WE DID NUCLEAR FUSION
Aug 10, 2023
WE DID NUCLEAR FUSION
We did nuclear fusion. In Simone’s workshop.https://ocie.app.link/t61anBZB09 https://www.youtube.com/cleoabram?sub …https://www.ft.com/content/4b6f0fab-6 …https://www.amazon.com/Star-Builders- … https://www.amazon.com/Future-Fusion- … https://www.amazon.com/Atomic-Awakeni … https://www.amazon.com/Principles-Fus … https://www.dropbox.com/request/Edocs … https://www.tiktok.com/@cleoabram https://www.instagram.com/cleoabram https://twitter.com/cleoabram https://www.vox.com/authors/cleo-abram https://www.imdb.com/name/nm10108242/ https://www.youtube.com/cleoabram?sub …
Content
0 -> Okay, ready?
2.28 -> Today we're going to take the stuff
that's in those boxes and we're going to
6 -> build a nuclear fusion reactor in Simone's workshop..
10.049 -> (Thanks to Uber reserve for sponsoring a portion
of this video. It's gonna get wild.)
13.705 -> How do you introduce yourself?
14.989 -> I don't know! "Person who makes things
and has a lot of tools
18.06 -> and a place we can mess up?"
19.767 -> And this is David. Davis is the reason we can
actually do this because Simone and I
22.626 -> don't know what we're doing here...
25.433 -> Talk about yourself!
27.459 -> David runs a real kind of nuclear fusion
29.699 -> they're building massive devices that could in the
future create electricity that people could actually use
34.356 -> Well, today we're going to be building a fusor
36.899 -> which is not commercial scale, it's much
smaller, but if we're successful, we'll be
40.8 -> able to build this system today, get it
running and do fusion...
43.512 -> In my backyard!
54.559 -> I just got into the airport and I'm on
my way to Simone's but
58.3 -> first I have to find my ride...
61.739 -> This portion of the video is sponsored
by Uber Reserve. Fun fact, I didn't just
64.92 -> book this ride this car was waiting for
me because I booked it two weeks ago!
68.082 -> This is an Uber Reserve trip, you can
69.84 -> book a ride up to 30 days in advance. So,
a week before, a few days before, you just
74.1 -> open your Uber app, you click this icon
right here, and you say where and when!
77.58 -> It's great for any time you know you
need to get somewhere. Like for me it's
80.64 -> amazing for traveling and shooting - just
one less thing to worry about. You know
83.939 -> who your driver is, you know the price
ahead of time, and most importantly you
87 -> know that they'll be there. And if you're
traveling all you do is you just add
89.759 -> your flight number to the reservation
and they keep track of my flight so that
92.58 -> my ride is waiting for me when I land. So
even if my plane is late they'll still
96.119 -> be there and you can cancel up to an
hour in advance and there's no charge.
99.54 -> It feels like a friend has come to pick me
up from the airport, it's so nice.
103.799 -> Thank you sir! Thanks again to Uber Reserve
for sponsoring this part of my
107.4 -> video. Now back to the story!
109.314 -> Just before we get started and because I
don't trust myself, is there a way we could die?
116.532 -> So... maybe... but we're going to be
119.46 -> very careful to make sure that doesn't
happen. In fusion, what we're doing is
123.119 -> we're taking two particles and at a very
high energies we're forcing them
127.439 -> together where they fuse and form a
heavier particle but that takes high
130.619 -> energies to do. So we'll be using high
voltage today, so it's important we talk
134.4 -> about how we safely approach high
voltage to make sure that we can do this safely.
138.167 -> Is it okay that I have metal plates in my head?
140.691 -> First rule is don't touch it with two hands,
second rule is don't put your head in it.
144.916 -> I just won't touch it with my head,
I think I can avoid that yeah...
147.879 -> The fun thing about this, the wrinkle in all of this is David -
he's not allowed to touch anything so
153.18 -> David No Hands is going to instruct us
on how to build a fusion device.
157.231 -> I feel like this mostly has to do with our ego
and no practical...
160.808 -> Yeah! We're gonna build it we just need David to tell us how...
165.117 -> He's the brain, we're the hands.
166.833 -> Yes I like that...
176.84 -> So now what is that we're gonna take
that chamber and we're gonna
180.9 -> rotate the turbo pump...
183.192 -> Okay how does that look?
184.54 -> I think it looks great but I also
don't know what I'm doing.
187.991 -> At this point we should put on gloves.
192.36 -> What is this device called?
195.599 -> George.
197.626 -> We're building a Farnsworth fusor, it's a
200.04 -> very compact small device to do some
amount of fusion. You're building a
204.06 -> vacuum chamber, all fusion devices have these -
a stellarator-type fusion has a
208.86 -> really twisty turny one. Helion's devices
are cylindrical. A tokamak has a more of
213.9 -> a donut, it's got a d-shaped cross
section...
216.994 -> So I know that in order to do fusion,
we're confining plasma and I know
221.732 -> that the sun does this with gravity
223.44 -> "gravitational confinement" and then two sort
of broad categories of how humans do
228.18 -> this are "magnetic confinement" and
"inertial confinement." Magnetic confinement uses
233.372 -> magnets to confine plasma and one kind of inertial
236.04 -> confinement is using lasers to push the
plasma close together and then things
239.58 -> fuse. So my question is: What method is
this device using?
243.491 -> This one uses something called "electrostatic inertial
confinement." In this case, we're going to
248.04 -> take two deuteriums, which is a neutron
and a proton, and they fuse together to
252.12 -> form helium-4 which has two protons and
two neutrons, this bigger molecule that
256.739 -> then is really hot and that's how we
take the energy out of that particle. We
260.76 -> do it in a spherical way where the ions
stream in from all angles to a center
266.1 -> core and as they collide, they fuse and
each of those fusion reactions will
271.5 -> produce tremendously more energy than it
took to actually fuse them together. The
276.54 -> channel challenge with that is that in
a particle accelerator you only take one
280.02 -> or packet of a couple hundred and so yes
you can make fusion, but you can't make
284.16 -> enough to counteract all the energy you
spent on the electronics to make that thing happen.
288.54 -> So just to repeat this back to you,
the challenge that we're having
292.08 -> with fusion right now we can get an
enormous amount of energy out of the
296.1 -> actual react- the atomic reaction but we
are having trouble getting more total
303.3 -> electricity out of the system that we
create to do it in the first place.
307.02 -> That's right.
307.657 -> Awesome, okay I understand the problem.
312.259 -> This is deuterium!
318.139 -> We are just pros at this, we just...
well I shouldn't say that...
322.262 -> Let's be humble for a little bit longer, I'll let you
know when we can stop being humble.
327.72 -> Like what are we gonna do next time
we hang out to top this?
331.035 -> Are you gonna be disappointed if next
time I come over we just have coffee?
336 -> How do we know when fusion is happening in the
middle? Like what are we looking for at that moment?
340.919 -> Yeah so what we're looking for is a couple of things:
344.16 -> Mostly what we do is, we know how hot
it is, we know how much energy all those
348.06 -> particles have and they come together
they collide and so we know that they
351.419 -> must be doing fusion.
352.504 -> Why is it pink?
353.669 -> The color that you see is actually not pink
at all, it's totally not pink
356.953 -> It looks pink, it's blue and red at the same time.
360.06 -> There's a blue photon and a bright red
photon and when your eye sees those two
365.039 -> photons together it looks like that pink
color, you get that fuchsia color that is
369.3 -> that the deuterium plasma being made.
371.839 -> Dope!
375.56 -> Are these are all good sounds?
376.317 -> These are all good sounds! All good.
379.609 -> Now what?
380.46 -> So now we're going to plug in that roughing pump...
385.167 -> [WHIRRRRRRRR]
387.014 -> Ah!
387.668 -> Good?
388.418 -> Yep that's good.
390.143 -> So the next step is you can open that and
it'll suck the air out of the two pumps
394.882 -> [GROWWWWWWLLLLLL]
397.56 -> Now you can open that, it looks like
it's a little open already
403.157 -> [HISSSSS GRRRRRRRR]
405.72 -> Ah! So there you go, it actually tightens
those you can see that it's starting to
409.02 -> come down a lot faster... so that was
probably leaking a little bit.
413.28 -> Alright, so now we have
pumped all of the air out right?
419.34 -> Yeah we're ready we can hook up the fusion
fuel and the fusion power supplies
423.3 -> and start to do fusion.
424.811 -> Yeah? Awesome. Let's do it. What's the first step?
427.307 -> Fusion fuel!
430.01 -> Got my fusion fuel here, I'll show you -
432.128 -> OH!
435.6 -> Why did the sound change?
437.684 -> [WHEEEEEEEEEEEE]
441.06 -> We lost a breaker! Here
let me turn the breaker back on
444.58 -> [POP!! HISSSSSS]
448.199 -> That was a bad sound! We popped the fuse on that...
451.148 -> and then that shut all the power down and then it
started leaking air in. We're gonna let it come back down...
457.139 -> Unplug everything and plug it in straight there...
460.86 -> We popped a fuse so the air that we
sucked out of the chamber where we want
464.819 -> to do the fusion all rush back in and
you can't do fusion with a bunch of air
468.539 -> molecules in there so we've shut
everything down, we rerouted the pumps
471.78 -> and we vacuumed the air back out again.
475.62 -> I'm so scared of it or I feel like I'm
like all skittish and I'm like ready to bounce
479.84 -> Now what we're going to do is
we're going to start introducing the
483.72 -> fuel into the chamber. We're just going
to turn it slowly so we get to use to
487.139 -> what it's going to sound like...
488.957 -> I did those!
490.44 -> Rock Paper Scissors Shoot...
493.543 -> That's it okay, open slowly
500.039 -> And you can close it and then it
should... now it's pumping the
504 -> gas back out... so a lot of a
lot of fusion is listening to the machine.
509.407 -> Next we need to get out the power supply...
512.292 -> Now begins the Do Not Die section.
515.543 -> But as soon as the plasma starts, it'll
517.32 -> start to flow current. So there's enough
voltage to start the plasma but then
521.279 -> once it starts going we keep the current
low so it doesn't have too much.
525.42 -> Okay we're gonna test this right now. High
voltage is on! Ready? We're at 1000 volts...
530.16 -> There's 2000 volts...
532.905 -> 3000 volts...
534.593 -> 4000 volts...
536.505 -> 6000 volts... okay open
really slowly really slowly
544.037 -> One hand...
546.094 -> I heard something!
546.892 -> Slower than that! Still but really slow...
549.473 -> My heart is beading so fast...
553.876 -> AHHHHHH!!!!!!
555.889 -> IS SOMETHING HAPPENING???
556.656 -> IT'S HAPPENING!!!!
558.45 -> It's all sci-fi stuff!!
560.66 -> Okay now close it...
561.58 -> Close it? To the right okay to the right...
564.939 -> [GASP] Am I in the way??
567.751 -> [GAAAASP]
569.57 -> Oh now it died. What happened? Why did it die?
571.9 -> So we went all the way up in
pressure to where there was enough
574.56 -> particles to make a plasma and then just
to show it we then came all the way back down...
579.106 -> Why didn't we stay????
580.251 -> So you're gonna have to get more fine on your gas control...
583.004 -> Okay!
585.54 -> Like really fine! High voltage on.
Gas, just a little bit of gas, really slow...
592.362 -> It's coming up... it's lit, now turn to the right
594.66 -> slow it down, real slow..
597.553 -> AAAHHHHWWWWAAAHHHH
599.553 -> Oh my god Cleo, you gotta look at this thing
602.12 -> it looks unlike anything I've ever seen!!
603.688 -> Turn to the right, slow, oh you're dialing really...
606.959 -> Switch the gauge around and then I would
adjust the gas pressure.
611.459 -> So the problem that we were having
before was that I was too clammy hands on
615.66 -> the gauge there so I was causing
it to sort of jump around and not have
621.72 -> the right amount of all of the things it
needed for the right amount of time.
624.66 -> We've swapped some things around to make
it easier to control now and we're gonna
628.98 -> try it again. Cecause the key is we have
to get it up to the right temperature
632.7 -> for long enough to know that we actually did fusion.
638.459 -> This valve's harder than, yeah [VALIDATION]
641.126 -> GASP-AHHHH!!!
643.76 -> Wait it was there, it was there!
644.979 -> It's gone now...
646.199 -> SQUEEEEEEAAAAL!!!!
649.863 -> Nice core on the jet, a single jet with a
single pinch, and so what you're really
654.72 -> seeing here is the ions those charged
particles that are flowing around that
658.44 -> haze are getting focused in and blasting
in, it's not actually coming out it's
662.339 -> going in. Those ions are coming in to the
core and as they come through and they
667.14 -> hit things, they ionize and form more plasma.
669.984 -> There's two kind of like pinch points on the beam...
like there's another thinner point
676.071 -> Oh wow wow this is pretty awesome.
678.6 -> It is pretty awesome.
680.324 -> So at this point we're now at the right densities and
pressures and voltage so we should be
685.44 -> creating fusion right now.
686.589 -> Is it? Is it happening?
687.709 -> It's happening right now.
689.314 -> Oh my god...
690.204 -> And probably in those pinch points and a
little bit in the core too.
693.12 -> What's happening as it evolves?
694.678 -> So now it's starting to run out of gas,
there's not enough ions around
698.825 -> to actually drag in and collide with the gas...
701.513 -> This is amazing. Oh my God.
704.979 -> And eventually the gas will decay enough
707.118 -> that there won't be enough to even
sustain a plasma at all... so right now we
710.339 -> have a core and this like tiny little jet...
712.402 -> I wonder if like two generations down this is
going to be the equivalent of like watching your
718.14 -> like washing machine go, where you're
like "oh my god that's so cool"
723.782 -> Hot tip: If your friend's ever like, "hey
can we do fusion in your garage?" Say yes!
728.94 -> Be the crazy friend that says yes.
731.144 -> Be the even crazier friend that asks.
734.501 -> Wait so now can we say we did fusion?
736.459 -> Yes you can say that.
737.461 -> YESS!!!!!!
738.698 -> WE DID FUSION!!!!!
740.339 -> At that accelerating voltage, pure deuterium,
at this pressure, there was fusion.
744.779 -> In my workshop!!
746.61 -> We did fusion in Simone's workshop...
748.61 -> Holy [Bleepedy bleep bleep]
751.61 -> What the fusion.
758.519 -> So we've done all of this, we've built
this device, we've done fusion in
762.06 -> Simone's workshop, like how should people
understand what we did here in
765.899 -> comparison to what companies like yours
and government projects are trying to do
768.839 -> with nuclear fusion and like how this
might get them electricity sometime in the future?
772.92 -> It's a great question. So we built a fusor
today but this is not a
777.24 -> commercial electricity system.
Commercial electricity systems are going
781.019 -> to be larger, they're going to be more
complex but what we are seeing is that
784.68 -> the rate of progress of the technology
as such that now private companies
788.88 -> governments are now building systems
that do commercial levels of fusion
793.32 -> already and so now it's a matter of us
building systems and getting them on the
797.22 -> grid as fast as possible. What I believe
and Helion believes is that we are close
801 -> enough to start thinking about having
electricity on the grid from fusion in
804.72 -> our lifetimes and I want it much sooner than that.
807.959 -> Huge if true!
810.108 -> Thanks Simone for lending us your workshop,
thank you for coming, thank you to the team at Helion -
817.32 -> We are the individual atoms and we come and we fuse
and then we are one atom... somebody stop us.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsikwXnUcBs
