Fusion Power: How Far Are We From Unlimited Energy?

[jeremythornton]

Cold fusion IS absolutely possible! It happens in my freezer's ice maker. The little ice cubes always get fused together and make a much bigger one!

[xealixcrowing]

Kevin is very much correct about current nuclear fission energy. It's not the 1970s anymore. Most powerplants that exist right now were built in the 70s and 80s. Current technology is vastly superior. As is our understanding of the possibility of disaster if we don't make many redundent error prevention measures. Build more nuclear power plants! Let's go!!

[iainballas]

I am absolutely certain that, even if we had literally unlimited power, utility companies here in the USA would still find a way to both cause rolling blackouts and demand higher prices per watt.

[Kitsudote]

I swear, Simon could make a hour long video about how to do your taxes and I'd enjoy it. The scripts, his presentation and the video editing are all just top notch!

[DFSJR]

Great job to the Kevin for writing this and Aspen for editing this episode. oh, and Simon for reading it to us.

[MySqueezingArm]

Another gem from the Whistleverse, thank you guys.

[cubeflinger]

UKs first commercial reactor greenlit to be built by 2040. No rush lads. My Nvidia RTX 1mill80 says it needs this to run.

[Ventus_the_Heathen]

Simon! You've made a video about why Nuclear Waste isn't as dangerous as people think. I know it's in the eyes and out the mouth sometimes but I would've definitely thought you'd remember that one hahaha

[TheMyrmo]

To be fair, the TV you can hang on your wall like a painting was always thirty years away... until suddenly you had one. All it took was some extremely different technology.

[ignitionfrn]

1:25 - Chapter 1 - What is nuclear fusion
5:45 - Chapter 2 - A history of fusion reactors
10:45 - Wrap up

[AcornElectron]

Rinsing the whistleverse uploads today Simon!

Keep up the good work and, as always, stay safe!

[kukipett]

As a physicist i would tell you that we are 30 years away from fusion just like i was told in the university in 1979, this a tradition in fusion, the "30 years thing" !!!

[AlKohaiMusic]

it might just be me noticing this, but i think some of the visual effects are overloading youtube's compression algorithms resulting in slight potatoing of simon. i had to check that i wasnt set to 480p around 5:18 . love the vfx but it might be worth trying to find a more compression friendly middle ground

[MikeBaxterABC]

1:58 At Canada's Nuclear Generator Stations, the waste is stored on site, indoors, in pools of water, for ten years or so .. then they move it to concrete canisters outside in fenced off storage areas, basically forever.

[PorkChopxSammich]

Lol nice Doctor Who reference. Speaking of which, I would like to see you do a video about the longest running sci-fi series in history; and the odd coincidence of the original air date of the original pilot. Truly, a great story of television of history. Keep up the great work brother.

[joshjones]

Great show! Fusion really will change everything when we finally get it, from generating gigaWatts of reliable electricity with hydrogen to farming in 40 story farms that make one acre of land into 40 usable acres with grow lights 24/7.

[Master_Yoda]

Seems like Simon needs to research more on how we're disposing of nuclear waste nowadays. Hint we don't store it in warehouses and burying it would be worse. We dispose of it by containing it in giant concrete structures that can withstand a train collision.

[thetowndrunk]

I’m shocked that there was no mention of the new superconducting magnets, that operate at a much warmer temperature than previously required. Nor mention of MIT’s proposed test reactor using those magnets

[wesleyredmond]

I believe my wife’s heart was formed from cold fusion 💯

[Michael]

There's also the fusor. This doesn't come close to break-even and never will, but that doesn't matter as it's not being used as an energy source. The main use is as a neutron source, which can be used for all sorts of interesting things.

Muon-catalysed fusion - replace the electrons around a nucleus with muons, which have a much higher mass than electrons and therefore orbit much closer to the nucleus, allowing nuclei to get much closer than they would normally do - also works, but seems very unlikely to hit break-even due to the energy required to make muons and their short lifetime.