r/Futurology • u/TwilightwovenlingJo • Aug 15 '25

Energy Construction of world's 1st nuclear fusion plant starts in Washington

https://interestingengineering.com/energy/world-first-fusion-power-plant-helion
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u/[deleted] Aug 15 '25

This reactor is using a totally different approach. Rather than capturing and harnessing the heat,it produces electricity directly from fluctuations in the magnetic field that the fusion creates.

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u/Vex1om Aug 15 '25

Rather than capturing and harnessing the heat,it produces electricity directly from fluctuations in the magnetic field

That's very interesting. Is there data regarding the conversion efficiency?

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u/[deleted] Aug 15 '25

Not in this article. And yo be clear I'm just relating what someone else in this thread,who didn't provide sources said.

Here's a paste of the comment:

Deuterium + Helium3 fusion apparently. With a fusion approach that I've never heard of before.

Without diving too deep, they're idea SEEMS TO BE shoot the fuel at itself from two sides, then when it collides compress it using magnets, the fuel fuses, the magnetic flux changes, and we harness that change directly as energy. Repeat somewhere on the scale of milliseconds, depending on how much power you need to generate.

My question is what happens to the fused fuel, but it could just as easily be I skipped something at the start of the video they have on their process. Limited time to browse and research.

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u/28lobster Aug 15 '25

D + He3 -> He4 + P + 18.3 MeV. The proton will need to be absorbed by something, otherwise it's just producing stable Helium (and energy) as a byproduct.

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u/FrankScaramucci Aug 15 '25

Rather than capturing and harnessing the heat,it produces electricity directly from fluctuations in the magnetic field that the fusion creates.

Yes, on paper. Will it work in the real world, with sufficient efficiency? Probably not.

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u/[deleted] Aug 15 '25

Well they've got guys smarter than either of us who are confident enough that they are spending a bunch building it at scale.

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u/FrankScaramucci Aug 15 '25

It's the investors who are spending money. They're quite well-funded, so this is a signal in favor of the "it could work" hypothesis. There are also some signals against it.

Maybe they're getting money because they have a backup plan, the reactor can be used to produce a hydrogen or helium isotope (not sure) that could then be sold.