.
I fell asleep and my phone played the whole vid
I fell asleep and dreamed I was Magnetron from Transformers !
Yay, U of S (Saskatchewan) shout-out
I'm familiar with the size of the Alcator reactor. Actually got to see it opened up a few years back.
Aclually a Breakthrough in infact a Nuclear Fusion
How many times does he say "actually"??? It's driving me nuts!!
One day we will look back and say "Remember when we used to put gas in cars to make them go?
When you look at the energy density of gas and compare to other options you will quickly realize why.
I doubt that. I heard crap like this my whole life. I'm 54. EV are all but dead right now because they are disposable. Replacement batteries are extremely high or non existent. I was about to buy a used Nissan leaf or a Tesla. Nissan battery is $11,000 installed with taxes. It will last about 80,000 miles but I travel 65,000 per year. In a year and a half I'd need a new battery. Tesla battery is $24,000. I've never ever paid over $5,000 for a used Chevy in which I'd get 400,000 more miles without issues. Right now EV are a rich person's toy. As far as this technology shown on the video, we don't have enough fuel to last a year if it was our primary energy source.
48:08
ooh I know that salt formula anywhere. taking a leaf from LFTRs book are we?
1:25:20 cringeworthy
Amazing like like amazing amazing amazing um like like umm amazing!
This is fantastic. I've read about the B^4 scaling law over twenty years ago and wondered what the prospects were for new superconductor technology coming along and giving magnetic confinement fusion a shot in the arm but I was disappointed in the lack of easy-to-find information online. I was also disappointed that the Cadarache Titanak was going to be built with niobium-tin chilled to around 4K.
Now I'm hearing all about fast developments in REBCO tapes. It gives me hope that commercial fusion plants really are 30 years away.
Here is Sorbom's Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKREB8IvCbs
Agreed.
it doesnt work..it operates at a LOSS..
it LOSES power by a factor of about a million to 1 now
Oh how much I love MIT.
Wooo! Yeah! Physics and engineering!
There's the universe of difference between an idea and it's enactment, probably a reciprocal relationship.
A considerable degree of the building effective devices, is serendipity of the kind associated with evolutionary algorithms.
For example, I don't understand (anything much really..) about why plasma temperature is more important than (quantum-resonance fields) confinement. Because in the language of observation, e-Pi-i Numberness (Euler's rationalization-format), unless the components of the assembled atoms are in sync, it's the "Labour of Sisyphus" pushing the nuclei together with temperatures in the wrong region of Fusion apatures.., and it's another problem extracting energy if it works as desired. (?)
I Don't Know. Pseudo randomness is universally distributed uncertainty.
how did it work when you change the lithium with graphene
And if you will just give us 30 more years...…………..
No, sir. Because of the breakthrough, it might only be 29.
amazing hopefully I will live to see the day 😎
Yep, politicians can play with ideas to tax us since we they know saving will need collecting. Save hear, waste there. No energy prob,,,?,,,laser tag I mean war?
Can you say, Boondoggle?
Nice work Dennis!
and how's it work for a jet engine? ????
MHGTReactor
1:38 My God this sure is long winded. Like EVERYTHING IS PRELUDE, until the last word is said! Could ya GET ON WITH IT!!!
Alien script
"feeling happy about waste heat" is a good indicator of how early a stage this technology is in atm.
To finance Iter. They had to lie and tell all regions "leaders" that it wold produce energy...
I guess you guys are totally clueless about the Safire project?
All of what your saying simplified
Much to come via saphire proj.
Say "actually" again.
it maybe need a long time to make it real
by ````pressure
A gram of deuterium will power a home for a year, eh? That same manure used to be spread around about uranium when science and government touted nuclear power back in the fifties.
That's partly how the world ended up with thousands of tons of incredibly toxic nuclear waste that cannot ever be safely be disposed of.
magnetized target fusion is worth looking at, it's a super interesting blend of magnetic confinement and innertial confinement
Which has yet to get results, as are a hundred other attempts.
People like Dennis Whyte are the real heroes of our time. They are working hard for a better future of manking. They should be our shining examples and not investmentbanker or something.
"better future of mankind" yo'r in dreamland junior , ya actually think the scum aristocracy 'd ever allow that ???? hahahaha ....you idiot
They wouldn't have funding without those investment brokers, and other businessmen. There's a reason you aren't getting scientific breakthroughs from Angola, or Botswana. A healthy economy leads to an extreme boon in technological advancements!
Wondering how Maxwell developed electromagnetism or how marie curie discovered radioactivity all without investment bankers. They take stuff others invented, pay them nothing and claim it was them who made it work. Investment Bankers didn't invent Bayes theorem, or Metropolis Rule, yet they use it all day and brag how great they are and when somebody wants to work on a similar problem today they say how it is all a waste of money. Creating an imaginary number on a computer is no accomplishment. It almost crashed our economy. Giving people credits who cannot afford it is also no accomplishment. If investment bankers would do their job (and many do) they allocate resources more efficient. If you want energy to power the fancy algorithms of investment bankers then better hope that in 500 or 1000 years fusion works, because by then oil will be empty (it takes million years to regenerate) and humans will still be on earth...with or without energy, we will see.
@bashpr0mpt Botswana has contributed hugely in the areas of Basket weaving , and the invention of a 3% more efficient fly swatter, Angola became the world leader in throwing rocks after the Russians/ Cubans pulled out. Please be more informed before you assume these places can't contribute to nuclear physics.. besides they are working very hard on going into debt for Chinese railroads, and getting stripped of their natural resources for cheap infrastructure projects..
Dont let these people get you down. The world is on average getting better, and this technology will one day be practically a miracle for future generations. Stay optimistic.
Cody'sLab - 2017-07-24
Been listening to lectures all night while I work. So far this one was the most exciting. I will defiantly be following this in the future.
Desmond Bagley - 2019-11-19
Clint Westman ......simple accounting,, of course,, . Therefore the efficiency handicap requires maybe 3 times more out put to input in order to produce the electricity to keep powering the operation of the fusion device , this leaves nothing for the grid except the heat if it could be plped throughout community as in eastern bloc countries. I had never considered the conversion efficiency and it gets omitted in progress reports..... looks like fusion is 100 years away then.
Jim Lahey - 2019-11-20
@zasde35 iter looks like it will be DOA!
Erick Kovalsky - 2019-12-12
i listen to them while playing ksp :)
Jesse Fritz - 2019-12-21
What a horrible way to make electrical power.
Erick Kovalsky - 2019-12-21
@Jesse Fritz why? it is the most efective way. its hard but it is worth the work