Fusion milestones + why high-field magnets matter

37:28>> There was actually, wasn't there an announcement in the last 2 or 3 years that one of the national labs achieved net energy gain >> for some small period of time? >> It was it was very small. was very but but that was a first of some kind. >> It was a first of some kind because um so I don't remember the details but what ended up happening was they had a diamond anvil cell with so two diamonds attached to each other. We've covered this actually covered this and um and inside was a hydrogen dutarium >> mixture and then they put lasers. >> Yes. >> That created fusion inside of that diamond anvil cell. And they said that yeah the the amount of energy of the

38:09lasers was less than the amount of energy that came out of the fusion. But like to to make the lasers and you know it's look they're not I don't think their their end goal is to create >> um fusion electric power from that. Okay. Because like what you're just going to keep shooting lasers in this and then and then how do I get the energy out of that to come out and like do a turbine there's a lot of question marks. Okay. >> It's probably weapons. [laughter] >> All right. Like if I'm honest but it was still very cool. It was I believe Lawrence Liverour left. that tracks to me. Yes. >> California again. >> Um California forever. Goodbye. >> Yeah. So, so talkax like the spark uh is

38:51this the spark is something that is trying to contain plasma and it's trying to create fusion in the plasma and then it's trying to then offload that energy to create to create electricity. Right. And it's designed to have this Q factor of greater than one. Um it's using actually high temperature superconducting magnets. Okay. which means at about 20 Kelvin, which is actually quite hot. Yes. >> For superconductors, um they're using these rare earth barium copper oxide Rebco magnets. >> And effectively what they're trying to do is have these magnets go at 12 Tesla. 12 Tesla is insanely strong. Okay. Um

39:31several orders of magnitude above the magnetic field of the Earth. And what they're doing is using these magnets to confine the plasma into a donut. Spin it around really fast >> and then have that plasma in that spinning >> do the fusion. So the hydrogen is going to combine to make helium release a bunch of energy and then that energy is going to be used to create electric. >> That's going to try to capture. And the point is you need that 12 Tesla because you need to be able to confine plasma and that's that's the reason for that scale. >> Exactly. And at that scale, all of a sudden, >> um, Lorero's legacy matters, right? All of the theories that he's he's posited

40:11at these like high lenquist numbers. >> That's what matters. So any any code that you have to contain the plasma needs to rely on his theory. There's going to be a bunch of plasmoids that are dominant in that in that taco. The point is you could not use this. If you were trying to do fusion energy and you were focused on how do we contain the plasma, you cannot use the sweet parker model. No. >> Um, and if it >> No, you'd be you'd be completely wrecked. >> But for Nuno, you wouldn't necessarily have a framework for how to even do the math to to to do the containment of the plasma at that scale. >> Exactly. So when all these AI bill all these billionaires and hyperscalers and frontier model companies are saying we

40:51need more energy and they're now investing in the small fusion reactor is like now a buzz term in Silicon Valley and everyone's investing all these like you new companies trying to do it >> all of them have to bend the knee and be grateful that Nuno did this work because >> that math is now enabling the innovation for small form factor fusion nuclear reaction. actors >> and exactly right >> with the tokamac kind of design framework. >> You got it. You got it exactly right. Yeah. I mean it's a fundamental science thing, right? Like why does the solar corona work the way it does, >> right? >> Like that's how it started. >> That's how it starts. >> And then how it's going is we've got now

41:31maybe a path >> to create actual fusion on Earth. Uh which again like fusion >> changes everything. >> Yeah. No. No. Oh my god. Like it changes everything. It would be it would be ridiculous. It would be ridiculous if we could get this going. Right. >> Right. and and we're now people people are so on my all the advertisements and stuff I see in the X EOS they're they're now passing simulation tests right with different design types and they're now transitioning into uh like real world uh scaled versions of this which means like this is now like this is not theoretical

42:11in terms of This is like these at Commonwealth Fusion Systems. They're actually doing it. They're like they're like making it, >> right? >> You know, >> oh god, >> it's it's crazy. We might be close. >> We might be knock. Yeah. But um it was, you know, Nuno Lorero's work really underpins that fundamental science really underpins all of the stuff that these guys are doing, you know, that could truly change the world. This is why again academia and grants for foundational science is hugely meaningful and now this the time scales of going from research lab to end product are shortening greatly for all

42:52the reasons we've talked about all season. Yeah. >> Right. Like it's no longer a 30 40 50 year cycle in between fundamental discovery. That's 2007 >> 20 years we're it's already it's that's crazy. >> That's crazy. >> That's crazy. >> Yeah. Yeah. I think I think I think it's amazing. And you know the the stuff that he did at PPPL that's probably a DOE contract. Y >> it's it's I guarantee you there was no private funding when all these people say oh like you know maybe the private funders could like do fundamental science research. No he was he was trying to figure out like uh why is this 50-year-old model of plasma wrong? >> No one was no one was no one cared. No one cared. No, [clears throat] because

43:32it was so far away, >> right, >> that no no no VC would be like, I'm going to see this fruitful at the end of my life. >> There was this interesting thing that uh Deis Abus, who's the uh who runs Google Deep Mind, was kind of talking about where he's like >> they were they were talking about hallucinations in AI models. Yeah. And his whole thing was like some hallucinations are actually kind of good because there's this whole like like uh sort of uh you know phrase uh like phrasing where it's like inventions >> all inventions didn't come from explicitly knowing that you you wanted the outcome of the invention when you were going through the discovery

44:12process, right? Like a lot of times inventions come from curiosity and just explore exploration that then leads to an insight that then get converts converts into an invention. But you don't always start saying I want to create a light bulb and then create a light bulb. Yeah. >> Right. And so you kind of need this like >> surface area of exploration that is not tied to shareholder value or an already known end product. >> It's just how does it work? >> How does it work? And then once you know how it works, then all of a sudden it's like, wait, wait, I could. Yeah. Now all of a sudden >> maybe maybe a small fusion containment thing could actually work >> cuz now we know everything, right? And

44:53now we have high frequency computing and we have AI and we have means to control plasma really effectively, right? So it's all of this stuff compounding that really gives a lot of these startups >> room to breathe. >> Right. Right. Right. >> Yeah. So, it's it's really um quite an amazing story. Nuno Lorio, MIT professor, >> very unfortunate death. >> Um and also the way that it happened through gun violence like in his apartment in Boston, like that just sucks. >> It's it's it's the American in the modern era. Um and apparently all all we can do is thoughts and prayers. >> Look. Yeah. And

45:33>> I guess Yeah. thoughts and prayers to his family. And I wish we could do more. >> And thank you. Thank you, Nuno, for what you've provided to humanity. Yeah. Which again, >> amazing amazing legacy, >> if we figure out fusion. >> Yeah. No. And if no, if the Nobel Prize was given toumous >> Yeah. people >> um people, he he'd be one of them. >> He'd be one of them. Um we wanted to make sure we covered this. Again, there's no there's literally no information about what happened. It's been so recent. >> It's super unclear, actually. >> So, it's it's you know, there's a lot of weird, you know, it is. >> Yeah. You know, that's I don't even know. We'll we'll see what happens. And um you know the best to those who knew him as colleagues and his family who you know mentors I bet there's a bunch of

46:14students that are just >> who are just struggling and please you know uh we hope that those around him at the lab um you know once grieving has passed you know continue to aggressively pursue his vision. >> Yeah. uh and and and the work that he's already done because it's it's a huge foundation. >> Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's it's amazing, you know, and it could change the world. >> It could it could literally change the world. >> It could be one of the biggest things >> that happens in the 21st century. >> Espe if you're a climate change person, like you should be all over this. >> This is this is this is this is a big