I appreciate you taking the time to add context to the announcement today!
Given that ICF and tokamak MCF reactors are still decades out from commercial viability, what are your thoughts on private companies like Helion and General Fusion? It sounds like their approaches are matured enough that they could be generating electricity in the relatively short term. I'm guessing that the theoretical net energy gain for their approaches is a lot lower, but appears commercially viable and ready to use in the relatively short term. For example, General Fusion is essentially making a pulsed fusion driven piston engine, and Helion doesn't actually need ignition as they're inducing a current from the magnetic field fluctuations in a pulsed fusion reaction. There are others out there as well, I've just seen them highlighted recently and was curious how they stacked up against conventional research directions.
theoatmealarsonist t1_j05oxwu wrote
Reply to comment by Robo-Connery in National Ignition Facility (NIF) announces net positive energy fusion experiment by Robo-Connery
I appreciate you taking the time to add context to the announcement today!
Given that ICF and tokamak MCF reactors are still decades out from commercial viability, what are your thoughts on private companies like Helion and General Fusion? It sounds like their approaches are matured enough that they could be generating electricity in the relatively short term. I'm guessing that the theoretical net energy gain for their approaches is a lot lower, but appears commercially viable and ready to use in the relatively short term. For example, General Fusion is essentially making a pulsed fusion driven piston engine, and Helion doesn't actually need ignition as they're inducing a current from the magnetic field fluctuations in a pulsed fusion reaction. There are others out there as well, I've just seen them highlighted recently and was curious how they stacked up against conventional research directions.