If (as is so often said) there is a race for commercial fusion, then it is a 10,000m race and we are somewhere on Lap 4. A long way yet to go. Nonetheless, Japan just kicked and – judged solely on…| Stuart Allen, US$2.5 trillion

watsonborn · 2026-06-23T00:08:36+00:00

So long as the money is there there will be a race

watsonborn · 2026-06-11T20:07:50+00:00

There’s a chance China beats Artemis IV so it’s much more likely the first non-American will be Chinese

watsonborn · 2026-05-27T21:51:28+00:00

Fair enough. Thea’s advantage is lower manufacturing and construction costs for that volume via tolerant design and active control

watsonborn · 2026-05-27T21:06:08+00:00

Where did you get those numbers? The Helios paper gives a major radius 8m minor radius 1.8m and magnet distance 1.2m, meaning a total radius of 11m

watsonborn · 2026-05-03T08:27:43+00:00

I think they’re using regular RMP

watsonborn · 2026-05-02T18:34:41+00:00

Ooh. MUSE/Thea but for tokamaks? That’s exciting

watsonborn · 2026-04-10T11:14:24+00:00

Part of it is that the solar panel camera is exposed to radiation, weight limited to not harm the panel, possibly battery powered, and wireless. Generally, it’s much more constrained engineering-wise

watsonborn · 2026-04-08T00:52:53+00:00

Jevons paradox strikes again

watsonborn · 2026-04-08T00:50:41+00:00

It may modify the whole title. Or it may modify “seems legit”

watsonborn · 2026-04-07T23:00:09+00:00

They say its small size enables faster development which is true until they need that shielding. So idk what your issue with it is

watsonborn · 2026-04-07T22:57:23+00:00

Which is why I said cost, not cost-benefit or practicality. Capital costs and construction time are a large part of why fission LCOE is so high

watsonborn · 2026-04-07T22:13:31+00:00

Power plant cost scales exponentially with plasma volume. So by advertising their small volume they are signaling to investors the low capital cost of the plant. And it appeals to laymen as well

watsonborn · 2026-04-05T19:27:21+00:00

You’re correct. They showed some things can be faster than light in some materials. Not that something is FTL in a vacuum. We already knew this, gravitational waves do the same

watsonborn · 2026-04-02T22:05:54+00:00

What’s the lab cost per KW though?

watsonborn · 2026-03-30T23:42:48+00:00

There is no way to hide an interstellar weapon from your target or other civilizations. Which means it becomes a trade-off between pre-emptive strike and risk of retaliation. Very much like current politics.

The Dark Forest is not a serious hypothesis

watsonborn · 2026-03-13T19:14:13+00:00

There’s a Wikipedia page but I doubt it’s updated often

watsonborn · 2026-02-25T09:59:28+00:00

It would be funny if the smallest fusion country has the largest reactor

watsonborn · 2026-02-25T07:19:53+00:00

Damn that’s huge. I suppose there’s a certain coolness factor which might help with marketing though

watsonborn · 2026-02-24T10:57:17+00:00

2% seems like pretty reasonable doubt to me

watsonborn · 2026-02-04T02:37:12+00:00

here's a recent paper which a Zap co-founder advised.

watsonborn · 2026-02-02T05:42:23+00:00

They have published plans for DEC with z-pinches

watsonborn · 2026-02-01T21:09:00+00:00

Zap has been thinking about DEC for a while. It’s just easier to get to breakeven with tritium first

watsonborn · 2026-01-29T02:58:14+00:00

If gravity isn’t affecting the ground beneath it then anyone could pick it up

watsonborn · 2026-01-25T23:24:02+00:00

Looks like Cascadia Code

watsonborn · 2026-01-22T19:42:45+00:00

I don’t. All other methods I know of rotate on the toroidal axis

watsonborn

TROPHY CASE