Nuclear Fusion Energy | Ian Hutchinson and Lex Fridman

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Ian Hutchinson, a nuclear engineer and plasma physicist at MIT. He has made a number of important contributions in plasma physics including the magnetic confinement of plasmas seeking to enable fusion reactions, which is the energy source of the stars, to be used for practical energy production. Current nuclear reactors are based on fission as we discuss. Ian has also written on the philosophy of science and the relationship between science and religion.

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[smokeymcpot]

Don't be disappointed Ian!
You spent your life moving humanity forward!!
Legend

[grlldfsh]

If you can’t explain what you do simply, you’re not an expert. This dude is an expert!

[DanielGonzalez-mxbi]

This explanation is butter for the anyone with basic knowledge can understand his explanation, Master Class for the average person about nuclear energy

[frilime]

Really nice to hear sound arguments from people who understand the topic.

[steverobinson]

That was one of the most informative talks I have ever had the pleasure to watch, Ian's ability to "explain it to a student" is much appreciated.

[randytighe]

Lex interviews are fascinating; it's wonderful to see an incredibly intelligent interviewer ask questions (that he clearly already knows the answers to) in order to guide the speaker down to the level of his diverse audience. Thanks Lex!!

[BarackObamaJedi]

The pain of discovering that this clip is already 25% of the whole podcast...

[johnmanderson]

23:45 actually the Fukushima disaster was due to a design flaw, the emergency cooling pumps where in an underground room close to the sea, it got instantly flooded and stopped because of the seawater. This was a particularly stupid design flaw. The pumps should have been up-hill, protected from the Tsunami 🌊

[Cheka__]

"People react emotionally, not rationally". Very true, unfortunately.

[spiedvriek]

As outlined in the video ITER was designed in the previous century and has been under construction for over a decade. The design requires a scale that makes progress very slow and risks being overtaken by other initiatives. Advancements in materials and technology allow for much smaller tokamaks to be built. This will be way faster and cheaper.

In this regard REBCO (Rare Earth Barium Copper Oxide) is a gamechanger. These High Temperature Superconductors, used for the magnets containing the plasma, can be cooled by liquid nitrogen (24 Kelvin) as opposed to the liquid helium (4 Kelvin) needed to cool classic superconductors (like ITER uses). This allows for much smaller reactors.

MIT together with Commonwealth Fusion Systems are currently building SPARC, a tokamak reactor over 10 times smaller in size compared to ITER. Scheduled to be built and running by 2025, SPARC can achieve net positive energy, based on the demonstrated performance of the magnets. The next step is to scale up, and to build an actual power plant (ARC). ARC design aims for a Q-Total > 1 (net positive energy) at Q-Plasma = 4 and Q-total > 4 at Q-Plasma = 14. The target for pre-decessor SPARC is a Q-plasma > 2. SPARC projections however, identify a viable operational point where Q-plasma is between 9 and 11.

I can't help feeling a bit sorry for mr Hutchinson, since, of all institutions, MIT's initiative looks like a main contender to overtake and run rings around ITER. Quite suprised SPARC, or any other fusion projects for that matter, weren't at all mentioned in this video.

[joekey]

Fusion is a holy grail of power generation. Clean and safe.

[EliM]

Just 27 minutes...and I think I'm ready to start building fusion reactors.
Maybe one more teeny little podcast and my resume should be good to go

[informatimago]

23:00 Thorium Fluoride reactors don't have this problem, they can be shut down instantaneously in case of catastrophe impacting them.

[loud]

Wonderful education, great podcast. Thanks Lex!

[ernzzz]

Just a very Expensive, Complex and Dangerous way to Heat Water..

[IngVasiu]

"People are very poor at estimating risks and they react emotionally and not rationally in most of these situations." I can't agree more.

[PaulVivid]

This guy is straight outta half life :)))

[TheMafiaBlessing]

Lex! We need an update from this guy with news of Fusion Ignition. Get him on ASAP while people still have this in their minds

[RahJa]

Hey lex,


PleSe do more interviews with nuclear physicists(in particular fusion scientists).
For better or for worse I chose to marry this field as well. I’m only 22 so there’s a lot or learn and do.. so yeah please make more content on FUSION

[scottchase]

Oh I just love Mr Hutchinson he was such a fun science teacher