Nuclear Fusion explained | Solution to our Energy Challenge? - Power Struggle Breakthrough | Reactor

Do you sometimes wonder if nuclear fusion will help to solve our energy challenges? In this video we’ll debunk common misconceptions about nuclear fusion, show how it works including the different kinds of fusion reactors, and look at where we are at and the progress that’s been made. Let me know your thoughts on nuclear fusion. Enjoy!

00:00 - Intro
00:32 - Debunking Common Misconceptions about Nuclear Fusion
01:18 - How It Works: Nuclear Fusion Explained
01:59 - Types of Fusion Reactors: Magnetic Confinement and Inertial Confinement using Tokamak, Stellerator, etc.
04:15 - Progress and Breakthroughs in Nuclear Fusion
06:11 - Private Companies entering the Market
06:54 - Compression-Induced Nuclear Fusion

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💭 Let me know your thoughts in the comments!

[captin]

This video is a great start! I would love to see more about the aneutronic approaches like from TAE, Lawrenceville Plasma Physics, or HB11. They need more visibility because it seems everyone only ever talks about ITER or NIF, but as mentioned in a comment below, DT fusion does still emit neutron radiation (though I don't think storage, or proliferation, are AS big of problems as people make them out to be). Aneutronic fusion reduces those concerns to ALMOST nothing:)

[georgeflitzer]

It will never be “free energy” until we outlaw All Meters!

[prvashisht]

It was a good idea to mention the progress over the last years. So far we've only been hearing about how it's coming to us soon. Maybe for the next similar video, you can add some graphs tracking the progress of a technology which would be much more clear. Great video as always :D

[linyenchin]

This Katha guy, fist time I am seeing him. He has a weird European vibe to him. I like that he is speaking American English instead of noise from england.

[jipe]

btw, super well made and interesting video on fusion, that seems to give you a good idea of what is happening in the field!

[linyenchin]

4:56 "Confinement Confusion"-!? Huh... great success, I guess... did you mean *confinement fusion?* The topic of discussion is fusion and not confusion, right!!!

[tjampman]

Answer is: No.
1. They will be far too complicated to build and operate. Requiring, super conductors and magnetic fields to rival the LHC.
2. Even if they manage to make power producing fusion power plants within the next 20-30 years, I will forecast that the production cost of the power plants are gonna be so expensive that only a few prestige project will be built in rich countries.
3. If they somehow become cheap, we are still looking at least 30 years into the future, by which time "our energy challenges" are hopefully already solved.

I have been fascinated by fusion power for 30 years since I first heard about, but I think now, that fusion is just an exciting research area and not a energy solution. unfortunately.

The problem to climate change, which is the main problem with our energy today as I see it, is that the 3rd world are going to build 100s of coal power plants in the next 30 years.
Now why are they doing that, when wind and solar are cheaper? Because single countries can't really count on renewable as it is too intermittent. Perhaps Europe can, because they already have good electrical infrastructure they are heavily investing in to make it even better.

I think the way to go is, if green governments around the world really cared for climate change, they really should start to invest heavily in small modular molten salt fission reactors, even if they don't want them in their own countries, but just to give an option to developing nations.
Now, I am not the biggest proponent of these, but the benefits I see is this:
1. they have already been proven to work
2. they are a lot more efficient than old fission reactors in that they "burn" a lot more of the fuel, thus leaving less waste that is shorter lived.
3. they can be designed to "burn" regular fission waste as fuel
As far as I know what is holding them back is primarily machine parts and sensors, that needs to be compatible with the molten salt.
But that is a small hurdle compared to fusion.

(damn, that was a long post)

[trebronelruef]

What I find interesting is that, if what they say, namely that the magnetic filed is only a relativistic observer based side effect of the moving charge ( electric field), is true, then it doesn't really make sense to use magnetic copper coils at all, this would just result in allot of useless copper heating and then having to cool it down to avoid having the resistor increased which would limit the current. Wouldn't it be much wiser to directly using just (charge ) electric fields only then?

[bronzedivision]

This video title is a good example of Betteridge's Law of Headlines.

[johnconstantine]

You don't quite say it, but you kind of give the impression that fusion is "clean", which it is not (at least in case of Deuterium fusion you talk about - there are aneutronic fusion concepts that are). It still creates radioactive waste with relatively long half life that needs to be stored. So we are back with a problem we still don't have a solution for.

[russhamilton]

So ITER will use 50MW heating the fue to get 500MW. Thats gain, but not net power. Funny that another 250MW will be needed to power the plant but thats not discussed.

[russhamilton]

So claiming dueterium as being an unlimited resource of fuel, without mentioning that the other fiel, tritium costs 30k per gram and that its questionable as to whether a fusion reactor can sustain it as a fuel through breeding. Thats being dishonest.

[nuanil]

Fusion has been 10 years away for my entire lifetime and beyond...

[josephowens]

While there has been progress in high temperature fusion I think there might be more promise in the emerging lattice confinement fusion. For as young as this technology is it has a lot of promise, not least of starting with a fuel density at room temperature several times greater than magnetic confinement systems at millions of degrees C. But I’m prejudiced because I’ve wanted to accelerate lithium 6 into hydrogen loaded metal under a high voltage electric gradient for years but haven’t had the time/money to try it. It came from a youthful thought experiment into how Iron Mans arc reactor might work....lol

[jackfanning]

If your goal is to destroy whatever package you put a nuclear fusion reaction in, you have the right tool. If you want to keep the bomb-making scientists employed doing research on how to make more destructive bombs, nuclear fusion is the correct approach. You can pretend that you are working on commercial energy production research. If you want to continue to throw public funding at private researchers working for our war machine, nuclear fusion is the proper tool. If you want to research cost-effective, commercial energy production, you better find something else to throw your money at.

How come you have less than 100 subscribers?

[neuralwarp]

We still need fission, to provide isotopes for various medical and industrial purposes. Also we need plutonium to power deep space probes.

[jipe]

Fission has prractically all the same benefits, and its here now

[randall]

NO it is not, but a plasma reactor is!!

[Novalarke]

"Is Nuclear Fusion the Solution to our Energy Challenges?"
No.