scientists and engineers still have not figured out a way to reliably generate more energy with fusion than it takes to create and sustain the reaction. Helion is still working on how to do that with its current prototype
😐
I want to believe
Their website is offline (must be getting hammed by traffic) but here’s a Reuters article: https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/helion-energy-starts-construction-nuclear-fusion-plant-power-microsoft-data-2025-07-30/
Same. Have they even done any demos?
Per the Reuters article they already have a test reactor but, like everybody else, haven’t figured out how to produce more electricity than it consumes. I’m not sure why they’re jumping ahead to building a new facility when they don’t yet have a working product, but I hope it isn’t just to collect subsidies.
The “market” runs on hype and vibes, not facts and results. It’s a hustle of magnificent proportions.
That’s all of today’s visible progress.
Like when at school, I knew how to appear smart when speaking on subjects. Just use common sense, logic, try to clear your mind and shuffle things around. That’s like “wisdom” in DnD as opposed to “intelligence”. If it’s hard, pump up some enthusiasm (ASD and BAD diagnoses) and it might work.
Then I enrolled to uni, and, well, the shit ran out.
But I thought it’s just my shit ran out, appears there are not just plenty of people, but whole societies having a plan, but not having any idea of how they are going to pass most its stages.
Like USSR building communism. Kosygin’s reforms to remove deadlocks and Glushkov’s ideas for computer-assisted planning and interoperability were basically the only real ideas of how to move forward, and both were collectively blocked by bosses who’d lose some of their power in the state apparatus. Then USSR just stagnated till failing.
One can apply that to the whole Soviet computing thing, BTW, there was a point where some galaxy minds decided that it’s a good idea to just copy western designs and ISAs, because they didn’t know how to resolve deadlocks between various ministries whose institutions were building their own computers.
Except when your main weakness is actual production, not RnD, RnD is fine, then that’s exactly what you shouldn’t do. The decisions others make are based on their production capabilities.
In general copying foreign designs is what USSR shouldn’t have embraced.
If it’s like any other nuclear plant it could go on for decades with an ever-increasing budget and nobody would raise an eyebrow.
I think it’s because they’re in a race against time to fulfill the Microsoft contract before 2028, or else they’ll have to pay compensation.
That’s probably where they’ll build the eighth version, called Ursa Major.
On their social networks they have published their working prototypes, in this case it is Polaris that emits a pink light
Is that just a fusor? Because it looks a lot like the one in my garage, but shinier.
alleged fusion power plant.
:taps-forehead:
The fusion is not the hard part, you can build a fusor for what, less than 1000 $?
Please don’t mistake Lemmy for a PR dumping ground.
Well that’s certainly optimistic.
They’ll be finished in about 30 years.
That sounds constant 😉
It is now two years old but this video sums up the challenges faced by Helion and how it is unlikely that they will get anywhere. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3vUPhsFoniw
There was another one of these a day or two ago, where besides making fusion energy, the reactor was going to convert mercury to gold. Competition must be getting stiff.
