Nuclear fusion within reach | Michel Laberge | TEDxKC

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  • Опубліковано 17 чер 2024
  • This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. Our energy future depends on nuclear fusion, says Michel Laberge. In a lab near Vancouver, Michel and his team are building a prototype fusion reactor that mimics the processes of the sun to produce cheap, clean and abundant energy.
    Michel Laberge is a renowned plasma physicist and a pioneer in the research and development of fusion energy. In 2002, he founded General Fusion, which has raised $50 million and currently employs 65 people in Vancouver. The company is viewed as a leader in the pursuit of commercial fusion energy. Dr. Laberge has deep experience in electronics, computers, materials, lithography, optics and fabrication. In his work with General Fusion, he has acquired practical experience in plasma physics and with all modern plasma diagnostic techniques.

    Since 2002 Dr. Laberge has been working on the General Fusion project. He has written numerous scientific papers, has been awarded 10 patents, and has nine more pending.
    About TEDx, x = independently organized event In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)

КОМЕНТАРІ • 850

  • @HENN3H
    @HENN3H 9 років тому +81

    You just gotta love this guy's enthausiasm! And the contraption he's proposing is quite possibly the most awesome machine I have ever seen.

    • @retromillenium
      @retromillenium 5 років тому

      I agree. You're statement is not an exaggeration.

  • @dadt8009
    @dadt8009 3 роки тому +6

    I learned a while ago that "Everything is relative". If we get nuclear fusion to produce energy for us by the end of this century, I would still call that within reach.

  • @nraarn5422
    @nraarn5422 9 років тому +6

    So good to see the progress made. we are eagerly waiting for this stuff.

  • @MrTheBassline
    @MrTheBassline 5 років тому +7

    I love this guy and what he says about fusion, and his accent accent ever more

  • @AlmightySarlac
    @AlmightySarlac 7 років тому +1

    I love this guy, he's exactly what humanity needs if it's going to see itself through the next century.

  • @jeremiahjohnson6971
    @jeremiahjohnson6971 7 років тому

    just found this... coolest channel ever

  • @spacetimemalleable7718
    @spacetimemalleable7718 5 років тому +1

    Entertaining & informative speaker. Good status report on Fusion. Everyone should be encouraging the development of fusion - the ULTIMATE Energy Source!

  • @nohotpotbetty
    @nohotpotbetty 5 років тому

    Interesting talk and great delivery. Not at all boring or dry technical

  • @frankfromupstateny3796
    @frankfromupstateny3796 7 років тому +1

    Thank God for geniuses like this man....nice video...very easy to understand. Plasma must at some level...act like a "solid" then, if hitting pistons, creates that much more heat?

  • @eddiegaltek
    @eddiegaltek 5 років тому +13

    Fusion has been promised in the next 10 years for the last 40 years!

  • @mathunt1130
    @mathunt1130 2 роки тому

    I love these ta\lks as they make me happy for humanity.

  • @fryncyaryorvjink2140
    @fryncyaryorvjink2140 9 років тому +327

    Fusion will unlock our next giant leap. We'll finally have enough power for fast space travel, serious lasers, and of course the death of fossil fuels

    • @eitkoml
      @eitkoml 8 років тому +22

      +Nabre Labre A lot of problems today could be solved through simple brute force provided by so much cheap energy.
      Still, people were saying that fusion power plants will be working in 10 years since 1960.

    • @YouCallitPiracy
      @YouCallitPiracy 8 років тому +11

      +Nabre Labre
      I think the WAMSR has more chance of coming to fruition. I've been at JET in England on a university excursion and despite being fascinating it's just not going to be ready for 50 years or more. ITER is just a proof of concept, Lockheed Martin's creation is a joke and the continues cycle devices are too small to get net out.
      To give an indication of how not ready JET was they need to pump for months to achieve a vacuum good enough. The walls absorb the tritium.(fixed in ITER) And when it ran it could only run for minutes and they don't run it because the walls become radioactive. At 200k euros a day I don't thin it's really worth the investment once ITER is finished.
      It's a matter of scale which in a time of non centralized production being the trend I don't think I'll live to see fusion. (that says something as I'm only 20 years old)

    • @eitkoml
      @eitkoml 8 років тому +11

      YouCallitPiracy What could be working much sooner is fission with liquid salt thorium reactors.

    • @ColinGclicks
      @ColinGclicks 8 років тому +2

      +YouCallitPiracy i hear you bro but fusion will be here by 2035 in a major way. guarantee

    • @Jacksllvn0
      @Jacksllvn0 8 років тому +1

      +Nabre Labre and death rays

  • @Nivola1953
    @Nivola1953 6 років тому +1

    I worked more than 40 years in the microelectronics business and I fully agree on the disappointment of working so hard for such a trivial results. I’m really looking forward to see the first commercially viable fusion power plant in my lifetime, that will be the real breakthrough for humanity’s

    • @dreamdiction
      @dreamdiction 2 роки тому

      They know it will ever work, there is no material which can contain and utilize the radiated heat from 100 million degrees, it's just a tax-funded scam will will not die because there are too many people making too much money from the charade.

  • @emersonbest8463
    @emersonbest8463 5 років тому +69

    When you realise this was posted 5 years ago. *Big oof*

    • @katraconnor8451
      @katraconnor8451 5 років тому +14

      we made giant leaps in fusion tech since ten with viable designs being developed as we speak. we already had japan and china sustain plasma for over 100 seconds last year. 100 seconds.
      ITER will be the last experimental reactor to nail everythign we learned down and sum it up, after iter fusion will be commercially availiable. about 5 to 10 more years

    • @Anonymous-pr3gr
      @Anonymous-pr3gr 4 роки тому +16

      When you realized that it took a little over 30 years to make that little thing you can hold in your hands to make phone calls, text, play graphic games, browse the biggest collection of data ever accessed in the history of humanity and much more.
      In short, 5 years is not much time.... Big oof

    • @richhitch3242
      @richhitch3242 4 роки тому +9

      He says right at the end of the video that he hopes "within the next 5 years" he can demonstrate that his machine works. Seeing as it was filmed in 2014, an update is due right about now as to his progress.

    • @Anonymous-pr3gr
      @Anonymous-pr3gr 4 роки тому

      @@richhitch3242 You can use google to find the update. No one CRACKED the puzzle per say, but they are getting closer to it. Problem with fusion is that no one cares about the progress being made if the whole thing does not work.

    • @lop2167
      @lop2167 4 роки тому

      Look up ITER

  • @natentreyable
    @natentreyable 8 років тому +1

    Thank You.

  • @LikeZO
    @LikeZO 8 років тому +61

    I like how that lady is sleeping at 9:20 :P haha.

    • @procraft
      @procraft 6 років тому +1

      Haha! Makes me think of this huge lecture by Stephen Hawking in Copenhagen. The guy to the left AND the right of me both fell asleep.

    • @HalfDayHero
      @HalfDayHero 6 років тому +7

      hopefully they'll crack fusion so she can get some damn energy

    • @martinsworld8678
      @martinsworld8678 6 років тому +2

      Ahh. Stephen Hawking. Rest in Pece.

    • @FrogmortonHotchkiss
      @FrogmortonHotchkiss 6 років тому

      @Stuart Murray: I am from an alien race with an advanced sense of humour. Here is your first (!?) upvote for that joke.

  • @esra_erimez
    @esra_erimez 6 років тому +12

    I'm a time traveler from 3 years in the future, and I can tell you that nuclear fusion is not within reach.

    • @whalekid6142
      @whalekid6142 3 роки тому

      . . . damn.

    • @geraldh.8047
      @geraldh.8047 3 роки тому +2

      I’m a time traveller from another 3 years in the future and the pieces are starting to slowly come together. Lots of private investments in fusion startups, quite substantial investments actually. And ITER also progressing in a big way now.

    • @VeritasPraevalebit
      @VeritasPraevalebit 2 роки тому +2

      I have travelled close to 8 years into the future, we are near the end of the year 2021. Not much has happened at General Fusion. They have flattened the spherical arrangement of cannons and combined this with firing delays that still will produce a spherical shock wave.
      Another thing that has happened is that they disabled comments on on their later videos, probably to prevent me from announcing that their concept will never work.
      How can a chock wave in the fluid compress the central cavity? Seems mechanically impossible to me.

    • @esra_erimez
      @esra_erimez 2 роки тому

      @@VeritasPraevalebit LOL!

    • @VeritasPraevalebit
      @VeritasPraevalebit 2 роки тому

      @@esra_erimez
      Dear Ezra, this is not a laughing matter. The destiny of humanity and our cohabitants on planet Earth depends on access to abundant sustainable non-fossil energy.

  • @amaraojiji
    @amaraojiji 9 років тому +12

    I've hear about 'fusion soon' in my childhood book about physics. It was 30 year ago. And now my child watching UA-cam about 'fusion soon'. I expect his son will watch holo-something about 'fusion soon' 30 years later...

    • @harrue
      @harrue 6 років тому

      amaraojiji hopefully not

    • @rashkavar
      @rashkavar 6 років тому +6

      That's like saying "Pope Alexander VI saw Leonardo DeVinci's plans for a flying machine, 400 years later, people are still failing to make them, therefore powered flying machines are impossible."
      Oh wait, add another decade or so to that 400 years and you've got the Wright Brothers.
      Just because people 30 years ago were stupidly optimistic about fusion doesn't mean progress isn't being made.

    • @crhu319
      @crhu319 6 років тому +1

      You could have said the same about electric vehicles. And you would not have been wrong, but suddenly all at once the Tesla, GM Volt, Nissan Leaf, and hybrids like Prius became popular. These things can and do just suddenly work.

    • @Conenion
      @Conenion 5 років тому

      @Cr Hu
      > but suddenly all at once the Tesla, GM Volt, Nissan Leaf, and hybrids like Prius became popular.
      > These things can and do just suddenly work.
      Here in Germany EVs account for 0.11% of all cars as of Jan 2018. Norway, massively subsidizing EVs, has already problems with too many EVs and too few charging stations. To say EVs "just suddenly work" is too early.
      Tesla has jet to show whether their business model is sustainable. It "works" if and _only_ if any manufacturer is able to mass produce a cheap affordable EV without making debt. Tesla's goal was to produce 20,000 cars per week by now, not just 5,000 (=260,000/year). Porsche, which is really small, sells around 230,000 per year, to give a comparison.
      Tesla's idea is simple: vertical integration and scaling effects. Problem is: the more batteries you produce the more costly they can get because of the rare materials they contain. It is too early to say that batteries will be significantly cheaper once mass produced.
      Tesla made high-stakes investments and piled up a breath-taking amount of debt. It is not clear if all of their plans work out. Not clear at all, as of now.

  • @Motivationlife-cz9fk
    @Motivationlife-cz9fk 6 років тому

    great job!

  • @kennethhicks2113
    @kennethhicks2113 8 років тому +89

    How about an update?

    • @soylentgreenb
      @soylentgreenb 7 років тому +20

      OK, here's an update.
      NIF was designed to achieve ignition with a factor 2 safety margin (actually it was designed and funded to validate models for simulations of nuclear weapons so that no actual nuclear tests are required to design new nukes and maintain existing nukes; but achieving ignition is an important goal for research into thermonuclear weapons, although plenty of its use is to research things like state equations for uranium and plutonium).
      NIF now looks like it will never reach ignition and it is publically admitted that it might never do so.
      Every time we have tried inertial confinement fusion, we have started out expecting ignition and it has always turned out that there are instabilities (e.g. Raleigh-Taylor instabilities), and the scaling is not as good as predicted and we're going to need an order of magnitude more laser energy to make it work. When we build that order of magnitude larger machine that we think will work, the process begins again with more stabilities and issues that make it look like we need just another factor of ten in laser energy.
      ITER is still progressing on schedule (very slowly) and still looks hopeless from the perspective of leading to a commercially viable fusion reactor this half of the century.
      There's still a large number of interesting small scale approaches to fusion where we do not know what and where the major show-stoppers are or how well they scale (e.g. focus fusion, polywell fusion, general atomics comical but possibly effective steam-punk MTF fusion machine, tri-alphas FRC machine etc.)

    • @Hy-jg8ow
      @Hy-jg8ow 7 років тому +5

      What about the Stellarator?

    • @andrebalsa203
      @andrebalsa203 7 років тому +2

      *The update is quite short: nothing new on the horizon for fusion reactors.*
      Commercial fusion power is nowhere to be seen, just as it has been during the last 50 years, and as expected for the coming 50 years too.

    • @johannesgh90
      @johannesgh90 7 років тому +2

      "[ITER] is expected to finish its construction phase in 2019 and will start commissioning the reactor that same year and initiate plasma experiments in 2020 with full deuterium-tritium fusion experiments starting in 2027."
      "DEMO should produce at least 2 gigawatts of fusion power on a continuous basis, and it should produce 25 times as much power as required for breakeven. DEMO's design of 2 to 4 gigawatts of thermal output will be on the scale of a modern electric power station.
      [...]
      Construction from 2031 to 2043
      Operation from 2044, Electricity generation demonstration 2048"

    • @soylentgreenb
      @soylentgreenb 7 років тому +1

      Linear extrapolation of exponential trends is risky.

  • @iamcheese4519
    @iamcheese4519 4 роки тому +10

    6:42 don't lie to me, i know a death star when i see one

  • @powelllucas4724
    @powelllucas4724 7 років тому +8

    As far back as 1963 I was reading stories about how fusion power would be available within 20 years. I'm still waiting.

    • @russhamilton3800
      @russhamilton3800 2 роки тому

      Not in your lifetime, not in your kids lifetime and not in their kids lifetime…unfortunately

    • @petersimmons3654
      @petersimmons3654 2 роки тому

      Precisely! But they keep getting funding paid by people with jobs paying taxes. This video is 7 years out of date, has this silly man had any rethink? Of course not! They promise fusion as it is 'clean' compared to fision, or would be if they could get it to produce more energy than is put in, so far at this point in Ausust 2021, this is still the situation, they get a massive bolt of power but for a tiny fraction of a second, and in return for much more power pumped in. It's all BS to keep the money flowing for their comfortably numb life.

    • @juhanleemet
      @juhanleemet 2 роки тому

      still 20+ years away, from what I hear

    • @russhamilton3800
      @russhamilton3800 2 роки тому

      @@juhanleemet and always will be.

  • @zachincow3283
    @zachincow3283 6 років тому

    This is so badass

  • @throwaway692
    @throwaway692 2 роки тому

    Gotta love it. I'd be the 1st to say we ought to be using fusion. But the date on this is 7 years ago and we're still hearing "fusion is right around the corner" and "it's within reach". I wish that were true. And no one would be better pleased than I to hear "we told you so". But I just don't think it's going to happen anytime soon.

  • @MrNightLifeLover
    @MrNightLifeLover 8 років тому

    Cool I really like the comparison with Moore's Law :)

    • @russhamilton3800
      @russhamilton3800 2 роки тому

      Why? Notice none of those increases correlate to anything? There is no grand increase toward Q. Just his assurance, vague and undefined.

  • @AdventureswithAixe596
    @AdventureswithAixe596 5 років тому

    That is the first talk that gave me some real hope for fusion. All the mobile phones in the world consume 60 MWh energy by the way ;) We need a solution that the oil-cartels do not manage to suppress. As he said: ASAP

  • @shadow-Sun
    @shadow-Sun 6 років тому

    Very very interesting

  • @amitaimedan
    @amitaimedan 7 років тому

    Good luck!

  • @crestonkaupp3354
    @crestonkaupp3354 5 років тому

    Fusion is the way to go😎

  • @Regalert
    @Regalert 7 років тому

    I like this guy.

  • @likearockcm
    @likearockcm 8 років тому +14

    it will be usable in 10 years(1960)2015 it will be usable in 10 years.

    • @Oscarandjo
      @Oscarandjo 8 років тому +5

      +like a rock They weren't lying in 1960, we've got working fusion plants. They just don't produce a net gain of electricity and aren't cost effective. We need to keep improving what we've already got until it reaches that point where it starts to become profitable. Once some real investment and companies jump on board it will accelerate quickly to a final product.

    • @likearockcm
      @likearockcm 8 років тому

      +Oscarandjo ok then it will be profitable in 10 years then? tons of private and mostly government(taxpayer) money already being thrown at this .

    • @edydossantos
      @edydossantos 8 років тому

      +gtq838 And, for some researchers, the profits were not as they planned; in a contrary, there was waste of money!

  • @frisianmouve
    @frisianmouve 8 років тому +165

    It wouldn't surprise me if Greenpeace starts to demonstrate against nuclear fusion because it has the word nuclear in it

    • @Ucceah
      @Ucceah 6 років тому +11

      nukular. the word is nu-ku-lar.

    • @patrickeigenmann138
      @patrickeigenmann138 6 років тому +5

      I am so smart. S-M-R-T

    • @jeffreyumeh8580
      @jeffreyumeh8580 6 років тому

      Well you still do have the problem of the reactor parts becoming radioactive, although they only need to be stored for 500 years, and it's solid waste rather than liquid waste which solves a lot of problems if you can develop graphene and could coat the outside with it that would stop corrosion for a long time so then you could just bury it a couple of meters down in some concreate probably.

    • @guerreiro943
      @guerreiro943 6 років тому

      Why would reactor parts become radioactive? The end-product is helium, which is not radioactive

    • @chigeh
      @chigeh 6 років тому

      iirc the period was only 50 years.

  • @shikharkantsrivastav9872
    @shikharkantsrivastav9872 6 років тому

    Great...

  • @lowbeampictures729
    @lowbeampictures729 8 років тому +5

    Almost there for 70 years.

    • @crhu319
      @crhu319 6 років тому +2

      Like manned flight, electric vehicles, equal rights for gays... just keep working on it.

  • @TheCarloza
    @TheCarloza 5 років тому +8

    Thorium sounds more promising

  • @aleoimpala
    @aleoimpala 8 років тому +1

    Good luck, really hope you'll get it.

  • @buckhorncortez
    @buckhorncortez 3 роки тому +1

    It's now 2020 - six years later and they still haven't "cracked that nut"...and I'm still waiting for the flying car I was promised in 1965 that would be available by the 1980's. I wish them the best, but I've been hearing that fusion power is right around the corner since the 1960's.

  • @Kie-7077
    @Kie-7077 7 років тому +2

    The question is not whether we can achieve positive energy output continuously from fusion, no doubt we can. The real question is: can we gain electricity from fusion cheaper than renewables + storage and the answer to that question is that it is highly unlikely. Fusion is so complex that it is unlikely that it will ever be cheap because of the manpower, expertise and maintenance required.

  • @scotscheideman9800
    @scotscheideman9800 3 роки тому +1

    Nuclear Fusion has been the dream answer to our energy needs for the last fifty years and probably will be for another fifty years. Too complex, too expensive. Molten Salt reactors, either burning Thorium or our current stockpile of nuclear waste will be everywhere , powering everything long before the first fusion plant ever gets built

  • @phillipja2010
    @phillipja2010 8 років тому

    WOW ! Well done Mr. Laberge. Without a doubt you have cleverly engineered and built the future technology for generation of nuclear fusion power ! A nuclear fusion power reactor will give us the power of the sun in a bottle, so to speak. So, when will nuclear fusion reactor technology be available in Australia !

  • @powelllucas4724
    @powelllucas4724 6 років тому

    Since the early sixties I've been reading about how nuclear fusion was just around the corner. I'm glad I wasn't waking to that corner.

  • @CrimeEnjoyer
    @CrimeEnjoyer 6 років тому

    I would have loved a Q&A

  • @ocem
    @ocem 8 років тому +30

    The Germans are currently constructing the Wendelstein 7-X, apparently its magnetic field has been optimized by a super computer...
    Look it up!! The shape it has is awesome!
    If it works, it's even cooler to think this donut will bring us all the energy we need :D

    • @kurtilein3
      @kurtilein3 8 років тому +2

      +Bobby Waksy the first test was successful. so the machine is running now.

    • @jonharson
      @jonharson 8 років тому

      +Bobby Waksy ITER is a lot bigger than 7-X

    • @kurtilein3
      @kurtilein3 8 років тому +2

      jonharson
      But 7-X has a plasma free of electrons, so it cannot emit photons, it is invisible, and that is really cool, except that it is at 100 million degrees which is not cool. Eliminating electrons and electric current does a lot, read up on it.

    • @midgekiller2151
      @midgekiller2151 6 років тому +4

      7-x is only a research project to show that it is possible to contain plasma in a stellarator device. ITER is much bigger because its purpose is to show that energy break-even is feasible. It will NOT feed electricity into the grid, though, either, because its also just a research reactor.

    • @bernhardschmalhofer855
      @bernhardschmalhofer855 6 років тому

      Of course there are electrons in the plasma of Wendestein 7-X. If there were only positive charges the plasma would rip apart immediately. The special thing in stellarators, as compared to tokamaks, is that there is no strong current around the donut.

  • @mdwoods100
    @mdwoods100 8 років тому

    Fusion power is coming soon to a theater near you.

  • @2554darkangel
    @2554darkangel 5 років тому

    It seems more practical using this method but my first thought was to use sound waves to compress the plasma instead of mechanical steam driven pistons!

  • @fletcherco2003
    @fletcherco2003 4 роки тому +1

    One of numerous good ideas, but what I'd like to see is a combination of the technologies used. Heating strictly to fusion with lasers is expensive but combine laser tech, with this magnetic pulse detonation and use particle accelerators to confine kinetic energy in the particles themselves not just excitation energy when injected & I think the cost will come down. The answer is no longer "another 20 years" instead it's soon, very soon.

  • @ThomasHaberkorn
    @ThomasHaberkorn 5 років тому +4

    5 years ago..

  • @PacoOtis
    @PacoOtis 8 років тому

    And just how many times have we heard this? Best of luck to us but reality needs to come forth once in a while.

  • @Smorfty
    @Smorfty 8 років тому +4

    I just watched a video from the 70s where they said fusion power was "just within reach" as well.

    • @Dude3210123456
      @Dude3210123456 8 років тому +2

      +Smorfty The diffrence is that now we are building a fusion reactor that produces more energy than we are putting in it. Search for the ITER project.

    • @kakistocracyusa
      @kakistocracyusa 7 років тому +1

      "ITER will be the first fusion device to produce net energy" is the claim. Read the fine print.

  • @Arcamedi1
    @Arcamedi1 6 років тому

    I remember in high school they pushed this idea of nuclear fusion in the next ten years ect, I don’t think we can have this type of energy with out the knowledge of the fifth fundamental force, It seems that there is something unknown causing a form of signal lose making it hard to overcome the strong force. It probably be more useful to fund research into antigravity because my guess is that it is related to the fifth force once we have an understanding of that we could probably make this stuff work

  • @jony1495
    @jony1495 7 років тому

    20 years away, and always will be :P

  • @greghdn
    @greghdn 2 роки тому

    Governments should invest massively in fusion power rather than wasting time with windmills and solar panels.

  • @andrewcopple7075
    @andrewcopple7075 5 років тому

    I think this is the older of the two talks, but has anyone noticed some re-used lines between this talk and some of the thorium reactor talks?

  • @bobcousins4810
    @bobcousins4810 2 роки тому +5

    "nuclear fusion is coming much sooner than we think"
    That was never going to age well.

  • @ArkDiabLord
    @ArkDiabLord 7 років тому +4

    I cant imagine how loud your machine is gonna get.

  • @JACKnJESUS
    @JACKnJESUS 7 років тому

    The Wendelstein 7-X experiment looks like a winner.... almost there.

  • @Aurumk1
    @Aurumk1 3 роки тому

    I reached fusion years ago. Wait for Iter.

  • @rgaleny
    @rgaleny 6 років тому

    Hy spectral line indicate the absorption fq to assist fusion

  • @martin36369
    @martin36369 5 років тому +1

    I think a combined palladium electrode fusion & muon catalyst, might be the best system

    • @rustemsubashi3868
      @rustemsubashi3868 4 роки тому

      Hot fusion is crazy. The LERN is the future, we need a new math to explain the anomaly of LERN only this.

  • @danielmiller8800
    @danielmiller8800 6 років тому

    There is still hope

  • @guillermopacheco8547
    @guillermopacheco8547 6 років тому +1

    Commercial fusion power is not only 50 years away, but that it will always be 50 years away

  • @kapilbsingh
    @kapilbsingh 7 років тому

    coooool

  • @SabbaticusRex
    @SabbaticusRex 6 років тому

    Looking forward to a time when we no longer fight over energy and oil but instead fight over fresh water and thoughts and feelings.
    I've always wondered something - the deeper you drill, the hotter it gets correct? And some places it gets hotted much quicker than others, right? So why don't we drill down, create steam to spin generators and use that for power instead of coal, oil, etc?

    • @smasher123ism
      @smasher123ism 6 років тому

      DMMcGregor Digging that deep isn’t practical

  • @X02switchblades
    @X02switchblades 6 років тому

    what if we used gunpowder or some explosive to propel the pistons?

  • @orthelion9200
    @orthelion9200 6 років тому

    I think I have actually "cracked that nut", and (hopefully) we shall know fairly soon. My design is DRAMATICALLY different from everything which has come before, because I have totally gone outside of the (crowded) box which the thermonuclear industry has tried to locked us in all of these years. I knew it could potentially be done when I was still in high school back in the 1960s, which is when I first began studying thermonuclear energy. BTW, I have also come up with a fusion engine for space which can easily take us to Mars and beyond! I was inspired by the Star Trek series to do this, which first started up in the late 1960s. A theoretical thermonuclear propulsion system for space was my HS senior year Science Fair project back in 1969. Over the years I have slowly perfected this propulsion system design. Hopefully big changes are in the works, everyone! - Rick Carter

  • @theantdeezy
    @theantdeezy 6 років тому +5

    I’ve created a Cold Fushion Time Machine

  • @naughtyhorses
    @naughtyhorses 6 років тому

    Great tech... about 10 years away, which is a bit odd, as it was also about 10 years away when i visited JET in the 90's....
    also jetpacks, 3 pills for dinner & world peace. :-)

  • @dario2rnr
    @dario2rnr Рік тому +1

    Just 30 years away....again.

  • @jimmychong3884
    @jimmychong3884 7 років тому

    LENR E-Cat invention by Andrea Rossi looks like cold fusion is possible. Rossi's device has been replicated by Prof Alexander Parkhomov of Lomonosov Moscow State University and Martin Fleischmann Memorial Project (MFMP). Hope it really works and save the planet.

  • @donaldjdz
    @donaldjdz 6 років тому

    I've been told that people have been saying this since our parents were kids. Why is it different now?

  • @joeshirou
    @joeshirou 8 років тому

    Thorium Fission reactors and the leap to Fusion reactors will never see the light of day till a major earth changing event happens.

    • @luctonindustries2295
      @luctonindustries2295 8 років тому

      +Joeshirou Climate Change...That's pretty major.

    • @joeshirou
      @joeshirou 8 років тому

      +Lucton Industries until the human race starts seeing huge effects it won't be the push that is needed

    • @Shyning
      @Shyning 8 років тому

      +Joeshirou Fact is that when we'll see these major changes, it means it'll be too late to reverse it. So, yeah, we're pretty much fucked if nothing happens to change this before it happens. Scientists gave governments the best reasons there were to fund the research, they still do as of today but they won't give them a penny to encourage it. Because, you know, stupid amount of energy means close to free energy, which for governments, isn't profitable at all, while oil is a freaking good way to extort money to fund more useless things.

  • @Perserra
    @Perserra 5 років тому

    Four and half years later, how's it coming?

  • @wmjessemiller
    @wmjessemiller 8 років тому

    he already did this talk on the main ted talks..

  • @DawgPro
    @DawgPro 5 років тому

    Vive le Québec !

  • @BluntForceTrauma666
    @BluntForceTrauma666 6 років тому

    The part about this that most people don't seem to grasp is that even nuclear fission within uranium inside a power plant is barely _break even_ (regarding fossil fuel usage). Most seem to conveniently forget all the energy that is consumed to make the concrete, melt the steel and other metals, form the wiring, fabricate, forge, cold roll, weld, etc., etc., and then TRANSPORT all of this to a site just to BUILD a reactor. Then the uranium must be mined, transported, extracted and enriched, formed into pellets, assembled into rods and then fuel assemblies, and again TRANSPORTED. All of these processes are _extremely_ energy intensive and the reactor hasn't even pushed a single electron onto the grid yet.
    My point? In order to step from the stone we are currently standing on (in terms of energy supply) to the next better one, requires consuming IMMENSE amounts of energy that is available using technology that is available during the time we are standing on the old step.
    What does this all mean? It means we CANNOT screw around waiting for an oil crisis, coal shortage or widespread irreversible environmental damage before we start pushing HARD for cleaner, more readily available alternatives. Fusion should be brought up in the news on a weekly basis, but sadly it is not, at this time.
    After all, we have all the time in the world to spare, until the day we DON'T...

  • @ToyotaCharlie
    @ToyotaCharlie 6 років тому +1

    Who is watching this in 2020? ;)

  • @hermannschweizer7487
    @hermannschweizer7487 6 років тому

    He showed moores law as comparison. Did anyone else notice that after 2000 fusion progress didn't double every few years like the transistorcount?

  • @baddave
    @baddave 9 років тому

    The audience was riveted: (9:21)

  • @ColinGclicks
    @ColinGclicks 8 років тому +31

    nuclear fusion can potentially solve greed and extreme poverty at once. without a fear of scarcity and a confirmation of life. everything could become cheaper while everyone becomes worth more.

    • @tacopacopotato6619
      @tacopacopotato6619 8 років тому +9

      +Colin Burnett Sorry to burst your bubble friend, but the same could be achieved with the technology we have now. We have the resources to feed and satisfy the world, but politics, greed, war and other things get in the way. I'm not saying fusion energy won't be a great step forward, but it certainly won't usher in a new Utopian age.

    • @IbangedYaMama
      @IbangedYaMama 8 років тому +1

      +Colin Burnett You can't solve greed and extreme poverty my friend, sorry to disappoint you. There's not enough ressources for everyone. If we all get an equal part of the world's "ressource" or "wealth" we will all going to be poor. No thanks.

    • @Sh0cKwavE__
      @Sh0cKwavE__ 7 років тому

      Colin Burnett nothing can remove greed. Nothing. Removing poverty is disputed because many people in poverty are just being screwed over by governments

    • @psycronizer
      @psycronizer 7 років тому +2

      prosperity and abundant free everything will easily remove greed, getting to that utopia like state is the hard part, but not impossible ! given time and enough pressure we may get it right one day.

    • @empyrean196
      @empyrean196 6 років тому

      Colin Burnett, I agree. A nuclear fusion reactor can revolutionize our economy. Why would anyone be greedy, when their will be near limitless (clean) energy produced. Though I understand the “grabs for power” such a reactor could have on nations too. Bad politics may possibly blockade, the economical progress from the fusion power. The first country to harness fusion will be KING KONG of energy.

  • @douglasberard8664
    @douglasberard8664 7 років тому

    Yes, just another 2 or 3 hundred years and we might get it. Oh Yay!

  • @bimbumbamdolievori
    @bimbumbamdolievori 5 років тому

    Wow do it please within my life span

  • @66block84
    @66block84 3 роки тому

    Small, Modular, Nuclear, Reactors. Distributed all over with multiple built in fail safes.

  • @hugoortega195
    @hugoortega195 6 років тому +1

    4 years later and we are not much closer........

  • @maranscandy9350
    @maranscandy9350 8 років тому

    Philo Farnsworth already accomplished fusion with his Fuzor.

  • @sinborn41214
    @sinborn41214 7 років тому

    funny thing is 10% of the ITER budget would probably have given us a working molten salt reactor, ready for commercialization by now.

  • @17630973
    @17630973 6 років тому +1

    Fusion is the technology of the future, always has been, always will be. It is always 10 years in the future. I have been hearing this for over 50 years.

    • @MrLeovdmeer
      @MrLeovdmeer 2 роки тому

      Then look for yourself instead of just "hearing" ITER is almost complete and wil start testing in 2025.

  • @pixelissue
    @pixelissue 8 років тому +5

    Aliens will visit us when we stop killing each other for resources.

    • @ElectricityTaster
      @ElectricityTaster 8 років тому +1

      +Pixel Issue Aliens will visit us for those few billion years worth of fuel. They will drain our oceans with huge portals under the sea and build huge citadels.

  • @johnorenick9026
    @johnorenick9026 7 років тому +2

    I think you should call your machine "The Gobsmacker."

  • @robinbinder8658
    @robinbinder8658 7 років тому

    fusion is right around the corner, the same as the last 50 years

  • @shadowboxing1729
    @shadowboxing1729 6 років тому

    I was watching a video about compress Pistons I wonder if the company stole this guy's idea. Maybe it was the same company but either way it is possible for someone to work hard just for a bigger company to steal their idea.
    Side note: is there a stock market for upcoming Fusion Energy?

  • @knutholt3486
    @knutholt3486 7 років тому +8

    Fusion will probably be the permanent solution for the energy need, but the clumpsy tokamak concept will never take off economically. New approaches need to be found.

    • @mehuntpedbro2302
      @mehuntpedbro2302 6 років тому +1

      Knut Holt yup, check out wendelstein 7x, it's been running for a year and is a stellarator

    • @crhu319
      @crhu319 6 років тому

      Tokamak is popular to fund because it fits so neatly into the existing fission reactor grid, and one tokomak could replace four nuclear fission plants, which is about as many as are typically ever constructed in one single location. So the grid is ready to simply replace nuclear fission with large scale tokomak deuterium fusion, and that grid takes a long time to upgrade. I agree with you completely that the smaller-scale aneutronic, "cool" or "warm" fusion using lithium or boron or He3, all need to be explored thoroughly so that we know which is the most practical long term... it would really be awful to invest too much in all technologies except the one that turns out to be easiest to deploy & maintain. "Cold fusion" also should not be ruled out there, are sonofusion & palladium cube phenomena to explain that do appear to be caused by tiny fusions in controlled sonic or rare metal cages that force the atoms together.

  • @peterlang777
    @peterlang777 6 років тому

    brillouin cold fusion confirmed at stanford

  • @cthootie
    @cthootie 7 років тому

    I realize this is very old, But CHILDESS. Any thoughts on Thorium?

  • @ryccoh
    @ryccoh 6 років тому +1

    How does the energy density compare to a traditional reactor?

    • @infini_ryu9461
      @infini_ryu9461 2 роки тому

      Fusion is several times denser than Fission, but that's really irrelevant. Fission is already so energy dense and plentiful there's really nothing that Fusion can do that Fission can't, and Fission power actually exists, so that helps.
      Tritium does not exist in nature and must be created with weapons grade Lithium only available in Russia and China, the US banned Lithium enrichment.

    • @ryccoh
      @ryccoh 2 роки тому +1

      @@infini_ryu9461 why did they ban lithium enrichment

    • @infini_ryu9461
      @infini_ryu9461 2 роки тому

      @@ryccoh It requires a mercury separation process that is highly toxic. Never mind the fact the Lithium-6 is a weapons material and the reason it was enriched at all. Thermonuclear weapons use Lithium-6. The US is in the process of decreasing it's nuclear arsenal so it's not really worth it to do so.

  • @tayro7265
    @tayro7265 8 років тому +25

    I'm not a nuclear surgeon but I have a thought.
    I understand the reactor problems, somewhat.
    Would utilizing the impact process with a containment tank modification help?
    It seems to me, if you can reduce the reaction force against the walls that's the game winner. So I thought how does nature handle pressure, thermal and energy waves? It's not using ring, cylinder or sphere shapes. No every time it's a vortex. Tornadoes, exploding stars, whirlpools all vortex. It not only contains the energy, it uses the energy to contain itself. In a fire twister the vortex shape amplifies the energy. In many cases to the point it can move across water.
    If with a combination of the shell form and magnetic fields, you form a double vortex like an hourglass. The top and bottom shaped like deeply dimpled mushroom tops. The majority of magnetic energy at the mid point to help push towards the core of the reaction. The blast is given a relief point to either end. The energy heads to the parabolic ends with the inverted cone dimples. Splits, follows the arch then turns back in to the middle flowing around the central blast in the core. Add some spin. Tornado in a bottle. Possibly a self sustaining solution? The hard part should be getting it started. And if natures any indicator, scalable.
    Just Thinkingoutloud

    • @jl6569
      @jl6569 8 років тому +2

      K

    • @TheSidder1
      @TheSidder1 8 років тому +2

      +Tayro Thinkingoutloud sound cool, if you look closely at 12:20 it kinda looks like an hourglass with a sphere in the middle :)

    • @tayro7265
      @tayro7265 8 років тому +6

      *****
      That's what made me think about it. What might seem stupid could be important.
      To date over 90% of the inventions that have changed our lives has come from amateurs or accidents.
      I'm an accident that won't stop happening.

    • @Charles0in0charge
      @Charles0in0charge 8 років тому

      +Tayro Thinkingoutloud I don't know if a vortex would be practical in the case of fusion. The vortex is a good way to equalize high pressure states. Maybe, the application could be in the design of the reactor. There is a new design shape that had the magnets twist around the metal doughnut which would make management of the plasma more efficient.

    • @Charles0in0charge
      @Charles0in0charge 8 років тому +1

      +Tayro Thinkingoutloud I don't know if a vortex would be practical in the case of fusion. The vortex is a good way to equalize high pressure states. Maybe, the application could be in the design of the reactor. There is a new design shape that had the magnets twist around the metal doughnut which would make management of the plasma more efficient.

  • @jccusell
    @jccusell 6 років тому

    Yep, any day now...

  • @robertoaraujo9834
    @robertoaraujo9834 6 років тому

    Que loco lindo...

  • @bkstyle3386
    @bkstyle3386 5 років тому

    Hello everybody,
    Is hydrogen only fuel or any other for fusion !

  • @sassoscrib
    @sassoscrib 4 роки тому

    how far away now?

  • @unnamedchannel1237
    @unnamedchannel1237 3 роки тому

    It’s only 30 years away guys