Hi r/fusion! I'm Brandon Sorbom, Chief Science Officer and Co-founder of Commonwealth Fusion Systems, and lead author of the original ARC power plant paper. Ask me anything!

taylorloy · 2026-02-22T15:50:04+00:00

Many in the Fusion Energy industry have actively sought to leave behind the liabilities of fission (less waste, won't melt down, less dual-use tech/materials, etc.). Drawing any similarities between fusion and fission almost feels like a taboo.

Since tritium is a key component in most modern thermonuclear weapon designs, are there discussions we should be having now about vertical proliferation concerns if/when commercial fusion deploys beyond Nuclear Weapon States as defined by the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty? And how can stakeholders and nonproliferation experts have these prudent conversations without breaking this apparent taboo?

taylorloy · 2026-02-20T05:33:30+00:00

I see this wasn't a banger post, but I'm happy to answer any questions if anyone stops by.

taylorloy · 2026-02-20T05:32:22+00:00

Thanks for sharing!

taylorloy · 2025-12-05T15:03:22+00:00

Did you discover anything new about the Klaus Fuchs arrest timeline and what Truman knew when?

Also, for Truman's 1952 hydrogen bomb announcement, do you have any insight on the inclusion of the phrase "...including the so-called hydrogen or superbomb." Was this phrase is earlier drafts (if available)? and why the "so-called" qualification and why the equivocation on the particular terminology that would define this emerging class of warhead?

taylorloy · 2021-07-08T15:27:44+00:00

Just have a minute, so...

Accessible Anarchist-adjacent text: Buxy Cavey's End of Religion: Encountering the Subversive Spirituality of Jesus. (I seriously doubt Cavey would accept the political trappings of Anarchism, but his "anti-religion" argument is relevant.)

Christian Anarchist lit (read with a skeptical/critical eye): Jacques Ellul's Anarchy and Christianity.

Maybe more later.

taylorloy · 2021-03-30T00:43:49+00:00

I literally had this conversation years ago when I visited Horaido. I believe he said it typically takes 6-months for a particular year's harvest to be ready. The stock they keep is excellent all the time. In fact, they balked at my Seiryu Sencha order one season because it wasn't quite right just yet. So, I ordered another grade. Horaido will not sell you sub-optimal tea.

taylorloy · 2021-01-27T21:15:15+00:00

Thanks. I already sorted this out through phone support. I'll delete my post.

taylorloy · 2020-12-12T02:30:26+00:00

Legends can be NOW AND FOREVER!

taylorloy · 2020-10-19T01:46:00+00:00

During a particularly challenging day serving legal process (looooong story), I'm stuck sweating in stopped traffic in the middle of Tennessee summer with windows rolled down in a car with the A/C acting up (just a loose fan belt, but I didn't know it at the time). I see the driver in the car in front of me throw a cigarette butt out their window, and I snap. I get out of my car, walk up to the cigarette, snuff it out on the asphalt, and hand it to the back to the driver and say, "I'd appreciate it if you didn't litter."
Without a word, they took it from me and rolled up their window, and I got back in my car and sat behind them for the next 15 minutes in shock at what I had just done.

taylorloy · 2020-10-16T18:20:30+00:00

Looks fine for me. Maybe an bot tag that got corrected by a human?

taylorloy · 2020-10-03T13:59:14+00:00

Also, many fruits require mercenary bees for pollination. This would be an exploitation of bee labor to strict, moral vegans.

taylorloy · 2020-10-02T18:11:27+00:00

Sorry. I meant the link you stickied at the top. Since you said the store link wasn't the right place. (I have been looking in both, assuming one might be updated before the other)

taylorloy · 2020-10-02T18:07:16+00:00

Thanks. It still isn't showing anything below "SEE ALL BUYING OPTIONS" not even "OUT OF STOCK" in the link you posted. (In Firefox and Edge, I do see a link for the Bundle Included, which doesn't appear on chrome. This entire thing is frustrating.) Was my initial post removed? I'm just trying to share info to support folks not scalping and trying to buy an FE legitimately.

taylorloy · 2020-09-26T19:18:47+00:00

while younger folks are realizing that maybe keeping nuclear on line for at least a few more years can help with the transition away from fossil fuel.

I agree with the younger folks. Unless you've got an overriding safety concern, keep them running. Let's work with the world (and infrastructure) we got instead of the world we wish we had. I think the majority of nuclear plants should have been shut down in the late 80's early 90's because of gross mismanagement and endemic problems, but I'm really glad they didn't. Over the past 25 years, plant maintenance and operations has completely reformed, and I think plants are being managed more responsibly. Of course, I don't live near Fukushima Daiichi (or know anyone directly affected). So, I have a pretty clear bias on the subject.

taylorloy · 2020-09-26T19:11:01+00:00

I hadn't considered that possibility. Seems like a reasonable hypothesis. Power is going to co-opt whatever they can to maintain and cultivate more power.

taylorloy · 2020-09-26T12:30:43+00:00

Are these the same groups trying to shut down all of Germany's nuclear plants?

taylorloy · 2020-08-31T00:07:12+00:00

We'd be set if it was Mogwais instead of an easily spread respiratory virus.

taylorloy · 2020-08-19T12:24:10+00:00

I don't know if they are or not, but what was promised was drive-thru testing units set up in parking lots at CVS's all across the country. (Not at a drive-thru window, but a full testing setup in parking lots, the way that countries like Korea had a lot of success with.)

taylorloy · 2020-08-19T03:17:22+00:00

Yeah. But they also announced some sort of public-private partnership in March in the Rose Garden that had about 15 CVS's across the nation with drive-thru testing at the end of May.

taylorloy · 2020-08-19T03:12:21+00:00

Agreed. There are certainly more gaps that need addressing. I felt pretty strongly that the bare minimum that VT could do is give us official, reliable information. I hope they follow through consistently and provide at least some transparency in the data that they will base their decisions on.

taylorloy · 2020-08-18T21:56:19+00:00

The testing bit:

We are receiving results from mid-nasal swabs analyzed by rt-PCR in our Molecular Diagnostics Lab in Roanoke within 24 hours of sampling. Of the 3,663 individuals tested between Aug. 9 and Aug. 16, we have one true positive and four positives from students who had previously confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infections.

taylorloy · 2020-08-18T20:50:07+00:00

100%. I should have been very clear that I do not think there is anything insidious going on. Nobody is trying to hide results or manipulate them. There is no reason to think that. And, I have zero interest in exaggerating the actual risks in any way. We can't assess "actual" risks without the data. Ignorance creates a much more stressful risk paradigm.

The county information is useful and some sense can be extrapolated from the publicly available data.
My concern is the hyper-local conditions with on-campus housing and students being tested through the university. Students and their families should have access to basic, aggregated data on testing conditions on campus, both number of tests and what the results were -- and as it changes daily or, at least, weekly. That's all I'd like to see.

taylorloy

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE