MIT Professor Explains Nuclear Fusion in 5 Levels of Difficulty | WIRED

Aug 10, 2023

MIT Professor Explains Nuclear Fusion in 5 Levels of Difficulty | WIRED

Nuclear fusion underpins some of the most basic processes in our universe and holds the promise of virtually limitless, clean, carbon-free energy. Dr. Anne White, Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering at The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has been challenged to explain the nature of nuclear fusion to 5 different people; a child, a teen, a college student, a grad student, and an expert.\r
\r
Director: Wendi Jonassen\r
Director of Photography: Jim Petit\r
Editor: Louville Moore\r
Host: Dr. Anne White\r
Guest: Level 1 - Amelya Salva; Level 2 - Marianna Noel McCallum; Level 3 - Yash Bhora; Level 4 - Madelyn Leembruggen; Level 5 - Dr. Pablo Rodriguez-Fernandez\r
Creative Producer: Maya Dangerfield\r
Line Producer: Joseph Buscemi\r
Associate Producer: Paul Gulyas\r
Production Manager: D. Eric Martinez\r
Production Coordinator: Fernando Davila\r
Casting Producer: Nicholas Sawyer\r
Camera Operator: Brian Galford\r
Sound Mixer: Tim Haggerty\r
Hair \u0026 Make-Up: EIeni Koutloumpasis\r
Post Production Supervisor: Alexa Deutsch\r
Post Production Coordinator: Ian Bryant\r
Supervising Editor: Doug Larsen\r
Additional Editor: Paul Tael\r
Assistant Editor: Andy Morell\r
\r
—\r
0:00 5 Levels of Nuclear Fusion\r
0:29 Level 1: Child\r
5:03 Level 2: Teen\r
9:27 Level 3: College Student\r
13:52 Level 4: Grad Student\r
19:33 Level 5: Expert\r
24:11 Conclusion

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Content

0.06 -> my name is Anne White I'm a professor of

2.22 -> nuclear science and engineering at MIT

4.08 -> and I've been challenged today to

6 -> explain nuclear fusion in five levels of

8.519 -> increasing difficulty

10.26 -> Fusion is so exciting because it is

12.54 -> extraordinarily beautiful physics which

15.179 -> underpins some of the most basic

17.279 -> processes in our universe nuclear

19.5 -> processes has a tremendously valuable

21.72 -> application for humankind a virtually

24.119 -> Limitless Clean safe carbon-free form of

28.14 -> energy

31.579 -> what's your name tell me a little bit

33.6 -> about yourself I'm Amelia I'm nine years

36 -> old I'm a third grade and my favorite

38.64 -> subject at school is definitely science

40.5 -> so my son is five years old and he asked

43.92 -> me what kind of science I do

46.2 -> and I said fusion and I said I put a

48.96 -> star in a jar does that make sense

52.2 -> okay that's a good answer because it

56.16 -> sounds a little ridiculous right how can

58.26 -> we put a star in a jar well we're not

60.78 -> actually going to put the sun which is a

63.18 -> star inside a jar but instead we're

66.18 -> going to take the same kind of material

68.1 -> that the sun is made out of and we're

70.56 -> going to hold it for a really long time

73.56 -> in some kind of container so Fusion is

77.28 -> about bringing things together that's

80.22 -> what fusing means when those Fusion

82.619 -> reactions occur a new particle is

85.02 -> created and energy is also released do

88.14 -> you know what an atom is yeah all right

90.72 -> so Adam is what everything in our world

93.42 -> is made of and at the very center of the

96.18 -> atom is what we call a nucleus and

99.06 -> inside that nucleus is a proton we want

102.119 -> to take those those protons and push

106.259 -> them together to make them combine and

108.96 -> release energy Fusion Energy that we can

111.06 -> use to make electricity and there's a

113.579 -> lot of different energies and forces

115.979 -> that we have to think about have you

117.72 -> heard of gravity yes yes okay so that is

121.079 -> a big important fundamental Force so

123.479 -> another fun Force to talk about that's

126.18 -> important for Fusion you're familiar

127.979 -> with electricity yes right and so

131.22 -> there's also electric forces

133.14 -> electrostatic forces and you've heard of

135.36 -> static electricity so now let's see

137.58 -> about static electricity lifting my hair

139.5 -> up

141.56 -> I can move there's a white strand it's

144.72 -> like hanging down the balloon took on

147.36 -> the force from like your hair and put it

149.819 -> in here now just like move it there you

152.099 -> go yeah and so if we want to take those

155.7 -> those protons and push them together to

159.78 -> make them combine and release energy

161.879 -> Fusion Energy that we can use to make

164.22 -> electricity then we have to actually

166.44 -> overcome that strong electrostatic force

169.86 -> that just want to make those balls

171.239 -> bounce off of each other there's another

172.86 -> Force which you might be familiar with

174.599 -> which is like a magnetic force we're

177.959 -> just learning about our teacher Shield

179.879 -> is putting one magnet on and then

182.819 -> flipping the other one around it made it

184.68 -> the top like kind of Bounce yeah so

187.8 -> thinking on how to do that you know

190.379 -> scientists are still studying exactly

191.879 -> how magnetism works right it'll still be

194.459 -> there for you to tackle when you become

196.2 -> a scientist have you ever seen one of

199.44 -> these games yes with the iron filing so

202.92 -> if you take this and you take the

205.019 -> magnetic end maybe you can show us

206.94 -> what's going to happen with it while you

208.44 -> move around those iron filings with the

210.54 -> magnet you're totally in control of that

213.54 -> material you're pushing you're pulling

215.879 -> it you're moving it around and so you're

218.819 -> using this magnetic force to also do

221.159 -> something useful for you have you

222.959 -> learned about the states of matter yes

225.42 -> tell me about that so great and she put

229.68 -> a picture on the board should you say

231.299 -> tomorrow she shows a picture of ice a

233.64 -> picture of water and a picture of gas

235.62 -> did you learn that there's also a fourth

237.84 -> state of matter no when you heat up a

240.06 -> gas

240.92 -> you create a plasma a plasma is the

244.92 -> fourth state of matter the plasma I

247.5 -> study is actually invisible

249.299 -> I think we heard science yes and the

252.42 -> plasmas I work with are so hot that I

254.819 -> can't see with my eyes but it's light

256.199 -> that I can measure it with very very

257.699 -> special instruments let's

263.22 -> play music

266.46 -> how do you keep the invisible plasmas

269.58 -> yes or invisibility keep them in one

272.1 -> spot so you can show where they are yes

274.44 -> we absolutely do we hold it inside the

276.78 -> container with the magnetic fields so

278.58 -> you didn't have to actually touch the

280.56 -> iron filings in the toy to move them

284.04 -> around

285 -> you could pass the magnetic field

287.04 -> through the plastic and control them

288.78 -> with it so it's the same thing we don't

290.58 -> have to touch this very very hot plasma

293.34 -> to control it and hold it in place

295.62 -> because we use magnetic fields you are

298.5 -> so smart I'm so glad that science is

300.419 -> your favorite subject

305.34 -> what is student energy the way our sun

308.04 -> generates energy is by Fusion reactions

310.86 -> it fuses hydrogen the lightest element

313.08 -> we know about into helium and that gets

315.9 -> fused into heavier and heavier elements

317.759 -> so here on Earth we're going to take

319.68 -> some special kinds of hydrogen a special

321.96 -> flavor of it if you will which we call

324 -> an isotope and we're going to combine

326.28 -> them to create new particles and we can

329.4 -> only get that combination of particles

331.32 -> to happen if they are in a plasma what's

335.34 -> your favorite exhibit the science museum

336.78 -> I love the lightning show like okay so

339.36 -> cool you probably have learned in school

341.22 -> about three states of matter the solid

343.259 -> liquid and gas absolutely we take the

345.36 -> gas and we add heat and we get a plasma

348.3 -> and a plasma is a state of matter where

350.46 -> you have an ionized gas if we break down

353.039 -> that gas if we add enough energy to

354.9 -> ionize it we can take the electrons and

357.539 -> the ions and the atom and separate them

359.58 -> and now there's this soup of charged

362.46 -> particles that are moving around that's

364.56 -> the plasma and it is what creates the

366.84 -> beautiful light in lightning so you've

369.419 -> already seen a plasma in fact so I'm

371.759 -> going to show you this

374.82 -> fun demonstration you've probably seen

376.74 -> one of these before right oh that's so

379.5 -> cool yeah so the way this is happening

381.84 -> is this glass ball here is a container

384.539 -> for our plasma and we've taken most of

387.18 -> the air out of the container so there's

389.28 -> not a lot of particles inside the glass

391.62 -> ball and very very low temperature

393.66 -> plasma so it's continuously ionizing and

396.84 -> then recombining and becoming neutral

398.819 -> again and we see those energy

400.68 -> transitions as the visible light so if

403.139 -> we're going to put this plasma to use

404.639 -> and do something helpful with it like

407.58 -> maybe make some clean electricity we

409.8 -> would have to control it yeah and

411.96 -> another word for controlling it is

414.12 -> confining it so let me let me turn this

416.699 -> off and set it back down you're probably

418.74 -> wondering what is this thing on this

421.199 -> table it's a model of a Tokamak and

423.9 -> that's the name of the device that I

426 -> work on with the goal of creating clean

429.06 -> energy have you played with magnets in

431.639 -> school okay we've learned about the how

434.4 -> it has to be a positive positive and

436.5 -> negative charge and we've done those

438.72 -> things you can like put them with

440.759 -> something in between them and just move

442.44 -> one and the other will always follow

443.94 -> this is all very important to sort of

446.58 -> understand how we would create a

448.68 -> container that would let us hold the

450.599 -> plasma in place and control it have you

452.58 -> ever played around with an electromagnet

454.319 -> in class it's a coil of wire much like

456.84 -> this big red coil of wire right here and

459.72 -> when we push an electrical current

461.639 -> through this wire it creates a magnetic

464.819 -> field that goes around the wire

467.039 -> perpendicular so if you want to know the

469.38 -> direction of the magnetic seal that's

471.78 -> been created by pushing the current

473.16 -> Through the Wire put your thumb in the

475.38 -> direction of the current and then curl

477 -> your fingers like this yeah and that's

479.28 -> the right hand rule so if we push the

480.9 -> current this way we're creating a

482.28 -> magnetic field in this perpendicular

484.38 -> Direction so if I drive a current and

487.08 -> this red wire like this which direction

489.78 -> will the magnetic field go

491.759 -> yeah exactly perpendicular and if I

494.16 -> drive the current in this green wire

495.539 -> which direction will it go

497.4 -> exactly yeah the Long Way perpendicular

500.52 -> now this is a bit of a trickier one the

503.52 -> blue wire is going to act like a

504.9 -> transformer action and so by changing

507.3 -> the current in the blue coil we are

509.34 -> going to be able to run a current in

511.259 -> this direction around the Tokamak and

513.959 -> now think back to how the wires worked

516.539 -> if I have a current going like this

518.64 -> where's the magnetic field exactly back

522 -> this way the short way around the tokoak

524.219 -> we can now put together the pieces and

526.14 -> understand the three magnetic fields

528.36 -> that we need to confine a plasma in our

530.58 -> Tokamak so our plasma will be inside

532.86 -> this vessel in the shape of a donut what

536.519 -> could the tocamak be used for in like

538.26 -> real life oh Supple address so what we

541.019 -> want to use the Toca mic for in realize

542.519 -> is to confine this super hot plasma and

545.22 -> we're talking a hundred million 150

547.8 -> million degrees because the plasma is so

550.2 -> very hot the particles have enough

553.14 -> energy to interact with one another and

556.2 -> fuse when those Fusion reactions occur

558.6 -> we are releasing energy that's inside

561.66 -> the nucleus and we can harness that

564.36 -> energy to make clean electricity

569.88 -> so what have you heard about Fusion

572.16 -> already before today the impeding joke

574.62 -> is that you know we've looked forward to

576.839 -> Fusion for a long time but you're not

578.94 -> exactly gone in there yet but if we do

581.1 -> ever get there it would solve a lot of

582.839 -> our energy problems in a dramatic way do

585.18 -> you have any idea about any of the

586.74 -> challenges like why has it taken us so

588.779 -> long to get to Fusion making a star

591.12 -> honor at this thought easy so we are

594.36 -> trying to bring a starter works we are

596.76 -> not going to be using hydrogen the way

599.64 -> our star in our solar system our sun

602.04 -> uses hydrogen to make helium and

604.019 -> generates Fusion Energy that way instead

606.54 -> on Earth we're going to be using

607.8 -> isotopes of hydrogen deuterium and

610.44 -> tritium what do you know about charged

612.54 -> particles if I want to try and push too

615 -> positively charge particles together two

617.519 -> protons together what do you think is

619.08 -> going to happen they repulse each other

620.7 -> and they don't like being close together

622.019 -> so they push back on that

625.279 -> we're gonna call the pushback is a

627.42 -> coulomb interaction or coulomb Collision

629.76 -> so you can sort of imagine if I were to

631.56 -> take a deuteron and a Triton and so

634.2 -> those are the positively charged ions of

636.24 -> deuterium and tritium and I try and

638.459 -> combine them together those two

640.32 -> positively charged particles just sort

642.3 -> of bounce off of each other so we have

644.88 -> to give them enormous amounts of energy

647.339 -> and it has to do with getting up to very

649.74 -> high temperatures so we're talking about

651.48 -> over 100 million degrees Celsius and we

655.5 -> typically put that into an energy unit

658.32 -> that we use a lot in plasma physics

659.88 -> called an electron volt and so we

662.22 -> describe being up at 100 million degrees

663.899 -> that we're at sort of 15 kiloelectron

666.779 -> volts that's very very hot temperature

668.94 -> but the other thing we need is a lot of

670.8 -> particles that's the density we are able

673.2 -> to combine a deuteron and a Triton in a

675.6 -> fusion reaction at lower temperatures at

678.54 -> lower energies than other fuel this has

681.18 -> to do with some very nice properties of

683.399 -> the deuteron and the Triton that when we

685.32 -> get them close enough to one another to

687.54 -> fuse there's actually a resonance which

690.12 -> is predicted by quantum mechanics and

692.88 -> that really helps have a little bump up

695.1 -> in the cross section for the deuterium

697.14 -> tritium fusion reaction compared to just

699.92 -> hydrogen yes exactly exactly how that

703.56 -> little bump up is good for us because it

705.42 -> means that we have a higher probability

707.279 -> of getting the deuterium and the tritium

709.14 -> to fuse than otherwise at those

711.54 -> manageable temperatures and when we say

713.82 -> manageable for Fusion scientists yeah 50

716.339 -> million 100 million 150 million Celsius

718.44 -> so the problem you described is that we

721.92 -> get to those high temperatures we have

723.6 -> dense plasma but the problem is the

726.36 -> hotter the plasma is the more likely it

728.519 -> is the heat to get sucked out of it by

731.12 -> absolutely yeah absolutely glad that

733.68 -> solved is not saying staying hot enough

735.66 -> for the time we needed to stay we've

738.24 -> come so far in the study of magnetically

741.12 -> confined plasmas which is which is what

743.04 -> I work on that we sort of tamed all the

745.62 -> other types of major instabilities that

748.019 -> would cause loss of the plasma so you

750.42 -> might be asking yourself what is the

753.06 -> energy that's coming out of the fusion

754.38 -> reaction so we've got the deuteron and

756.54 -> we've got the Triton and so they combine

758.7 -> an effusion reaction and that produces a

762 -> neutron and a helium nucleus but the

765.72 -> neutron doesn't have any charge yes it

768.66 -> comes out exactly so it comes right out

770.76 -> and it's the kinetic energy of the

773.16 -> neutron and we want it to interact with

775.5 -> our overall Energy System and as it

777.959 -> interacts with that material it heats

779.76 -> the material up it transfers is its

781.92 -> kinetic energy to this material take

783.72 -> that thermal energy and run a turbine

786.72 -> run a generator and convert it into

788.82 -> electricity so once you get to that

791.16 -> stage it starts to look a lot like any

792.839 -> other thermal power plant whether it's

794.639 -> fission or natural gas so a fusion plant

797.279 -> could basically be the plasma core

799.44 -> coming in setting it in place and

802.5 -> driving your thermal system to make

804.839 -> electricity we often call it an alpha

806.76 -> particle and that is a charged particle

809.399 -> right so it's actually going to stay in

812.7 -> the plasma it's an energetic particle

814.68 -> compared to the fuel so it actually is

817.32 -> going to

818.639 -> give its kinetic energy back to the fuel

821.779 -> via coulomb collisions cool so now

824.639 -> they're good now we like them so you get

826.56 -> this kind of self-sustaining it's like

827.94 -> yes you said exactly the right word

829.98 -> self-sustaining

833.459 -> I am in soft condensed matter physics

836.339 -> and my research kind of dips into

838.44 -> Material Science but I feel like people

840.66 -> are always asking me about Fusion what

843.18 -> are they asking you about Fusion so

844.74 -> usually people ask me like do you think

847.019 -> that we'll ever really replace all of

849.899 -> our other energy sources with Fusion I

852.24 -> think that it actually has a lot of

854.639 -> mystery around it because the fuel for

857.279 -> Fusion is a plasma and we don't

860.16 -> experience plasmas on Earth in our

862.86 -> everyday life they exist in space at the

865.26 -> Event Horizon of a black hole and the

867.12 -> solar wind in our sun or very rapid

870.06 -> events like lightning is also sort of a

872.1 -> weakly ionized plasma even among plasmas

875.639 -> there are so many different kinds of

878.04 -> plasmas there are low temperature higher

881.279 -> density plasmas there are of course the

883.699 -> astrophysical plasmas and space plasmas

886.38 -> and then there are Fusion plasmas they

890.16 -> are predominantly fully ionized size

893.76 -> plasmas they are also plasmas where we

898.019 -> have a certain ability to basically kick

902.399 -> up micro instabilities so they're

904.92 -> plasmas which are held in a stable

906.899 -> enough state by strong external magnetic

909.779 -> fields confining the plasma into a donut

912.959 -> shape and this has a lot of advantages

916.019 -> for us because charged particles want to

919.26 -> follow the magnetic field lines but

921.48 -> things start to get really interesting

923.1 -> when we're no longer thinking about

924.839 -> individual particle motions in the

927.06 -> plasma and instead we start to think

928.74 -> about Collective effects it's never

930.72 -> occupied any space in my mind to think

932.88 -> about what happens when you have

934.139 -> something so high temperature and like

937.92 -> precisely confined and now you have to

940.74 -> deal with presumably turbulence plus

943.76 -> magnetic fields when we start thinking

945.839 -> about turbulence in the plasma we can no

948.36 -> longer even think about the plasma as a

950.639 -> single fluid instead we have to consider

953.339 -> electron fluid and ion fluid separately

956.639 -> we have to use our full-blown kinetic

959.519 -> equation to explain how this state of

961.92 -> matter is behaving because we have

964.26 -> collisions so we have to add collisions

966.18 -> back in to understand and track how all

968.76 -> the particles are moving and how these

970.92 -> Collective motions as turbulence can get

973.199 -> kicked up so that's pretty intractable

976.26 -> uh yeah right I mean if people talk

978.6 -> about stimulating that system and

980.279 -> following those particles it's probably

982.56 -> going to take millions and millions of

984.42 -> years on even the fastest supercomputer

986.399 -> so one really big advance in plasma

990.12 -> Theory over the last I'd say three or

992.22 -> four decades has been the development of

994.32 -> a gyrokinetic theory that we use to

998.699 -> model the microtubulence in the plasma

1001.459 -> and get that under control and the

1004.1 -> reason it's so important to get the

1005.72 -> turbulence under control and understand

1007.1 -> it is because turbulence is the primary

1010.1 -> heat loss mechanism the primary way that

1012.8 -> heat is transported from hot to cold

1015.139 -> across confining field lines in a

1018.32 -> magnetic confinement system being able

1020 -> to study it measure it and predict how

1022.16 -> it's going to behave is really one of

1024.559 -> the big hurdles to to overcome could you

1027.079 -> say the name of the model again

1028.64 -> absolutely so it's a gyrokinetic model

1030.74 -> and we talked about how challenged it

1033.079 -> would be to follow every particle in

1035.36 -> space and know its position and know its

1037.819 -> velocity at all times so what

1039.439 -> gyrokinetics actually does as a theory

1041.419 -> is it takes advantage of the fact that

1043.64 -> when we drop a Charged particle into a

1045.559 -> strong external magnetic field the

1047.54 -> Lorenz Force bends that particle's

1049.88 -> trajectory into a helix and so now if we

1053.9 -> know that wherever the field line is

1055.76 -> going that particle is following it in

1057.919 -> this helical in this Corkscrew

1059.419 -> trajectory we can say aha I no longer

1062.84 -> have to worry about following that

1065.059 -> particle's velocity around in a circle

1067.88 -> because at every point in time I know

1069.74 -> it's going in a circle okay so we

1071.66 -> average that out we do a row average

1074.12 -> because the motion is typically called a

1076.76 -> gyro frequency that's how fast it goes

1079.28 -> around the field line and it has a

1081.02 -> particular radius of that Helix called

1083.419 -> the gyro radius because it's just

1085.28 -> gyrating so what we know from studying

1087.559 -> the plasma and making direct

1089.539 -> measurements of the turbulence and also

1091.52 -> what comes from the simulations is the

1093.679 -> scale size of the turbulence is about 5

1095.78 -> to 10 gyro radii use of the density and

1098.6 -> temperature fluctuations are what Drive

1100.539 -> these uh these turbulent flows that end

1103.82 -> up reducing your your heat transport is

1107.179 -> there anything that can be done to

1108.559 -> minimize the density and heat

1110.24 -> fluctuations or is that just like down

1112.7 -> to the statistics of things I love the

1114.44 -> way you framed it because originally

1116.179 -> like in the 60s and 70s people did not

1118.76 -> think that microtubulence would even be

1120.62 -> a problem but as we started to make more

1122.299 -> and more measurements and build higher

1124.039 -> and higher basically performing devices

1125.96 -> we started to see nothing is matching

1128.96 -> the expected performance and that's

1130.76 -> because people thought that coulomb

1132.38 -> collisions between the particles just

1134.179 -> interactions of charged particles would

1135.74 -> dominate Cross Field transport right

1137.48 -> what happens with turbulence is it

1139.7 -> enhances the transport of particles

1142.16 -> because now we're not just talking about

1143.66 -> this random walk of collisions we're

1145.88 -> talking about conduction convection

1147.86 -> deities structures microstructures flow

1150.919 -> generation very complex soup of activity

1154.1 -> turbulence for me like really

1157.1 -> hits on one of the most beautiful Parts

1159.26 -> about physics like it's so complex and

1162.5 -> that's what makes it like visually

1164.059 -> beautiful that's what makes it

1165.32 -> mathematically interesting and it's also

1167.96 -> what keeps us so puzzled about it yeah

1170.419 -> turbulence is beautiful and so fun to

1172.52 -> study

1175.24 -> I'm a research scientist at MIT and I

1178.7 -> work on computational plasma physics

1180.38 -> basically doing simulations that can

1183.44 -> accurately describe what's going on

1185.48 -> inside these Fusion reactors like

1187.58 -> tokamax and distillerators they have

1189.679 -> plasmas that are magnetically confined

1191.539 -> so we're trying to predict how the

1193.22 -> plasma behaves so that we can build in

1195.38 -> the future better reactors what's one of

1197.6 -> the most exciting parts of your research

1199.88 -> right now something that we were not

1202.34 -> able to do until very recently was

1204.62 -> actually using first principle

1207.08 -> simulations to predict the performance

1210.2 -> and efficiency of reactors the

1212.48 -> developments in plasma Theory and

1214.82 -> computation and simulation and that has

1217.76 -> been thoroughly validated over the years

1219.62 -> in many experiments that now we're using

1221.539 -> those simulations to inform how to best

1225.44 -> operate our future reactors very

1227.419 -> exciting because so far we've been

1229.76 -> getting great results it's very very

1231.5 -> promising we're going with a lot of the

1233.9 -> experiments right now is trying to

1236.12 -> produce some maybe outside the box data

1238.88 -> sets that we haven't seen before and

1240.919 -> then of course ultimately compare them

1242.48 -> to the simulations and do a bit of this

1244.46 -> validation maybe where we're not just

1246.799 -> looking under the lamp post where we're

1248.299 -> going a little bit outside the comfort

1249.62 -> zone that means going from measurements

1252.02 -> really sort of more in the middle of the

1253.76 -> plasma at about mid-radius pushing all

1256.94 -> the way out to the edge where the

1258.44 -> turbulence starts to become very

1260.48 -> different in its nature it becomes a lot

1262.34 -> more electromagnetic it becomes

1264.62 -> sometimes larger in scale just physical

1267.2 -> scale size and some of the things we're

1269.72 -> starting to find was that turbulence

1272.6 -> features and turbulence characteristics

1274.58 -> in the edge of some of these high

1275.96 -> performance plasmas

1277.52 -> don't always behave the way we think

1279.98 -> they do so as we think about pushing our

1283.039 -> measurements and our study of the

1284.78 -> turbulence from the core to the edge

1287.059 -> how does that influence what you're

1289.159 -> working on now the edge of the plasmic

1291.14 -> gives you the boundary condition really

1292.88 -> for the simulations that then we do in

1294.74 -> the chord you need to start somewhere

1296.299 -> determining what is the temperature very

1299.72 -> close to the wall really the machine and

1302.36 -> when you get that temperature then you

1304.52 -> can actually integrate inwards with the

1306.26 -> rest of core model it's going to be very

1308.179 -> exciting the next years when we can

1309.679 -> actually make some measurements in those

1311.96 -> devices and compare them to simulations

1313.88 -> so that we can have more trust in the

1317.36 -> predictions for the next step for the

1319.94 -> reactors the power plants maybe both of

1322.039 -> us in our own way answer the question

1324.32 -> that we always get asked when is Fusion

1326.419 -> gonna happen when are we going to have

1327.86 -> Fusion electricity on the grids it's

1329.659 -> hard to say when it's gonna arrive I

1331.34 -> think that with the arrival of private

1334.76 -> companies and Venture Capital

1338.179 -> um that is accelerating things a lot so

1340.34 -> I don't think Fusion is 30 years away

1343.46 -> and it will always be I don't think

1345.799 -> that's true anymore so you're saying

1347.9 -> lots of private companies have have

1349.94 -> entered and that's injected a lot of

1352.1 -> private funding not just Government

1354.38 -> funding oh yeah the nature of the

1356.84 -> private Ventures is you know you want to

1359.539 -> get commercial as soon as possible so I

1361.34 -> think they're accelerating things they

1363.26 -> are actually taking

1365.059 -> um advantages of discoveries in other

1368.299 -> fields like in the case of

1370.52 -> um High field fusion with Commonwealth

1372.62 -> Fusion systems and to come back energy

1374 -> those companies they are using high

1376.039 -> temperature superconductors it's an

1377.72 -> advancement that has come recently from

1379.94 -> material sign right or machine learning

1382.46 -> activity telling you those breakthroughs

1384.74 -> in other fields I think can really

1386.48 -> accelerate Fusion so I think we're

1389 -> seeing the next decades are going to be

1391.159 -> very exciting we have to diversify the

1393.86 -> different research that we do so that at

1395.72 -> the end we come with the most Optimum

1397.7 -> solution for our fusion power plants I

1399.44 -> agree yeah I think having multiple

1401.179 -> stakeholders who are all driven by

1402.799 -> different missions and different

1404 -> purposes working synergistically is

1406.46 -> exciting when I'm asked like okay what's

1409.1 -> the timeline for fusion and why is now

1411.14 -> any different than five years ago or ten

1413.299 -> years ago why is now the Walmart for

1414.919 -> Fusion my answer is it's finally for the

1417.86 -> first time all the pieces of the puzzle

1419.72 -> are here we've Advanced really the basic

1422.12 -> physics understanding so far that we

1424.46 -> have got the predictive capabilities but

1426.26 -> we also have uh alignment with policy

1429.62 -> and science drivers that we didn't

1431.36 -> really have before that's I think what

1433.159 -> can get us there maybe a demonstration

1435.32 -> of net electricity in a decade is that

1437.539 -> the thing folks are pushing for

1439.4 -> we're pushing for it yeah there are

1441.62 -> challenges still to overcome us you know

1443.059 -> and hopefully we find solutions to those

1444.98 -> when we have new experiments and when we

1447.26 -> actually push forward yeah the potential

1449.539 -> is huge

1452.299 -> Fusion Energy Research is an

1454.159 -> extraordinarily exciting field that is

1456.32 -> pushing the frontiers of what we can do

1458.12 -> experimentally as well as what we can do

1460.1 -> computationally Fusion might be closer

1462.08 -> than we think and tremendous advances

1463.82 -> are being made every day

1465.98 -> thank you

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1SffRGMBEU