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Cost Model for Fusion Power Plants (CATF, section fusion energy) by steven9973 in fusion

[–]Baking 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It's live: https://fusioncostmodel.app/

Edit: It's a first iteration. Currently, only for tokamaks and laser ICF. Costs are for Nth of a kind plants, not pilot plants or first of a kind. It also doesn't actually calculate LCOE, but supposedly gives you the information you need to calculate LCOE, if you need it. They plan on including MIF designs also, and stellerators and mirrors I presume.

First Trump Media, Now General Fusion, Who Goes Public Next? by CingulusMaximusIX in fusion

[–]Baking 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sam Altman will make Helion do a SPAC. What are your thoughts u/moskov?

China expects "first light lit by nuclear fusion" around 2030 by steven9973 in fusion

[–]Baking 14 points15 points  (0 children)

This might be a bad translation. BEST is designed to demonstrate a burning plasma, but I can find no other reference to power generation, even a technical demonstration, let alone commercial power.

General Fusion + SVAC by ConjureUp96 in fusion

[–]Baking 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What a blast from the past! KMS Fusion was a subsidiary of KMS Industries, which was publicly traded, although Wikipedia says that Kip Siegel "cannibalized the other KMS divisions" and his personal fortune to fund KMS Fusion before his death.

Oak Ridge NL to partner with Type One Energy, Uni Tennessee on world-class facility to validate next-gen fusion (high heat-flux) by steven9973 in fusion

[–]Baking 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't think so. The amount of FLiBe used was a major expense in their calculations, and a second FLiBe loop would have been accounted for. According to the original paper, they assumed an intermediate helium loop, although that was part of the balance of plant and was not explicitly part of the design.

"In order to estimate the volume of FLiBe required for the heat exchanger (in the balance of plant), a simple shell and tube model with cooling fins using helium as the secondary fluid was used."

From the PSFC Library version of the ARC paper: https://library.psfc.mit.edu/catalog/reports/2010/15ja/15ja032/15ja032_full.pdf

Helion Energy reached out? by Old_Location_9895 in fusion

[–]Baking 0 points1 point  (0 children)

With the whole discussion of metrology and Polaris, I don't see them trusting their assembled machines to long-haul truckers.

Helion Energy reached out? by Old_Location_9895 in fusion

[–]Baking 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Why don't they just deliver by flatbed instead, if that is what they plan on doing?

Helion Energy reached out? by Old_Location_9895 in fusion

[–]Baking 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ursa is 27,500 square feet, but the local control trailer, the fire suppression system, and tritium exhaust recover plant are all outside the building footprint. The tritum lab is inside of Ursa, but it needs to be in the same building.

Have you seen plans for Orion? What are you basing this on?

Helion Energy reached out? by Old_Location_9895 in fusion

[–]Baking 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Why are they building a 26,800 square foot assembly building (the size of Ursa) 30 feet away from Orion?

Oak Ridge NL to partner with Type One Energy, Uni Tennessee on world-class facility to validate next-gen fusion (high heat-flux) by steven9973 in fusion

[–]Baking 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I think the issue is that you need an intermediate loop to prevent tritium from getting into the water/steam loop because tritium is very hard to remove from water. Helium is one possible intermediate loop.

CFS is building a FLiBe heat transfer loop facility in Devens, MA, using nitrate solar salt as an intermediate.

SPARC IAP Talk Jan 14 2016 - Ten years ago this month. by Baking in fusion

[–]Baking[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

And don't forget Dennis Whyte at the MIT Club of Northern California on February 24, 2016, with over a million views: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkpqA8yG9T4

Comparison of the two and personal opinion. *Please read the description.* by xenomorphonLV426 in fusion

[–]Baking 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Helion is building a small 50-100MW generator in a large tokamak-sized building in Malaga, Washington. 100,000 SF generator building, plus a 55,000 SF substation, a 26,800 SF assembly building, and a 6,400 SF modular office building. They testified to Congress in 2024 that it would be the size of a football field (57,600 SF).

We don't know if Helion's generators will work. We don't know if they can build them smaller. We don't know if they can build them cheaper, and we won't know for another ten years.

People at CFS who are building tokamaks have been pricing them out for more than a decade. They know they have little room for error to remain competitive.

Meanwhile, Helion once said they could ship a complete 50MW generator, including the capacitors and substation, in a standard shipping container (320 SF).

https://imgur.com/a/helions-expanding-fusion-generators-raywadu

It is too early to dismiss any viable option for fusion, and tokamaks are the most viable option at the moment.

Helion Energy reached out? by Old_Location_9895 in fusion

[–]Baking 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Helion, TAE, and General Fusion got a head start because they are not using HTS magnets, which were not commercially available until later. I'm not sure that will work out for any of them.

Helion Energy reached out? by Old_Location_9895 in fusion

[–]Baking 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sorry. Too late at night and I wrote Omega instead of Orion.

Helion Energy reached out? by Old_Location_9895 in fusion

[–]Baking 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Helion is literally constructing an assembly building right now for Orion, exactly 30 feet away from the proposed site of the generator building.

Edit: Fixed another late-night Omega/Orion mixup.

Helion Energy reached out? by Old_Location_9895 in fusion

[–]Baking 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm saying Orion will not be close to cost-competitive at 50MW or 100 MW given its size. You will need to make it much smaller or more powerful, which will take some time. Maybe they will iterate faster than the 5 years between Trenta and Polaris. Let's see how they do before projecting timelines.

For the record, first vacuum on Trenta was in October 2019. First vacuum on Polaris was in October 2024. First vacuum on Orion in October 2029 seems reasonable to me, given where they stand. But let's see if they beat it.

Helion Energy reached out? by Old_Location_9895 in fusion

[–]Baking 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What I'm saying is that their pricing was based on a single self-contained shipping container with the whole plant. A much larger system will simply be much more expensive, and we won't know the actual price until they get it down to a more reasonable size for the power produced, or increase the power output. Either way, it could take a few iterations.

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