How close are we to powering the world with nuclear fusion? - George Zaidan
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- Опубліковано 6 лют 2025
- Explore the possibility of nuclear fusion technology to create limitless, on-demand energy with almost no emissions.
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Stars have cores hot and dense enough to force atomic nuclei together, forming larger, heavier nuclei in a process known as fusion. In this process, the mass of the end products is slightly less than the mass of the initial atoms. But that “lost” mass doesn’t disappear - it’s converted to energy ... a lot of energy. So, can we harness this energy to power the world? George Zaidan investigates.
Lesson by George Zaidan, directed by Igor Ćorić, Artrake Studio.
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I thought the quote would be:
“The power of the sun in the palm of my hand”
Just make sure the one who does it doesn't lose his mind and go on a cybernetically-enhanced rampage
Same, disappointing
That is gold
I love that reference. I've watched the Tobey Mcguire movie series of Spider-Man when I was 7
Came here to make that comment, Alas.
I love that the best way humanity has found to harness energy is to get something so hot that it heats water to produce vapor to move turbines, and we've just changed the source of heat.
Easy now, we also have knocking electrons off of a semiconductor surface with photons of light to do work in a system before being returned. Now I know you said "best way" but that is largely subjective, a few pieces of flat glass on roof seems like a really efficient use of space... at least for me.
@@Mike__Bthe energy density of a fission reactor and a solar panel is quite different
@@confusedtoad8757 Oh, no argument by me at all on that, per square (whatever) nuclear is by far more efficient than solar or wind or hydro (none of which requires the heating of water)
That said I don't need a fission reactor worth of power, some roughly 1" thick rectangular panels that seamless align with a roof of the house I live in are more than enough to meet my energy needs though.
@@Mike__BThough you wouldn't need to build one in the first place if one of those reactors were powering the whole region? Panels still cost maintenance and though the sun won't explode tomorrow. It will be good to have space traveling quickly unlocked.
with fusion you can harness the energy directly from the magnetic field, you don’t need to heat water.
It's still crazy that no matter what the energy source we decide to use is, it all comes down to: "boiling water and having steam turn turbines"
not solar power, sunlight is converted directly to electricity ... although it's far from efficient, output decreases over time ☹️
There is a pulse style fusion reactor that skips boiling water and just uses em fields instead
There are 3 sources that don’t use boiling water
Hydro power (still water, just not hot water” spins a turbine
Wind power
And solar power
@@mrparkerdan others use mirrors to focus the light towards towers, heating up the salt inside and boiling water
@@M3sierr thank you, but we are listing ways to generate electricity WITHOUT boiling water 😉
4:32 The power of the Sun, in the palm of his hand
2:50 The helium generated from the reactions needs to be removed from the plasma ASAP, as it will actually slow down the rate of reactions as the remaining fuel collides with it. This is pretty challenging, as it means you have to be siphoning off the plasma and splitting out the waste consistently, or periodically shut down the reaction and evacuate the chamber.
@@ayybe7894 a very clean source of energy
@@we.Oz9637 I mean, there's nothing wrong with Helium, it is a limited resource here (but powering the world with fusion would still make only like, enough for a couple party balloons in a day). The presenter acted like the Helium byproduct was a good thing (and some kinetic energy will be imparted on the Helium), but it is actually one of the operational challenges that doesn't really have an awesome solution.
Absolutely loving the Dr. Octopus comments 😂
who?
Same🤣🤣
@simulationkoyoEw
그게 누군데
Never underestimate man's ability to innovate; if any lesson was learned from our long history is that "it can be done" given enough time any thing can be realized.
U forgot about our stupidity which is more significant in case of most people
@@1998ichigokurosaki98 😅 that too....two sides of the coin
@@1998ichigokurosaki98 It's a good thing then that most people don't work on fusion reactions😅
@@whitesailproductionsofficial All of our food that we eat comes from crops grown in the sun... we ARE working on fusion reactions... just stored and processed first.
Is this comment thread just spiderman 2 quotes?
What a dismissed opportunity to close the video with _“The power of the sun in the palm of my hand"_ at 04:30.
only person who can make small sun is dr Octopus
In the palm of his hand😂
I looked for this comment bro )
Investors when it doesn’t work out “Im ruined I have nothing left except spiderman”
But he saved your life!
@@westwoods7675 “He humiliated me by touching me”
I really love the soundtrack on this one, especially at 3:49. It gives off a feeling of miraculous, utopian, sci-fi like power. I suppose that's what controlling fusion actually is!
I could probably help, I once pushed the negative ends of two magnets together and got them to touch, fusion shouldn't be a problem 💪🗿
bro youre basically just god if you can do that wtf
Very nerdy and I like it❤
It'll stabilize. It's under control 🕷
It can't be stopped. It's self-sustaining now.
The chip.. Gone.
It's kinda funny how even the ultimate energy source in the universe is essentially yet another more powerful kettle when we want to convert it to electricity. I wonder if we'll ever find a way to bypass the steam turbine.
I am confident that this will be achieved in the future. As history has shown us, human ingenuity progress exponentially. Maybe not in the near future nor in our lifetime, but someday.
We’re going to need tritium.
That's why Doc ock made the deal with harry
Breeder blankets! Let's go!
Happy to pay the bills, Otto
Nobel Prize, Otto!
You may have some in your watch :D, it's a common material, used for its phosphorescence.
Doc Ock was decades ahead of his time.
People who are interested in fusion energy should really check out what Helion Energy has been doing. They don’t even bother to sustain the reaction, but by pulsing small fusion reactions steadily to output constant electricity. Plus, they don’t use steam turbines, they use electromagnetic fields to generate electricity, so that’s pretty cool.
Hi, I see an errata in minute 2:35 , where the helium nucleus is wrongly labeled, in the video appears as "H" of hydrogen, when it should be "He" of Helium.
Otherwise, great video! Thank you @TED-Ed
This was driving me crazy haha. Thanks for posting about it. 💪
@@mayonnaiseeee let's hope @TedED addresses it.
Informative 👍🏻
I guess you could say that Ted Ed really shines a bright light on this topic. 👀
❤ Awesome as always thanks
He's got the whooooole sun, in his hand he's got the whole wide sun in his hand
🙏thank you for explaining
“Fusion is just a cheap tactic to make weak gems stronger!”
From powering our planet for the next thousands of years to the human space expedition to far exoplanets, Fusion is Future 🌞.
This is giving me Dr Vegapunk vibes
Yeah, we can expect ted ed video of Void Century.
2:42 So basically a fancy steam engine, like nuclear reactors today.
Amazing video
❤❤❤❤❤❤ hi ❤❤❤❤ thank youuuuuu all staff ❤❤❤❤
The Power of the sun, in the palm of my hand!
1:53 Helium is He not H
How was the slow-motion effect added in post-production?
It all "boils" down to something spinning the turbines to get electricity.
I love how, no matter the complexity, we embrace tradition.
Wait, at 1:05 how did "c" (speed of light) suddenly become equal to 89*10ˆ15 with this strange unit of "m^2/s^2"??? This makes no sense.
At this point, I am convinced that when humanity is able to build Dyson Sphere, we will use it to boil water
How long since the concept of a fission power plant to the first working prototype? Fusion concept has been around for decades but why not a working prototype?
Powerful laser is needed to ignite plasma and powerful magnetic fields are needed to contain that plasma, so I guess is not convenient yet
Per a brief search on the web: Discovery of fission: 1938. First fission reactor: 1942. (4 years elapsed.) First commercial power plant using fission: 1957. (19 years elapsed since discovery of fission.)
Idea of fusion proposed by Harkins: 1915. Recognition by Eddington that fusion powers the sun: 1921. Rutherford demonstrates fusion in the lab: 1934. (Over a century of elapsed time since discovery of fusion, still nowhere near commercial viability, and still waiting.) 🙁
Anyone with sufficient determination and modest means can build and operate a fusion reactor in his or her "basement" or "garage" so to speak. Thus, fusion is tantalizing.
Why no prototype? It takes energy input to force the reaction to happen. Most of the energy produced escapes without sustaining the reaction. No one has come up with a commercially viable method of creating a combination of sufficient temperature, pressure, and confinement time or repetition rate to sustain useful energy production. Also, fuel production, separation of fusion waste products including radioactive waste, and recycling of unburned fuel, have not been done at anywhere near the scale and cost required, thought these last items may or may not remain as barriers.
Geothermal power has much better immediate returns for sustainable power generation with a much smaller development investment. The heat for our turbines is under our feet. Fusion is like trying to light a fire underwater...
@ThePursuitWOD If the fusion plants ultimately aren't viable at all, geothermal is better in the long run, too. Ever hear the joke "fusion power is always 30 years away"?
We could build an entire galaxy if we want to. We are creators. But we are no God level construction workers that have everything under control.
I missed the answer to the question asked in the title
ikr😂
Wow that's interesting
wait, it's all just to boils water?
always have been
Not solar panels, but everything else is yeah.
@@setcheck67dams also do not use boiling water. Just water. I'd even say cold water.
Still waiting and still hoping. Hope I can see it in this generation.
The future is getting closer and closer...
Tritium is extremely rare, it can be replaced with Helium-3, which mostly can be found on the surface of Moon
Very nice
The majority of the sun's energy comes from quantum tunneling, not collision. That is when the wave function of two hydrogen atoms overlaps which makes them appear at the same place at the same time.
what was the problem with fission???
Typo at 2:33. Should be He not H.
Explain thorium reactors next
What about the radioactive neutron irradiated lithium panels? That would classify as hazardous. Nuclear fission is the best way we've got of producing energy. It's only drawback? It can't be made scarce by corporations.
So, high neutron flux panels are worse than toxic long-lived fission products? 😂
@@playgroundchooser no, but they still represent a radioactive hazard. This is to say that even fusion is not entirely clean. Although better than fission, fusion is still a long way off and we already have a sufficiently clean energy source that could stop CO2 emissions.
@@playgroundchooser although some reactions don't have neutrons as products, there are a lot of additional reactions that do... The reactions that produce neutrons must be contained constantly and so the lithium defence must be changed regularly... Regularly is not that word... constantly... That's one of the most difficult part in creation of thermonuclear reactor(
I thought of a video quoted "What if protons were heavier then neutrons"
Thanos: I have the glove
Me:I have a sun
wait, why do you need to boil the water to make steam? Can't you convert the heat into electricity directly?
and why does the exact same thing happen in nuclear power plants, where they get the heat generated by the fuel rods to power water into steam to run a turbine?
I don't get it, if you can convert heat directly into electricity, why not do it?
I am drifting deep.
(Profound statement)
(Pithy comment)
@@playgroundchooser (petty, uninformed sub comment)
@@denvernow7294 (quasi-informed reply to attemp hi-jacking of thread)
@@playgroundchooser ( Witty culturally relevant vernacular comment hoping to gain 1k likes so they can say: "Mom I'm famous!")
Is the thumbnail a Nurofen logo 😂
About 30 years as we have been for the last 50 years.
“You sure we wanna put a thing that has the gravity of Jupiter while being the size of a penny, and could burn your hand off in an instant?”
“Yes.”
Im pretty sure a penny size with jupiter mass is way beyond the Swarzchild radius.
i done need it foo.
What will happen to the power
in the meanwhile, newly developed, better, eco friendly and safer Nuclear Powerplants are side eyeing this post...
That’s crazy
Me after watching Oppenheimer:
*T H E E X P E R T*
isn't 'something that makes more power than it is given with no help' the exact definition of a perpetual motion machine
Did we not learn anything from spiderman?
Ah yes, we should learn from movies, not actual science work. Fusion reactors are the safest thing ever. The nature of the reaction itself makes them suitable for safety.
@@antoniousai1989I think he was saying it as more of a joke then an actual statement
@@thatall1145 There was no hint that it could be sarcasm.
first time early for my best idol 🎉
But I'm confused, the minimum mass for a star it 80 times that of Jupiter.
“The estimated time to commercially viable fusion reactors is a universal constant, with a value of 30 years” - my particle physics professor at university, 30 years ago.
And it happened, china just successfully tested their artificial sun.
yup that's a good idea, since 1930's and we will wait for... i don't know, 20yrs or more... again 😂
Maybe it would be more practical to solve the problem of fewer Lay’s potato chips first❤
That, and "how many licks does it take to get to the chocolate center of a tootsie pop". 😂
For lays potato chips, it’s to keep costs low. The “air” in the bag is nitrogen to keep it fresh.
@@phantomcruizerFor tootsie pops. 117 minimum licks. There’s a food theory video on it.
I want to make a working nuclear power plant for my science project!
but then, most people don't know or understand that nuclear plants does not actually produce electricity but heat. Nuclear is great source of heat but fast falling behind electricity generation of solar and wind. Nuclear power is essentially boiling water to drive/turn the turbines/generators which is inefficient
Guys just saying, if we can do both fusion and fission on a small scale, could we possibly take atoms, and take em apart and put them back together into other things, and make things
Yes, that is done routinely at many labs. For instance, cyclotrons are used to make various nuclear isotopes for medical purposes. That is a very different application from trying to produce commercially viable power from fusion.
@analog_guy cool didn't know that, I was really just thinking making diamonds out of peanut butter or something but cool
@@potassium339 Okay, nice idea. Artificial diamonds are being produced, but no nuclear manipulation is required. Yes, artificial diamonds could presumably be made using the carbon found in peanut butter. There is another item made by nuclear manipulation that many of us benefit from and have in our homes. Many smoke detectors (the ionization chamber type) contain the man-made element americium, made in reactors from uranium (or from plutonium which is also made from uranium).
Geothermal power has much better immediate returns for sustainable power generation with a much smaller development investment. The heat for our turbines is under our feet heat we need to
2 pick-up trucks of fuel, now that's a science video.
G
So, the video doesnt explain what the title implies. CAN we build it? I have watched the video, and still have no idea..... Thanks for wasting my time, TED.
Dont get me wrong: The video is informative and interesting. But the title is incorrect to say the least. It should be:
"The science of Nuclear Fusion, and it's history".
TLDR: we don't know.
In principle, yes. We're making advances in plasma confinement and fuel cycle management.
We don't know if or when we'll get to a point where we get net enegy out.
Yeah but, how close are we to achieving this in our lifetime?
what about waste management and safety?
I immediately thought of iron man’s heart😮
Don't worry, I'll deal with the suns if they get out of hand.
I bet something just like in ultraman would happen far more realistically to anyone who's not at ultra gets burned to oblivion since it's a sun that they're recreating there and don't expect turning into an ultra if you find the light of the plasma spark lying around
personally I think reliable fusion power will only really be possible if Gravity can be quantized and the theoretical particle Graviton can be manipulated to mimic the gravity of inside a star on a substellar scale. being able to manipulate gravity like that would have tons of other uses as well of course but making a graviton ignited Fusion reactor would be one of the most useful i think
Just if you run it of dutirium and tritim
Haven't these people seen spiderman 2? It's a bad idea
❤❤❤
Ignition
20 years away
Doctor Octavius did it back in the early 2000s
What college students need is TUITION.
concentrating energy in that quantity serves no practical or beneficial purpose to humanity. It offers the tantalizing possibility that a single entity could monopolize the entire power grid spanning continents by financing a network of reactors and charging the countries that host them a massive premium that they could never refuse to pay. However, other than the mass exploitation and abuse of humanity as a whole, there is nothing to be gained from concentrating energy into more and more dense accidents waiting to explode as proof of concept for a new arms race. Personal energy production is the future. Not centralized grids powered by a handful of private reactors. Einstein warned us very clearly about this kind of energy. It's a dead end. Literally.
Pop culture is everything, and I have an entire comments section to prove!
"Two trucks. That's revolutionary. Anyway, let's restart our coal factories and shut down our nuclear reactors," said Germany.
Another fancy way to boil water
Hahahaha lol
tl;dr
we already have
disclaimer: it doesn’t last very long
The concept is similar to Dr. Vegapunk's desired goal...
fusion shmusion. i will settle for no less than a mini sun i can hang on my porch
why do we want water in nuclear reactors too? dont we have something more efficient?
Eliane Stravenue
What for?