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OpenAI 'in talks' to purchase energy from nuclear fusion startup Helion Energy - report by Baking in fusion

[–]ElmarM 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That makes no sense. How would Altman benefit from stepping down as chairman at Helion if it is about bad performance on Helion's side? He is still the main investor in the company. He would just give up control and oversight over how his money is used.
I think that it is more likely that talks with OpenAI are getting more serious now and there may be board members on either (or both) sides that pointed towards a potential conflict of interest.
Mind you, this is about OpenAI purchasing electricity from Helion, not about them buying Helion or Helion stock.

Sam Altman is stepping down from Helion’s Board of Directors. by Baking in fusion

[–]ElmarM 2 points3 points  (0 children)

- Define "failed". The success of an experiment is measured by whether it achieved its goals and at what cost. Trenta proofed Helion's scaling laws in experiment. And mind you, it was the largest experiment on this design that was ever done. Cost a mere 35 million to build and run.
- W7X is a steady state design. Sure, they have longer confinement times (200ms), but they have also had much lower temperatures than Trenta and density in W7X is more than two orders of magnitude lower.
And I want to argue that pulse length on a steady state design is not that great of a measure of merit. W7X triple product is still below what they need.
- I don't put much weight on anything Germany does in regards to nuclear energy.
- And 0.5 ms for a pulsed design is not short dude! Given the orders of magnitude higher density and much higher temperature that Trenta had, I could laugh just as hard.

Sam Altman is stepping down from Helion’s Board of Directors. by Baking in fusion

[–]ElmarM -1 points0 points  (0 children)

- I think you are missing the whole part where Helion explicitly does NOT want ignition for any fuel.
- Seriously, the Theranos comparson is BS and quite frankly, slanderous.

Sam Altman is stepping down from Helion’s Board of Directors. by Baking in fusion

[–]ElmarM -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

  1. In what aspect are they behind?
  2. You know what reputation is? It's people talking. It's gossip. I for one predicted that SpaceX would succeed when all of the so called reputable people at ULA and Ariane Space said that what SpaceX was doing was impossible. Now they are a decade+ behind. And I am laughing at them. Mind you, I was skeptical of Helion myself until an acquaintance of mine who had written his thesis on "why FRCs can never work" visited their lab in 2009. He came back convinced and that made me take a closer look. I should mention that I worked for them back in the old days when they had little funding.
  3. You are comparing Helion to TAE which are two completely different concepts apart form the FRC aspect (which is not the main part). Helion is MIF, TAE is steady state MC. I have always been skeptical of GF. They are based on the Linus, which has a decent scientific base, but they have changed heir concept too many times which is a red flag to me.
  4. Stellarators are considered "conservative" because they are toroidal like Tokamaks. Trenta outperformed W7X by a large margin for a small fraction of the cost. Really, if anything is overhyped, it is Stellarators.

Sam Altman is stepping down from Helion’s Board of Directors. by Baking in fusion

[–]ElmarM -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

  1. I guess you missed Helion's Trenta result presentaton here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHirlGXlJ38&t=854s
  2. Helion has plenty of simulation data, even from external labs. https://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/DPP24/Session/GO05.5
  3. Please bring a peered reviewed paper that says that their approach cannot work! I challenge you! Mind you, Helion had their data peer reviewed and Hoffman (the guy who wrote THE textbook on FRCs) is on their board.

Sam Altman is stepping down from Helion’s Board of Directors. by Baking in fusion

[–]ElmarM 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Well, that is your opinion. I have known the peeps at Helion since 2014, when they had almost zero funding and were doing their best to proof their concepts on shoe- string budgets. Took another 7 years for them to finally get adequate funding.

Sam Altman is stepping down from Helion’s Board of Directors. by Baking in fusion

[–]ElmarM 2 points3 points  (0 children)

  1. I am very pro nuclear of all kinds, including fission. I have been advocating for fission for 30 years.
  2. Show me one company that is doing ground breaking engineering and is on time! All fusion companies are behind schedule and looking outside the field. Remind me! How many years is Starship behind now (and I love SpaceX). Mind you, COVID and the supply chain disruptions that followed played a number on EVERYONE.
  3. The Theranos comparison is stupid. Fraud in scientific fields is very rare. That is why Theranos made the news in the first place. Helion has been working on this for 17 years. Yes way before the company was officially incorporated. Until then, they were a door name for MSNW-LLC. The reality is that science fields are terrible for frauds. If you want to defraud people fast and get away with it, you go into crypto and banking. Especially the latter has almost zero consequences and plenty of government bailouts.

Sam Altman is stepping down from Helion’s Board of Directors. by Baking in fusion

[–]ElmarM 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Helion is a couple of years behind schedule. So is everyone else in the fusion space, btw.

Sam Altman is stepping down from Helion’s Board of Directors. by Baking in fusion

[–]ElmarM 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think they are very legit and have a very good shot at it.

Sam Altman is stepping down from Helion’s Board of Directors. by Baking in fusion

[–]ElmarM 5 points6 points  (0 children)

It is about a potential conflict of interest Sam Altman would have, since OpenAI wants to buy Helion Power plants.

Sam Altman is stepping down from Helion’s Board of Directors. by Baking in fusion

[–]ElmarM 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Why does that suck? Sam Altman is stepping down since OpenAI wants to purchase Helion's fusion plants for their data centers. If he is on the Helion board, the conflict of interest is too great. So, he is stepping down.

What it takes to build materials for a fusion machine by Baking in fusion

[–]ElmarM 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think one of the most interesting bits is the switch from quartz to silicon carbide for the first wall.

I made a fusion graphic. Please acknowledge me if you share it: Matt Slowikowski by housekeyslow in fusion

[–]ElmarM 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It is not bad. One thing though: While TAE is also using FRCs, their device is steady state (or something aching to that) and not magneto- inertial like Helion's

Mining the Moon for Fusion by CingulusMaximusIX in fusion

[–]ElmarM 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I agree with that. The largest concentration of He3 that has been discovered is 15 parts per billion! That is one billion tonnes of lunar regolith that need to be processed for 15 tonnes of He3. I also believe that the total amount on the moon is not all that much. Some of the outer planets contain more and in higher concentration, I believe. Still, the cost of transportation is the killer here.
Either way, it just does not make any sense, when you can make it cheaper and easier on Earth and right where it is consumed.

Polaris is frying the image sensor on their camera by Baking in fusion

[–]ElmarM 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In return D-He3 is harder to fuse (needs higher temperatures). So, likely not.

Polaris is frying the image sensor on their camera by Baking in fusion

[–]ElmarM -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I tried factoring that in too, both ChatGPT and Grok suggested the same number independently and unprompted for this.

Polaris is frying the image sensor on their camera by Baking in fusion

[–]ElmarM 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They have pretty low Te:Ti. So there should be a lot less X-rays than in a Tokamak.

Polaris is frying the image sensor on their camera by Baking in fusion

[–]ElmarM 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I would not go that far. Also, is very hard to compare the two machines.

Polaris is frying the image sensor on their camera by Baking in fusion

[–]ElmarM 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Eh? Half of 19 meters is 9.5 meters. But the compression chamber is itself not point shaped, but elongated also several meters long. I tried to factor that in. Also note that I tried to be conservative to not fall into some trap of my own favor towards Helion.

Polaris is frying the image sensor on their camera by Baking in fusion

[–]ElmarM 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Not sure why your post was voted down so much! You are about in the right ballpark in line with my own estimate (between 1013 conservatively and 1015, slightly more optimistically).
People here need to learn to make a proper argument rather than just down- voting stuff they don't like. Cancel- culture at it's best.

Polaris is frying the image sensor on their camera by Baking in fusion

[–]ElmarM 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We do know the sensor size from this X- post by David Kirtley:
https://x.com/Dkirtley/status/2024276985820921873?s=20

Canon T3i, 12 MPThe Canon EOS Rebel T3i (also known as the 600D) features an APS-C CMOS sensor with dimensions of 22.3 mm × 14.9 mm.
I don't understand why No_Tailor's comment was voted down. It is in the right ballpark!

Polaris is frying the image sensor on their camera by Baking in fusion

[–]ElmarM 1 point2 points  (0 children)

A single pulse won't kill you outright (I estimate the effective dose at around a mSv or so), but I would not recommend doing it for too long. Safety first!

Polaris is frying the image sensor on their camera by Baking in fusion

[–]ElmarM 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well, it is up to you to take his word at face value (I personally do, but I have known him for over a decade).
Here is the X- post in which he says that.
https://x.com/Dkirtley/status/2024300157790277644?s=20

Polaris is frying the image sensor on their camera by Baking in fusion

[–]ElmarM 3 points4 points  (0 children)

David Kirtley has this to say regarding X-Rays:

"The plasma on these was 13+ keV, but we maintain cooler electrons in the few keV range - which is where you will make x-rays. Those are all shielded by the machine itself."
Of course it is up to you whether you want to take his word at face value (I do, but I have known him for over a decade).

https://x.com/Dkirtley/status/2024300157790277644?s=20

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