A New Way to Achieve Nuclear Fusion: Helion

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Credits:
Writer/Narrator: Brian McManus
Editor: Dylan Hennessy
Animator: Mike Ridolfi
Animator: Eli Prenten
Sound: Graham Haerther
Thumbnail: Simon Buckmaster

Select imagery/video supplied by Getty Images
Thank you to AP Archive for access to their archival footage.

Thank you to my patreon supporters: Adam Flohr, Henning Basma, Hank Green, William Leu, Tristan Edwards, Ian Dundore, John & Becki Johnston. Nevin Spoljaric, Jason Clark, Thomas Barth, Johnny MacDonald, Stephen Foland, Alfred Holzheu, Abdulrahman Abdulaziz Binghaith, Brent Higgins, Dexter Appleberry, Alex Pavek, Marko Hirsch, Mikkel Johansen, Hibiyi Mori. Viktor Józsa, Ron Hochsprung

[RealEngineering]

We launched our job recruitment platform this year, and Helion are hiring!

[shooter]

I really enjoyed the documentary. I retired from Helion in July of 2021, now I can show my family what I did for a living. I worked on FRC plasma machines for 35 years altogether. It’s good to see all the hard work come to fruition at Helion. My one disappointment with the footage is you didn’t show much of the puff fill system. That was my big contribution. I imagine I’m the only one that would get a thrill from a bunch of valves and stainless steel tubing.

[ThrustersX]

I'm just as amazed by the cable management outside the nuclear reactor.

[Youtubeguy]

The current major failing of Helion is that they have yet to turn their device vertical and start referring to it as a warp core.

[LilybeeTV]

4:24 as an engineer, no matter how sophisticated and groundbreaking the design there's always room for zip ties.

[ww]

I love the fact that it generates electricity directly from the reaction, it always feels weird to go through all this cutting edge technology just to build a stream engine!

[HelionEnergy]

Thanks for visiting, Brian. As always, we appreciate your ability to breakdown complex engineering topics - including direct energy recovery from fusion!

[ramdomguyfiftychars]

"In this machine is a delicate orchestra of electronics pushing two plasma rings into a violent collision, and catching that collision in a magnetic trap in the center, which proceeds to shrink until the ions trapped within it have nowhere else to go but to fuse, overcoming one of the universe's strongest forces to create new elements in the belly of a man-made machine."

Dude, this gave me goosebumps

[JohnEvans-ctmz]

This is one of the coolest things I’ve seen in a long time. And the fact that it looks and works similarly to the warp reactor on the Enterprise D, makes it just that much more awesome. The best part is, it’s not just another super over complicated way to boil water.

[nitromusik]

8:30 can we acknowledge that he just held a flawless and calm monologue explaining such a complex topic perfectly and very easy to understand without a pause or a hick-up.. not even an "uhmm"

[rhphoenix]

The timing of these two videos were immaculate

[ryen]

I can't imagine the theory of "this should work on paper" to actually going and building it and making fusion reactions. Mad genius scientists!

[what_to_read]

I have to say, I LOVE Engineering - it's one of the few places in the world where you can really feel like you can make a difference. Whether it's a new product, a creative solution, or something that helps make our planet better, engineering enables us to make real change. As an engineer myself, I love the constant challenge of coding, problem solving, and creating something that will improve our lives. Engineering is amazing!

[austinfaust]

I feel so lucky to live in a time where this information is not only readily available, but there are people like you out here breaking this information down into bite sized pieces that are easier to understand. Thank you for all the hard work you do.

[glenecollins]

The main reason there isn’t much beryllium production isn’t because it is rare or because it is hard to extract, it is because there isn’t much demand for it. There are a lot of mines which have to design their processes carefully so they don’t have to go through extra steps to get beryllium out of their products. If there was a market for it it would be worth reducing the beryllium and extracting it.

[ajschwartz]

My mind is completely blown. As a studying engineer, seeing this crazy amount of engineering going on that I wasn't even aware of blew me away, I'm super excited to see where this project goes in the future.

[qweryuiasdf]

So thankful there are people like this in the world. Imagine starting a fusion company and having to literally invent every single component to solve a different problem one at a time. At the same time have some sort of reliable funding source.

[rubiks]

This is the first description of a fusion reactor I have seen that seems like it could really work. Eliminating the heat/steam/turbine steps is huge. Slamming two rings of fusion material together rather than trying to just heat a kernel of material is also genius. Having a system to actually produce fuel on a realistic scale – you guys are just on your toes. This is not just some breakthrough but many breakthroughs.

Great job Helion! Good luck as you move forward.

[ashtonparrish]

Ive never seen something so unbelievably beyond my realm of possible understanding explained in such an incredibly understandable way. Awesome video

[Realaussieflims]

I like that the speaker wasn't just a marketing hype man, he was someone who has intimately worked on the project and was more than willing to discuss the advantages and limitations they had encountered using this type of fusion reactor.