Justin Ball

@jfp_fusioneer and I are proud to announce the initial release of The Future of Fusion Energy, a portable pop science book by real live fusion scientists. It may look like a cookbook, but the only recipe it has is for #FusionEnergy. bit.ly/ws-Q0160 #notAcookbook #nofilter

@Andercot sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

@Andercot Power density. If you take a DT plasma and replace it with any other fuel, the total power output will go down by a factor of >50 (due to the lower cross-section). Even if this allows you to eliminate the blanket and make the plasma bigger, you still won't recover a factor of 50.

There's 40+ fusion companies and they all claim they'll be first To be first you have to burn DT fuel - the absolute worst choice for economic energy production The best long-term approach burns pB11 - yet no traditional approach can do it Here's my contrarian fusion thread🧵

@MatMglej If you click on the link/image in my post above, you will be able to register and then received details for how to connect to the webinar.

Everything you wanted to know about negative triangularity tokamaks... and MORE! 😉 I'll host a webinar on Thursday with five experts on the progress and promise of negative triangularity plasma shaping. Registration and more information here: physicsworld.com/a/negative-tri…

Wendelstein 7-X starts new experimental campaign. ipp.mpg.de/5440378/W7X_st… #nuclearfusion #fusionenergy

@GBruhaug @samuelhward Echoing @TheAndyHolland, a lighter regulatory environment should allow fusion to innovate properly and actually lower the cost of electricity. It is mind-blowing that fission has a negative learning curve in the West. Fusion can win by virtue of being able to improve with time.

@samuelhward Of course the question is what advantage does fusion bring over fission on the construction and project management side? The reactors are more complex and will always be bigger for a given power level. It will probably take several years to get reliable as well, just like fission

fusion plants cannot look like fission plants no matter how much people talk "baseload"; if it costs this much, it will become uncompetitive 🤷‍♂️ either: we need better designs, or better management tools, or to accept we'll generate little value... ft.com/content/115759…

@PSFT__ @unisevilla @fisicaUS @ETSIngenieria @SkylifeEng @ERC_Research @PPPLab @FusionInCloseUp @TokCOMPASS Congrats!

First plasma in SMART! This video shows a glow discharge with wave heating achieved earlier today @unisevilla @fisicaUS @ETSIngenieria @SkylifeEng @ERC_Research @PPPLab @FusionInCloseUp @TokCOMPASS

Speaker: Justin Ball, EPFL Chair: Hartmut Zohm, JPP Assoc. Ed Oct 12 2023, 4PM BST/11AM EDT Title: Theoretical studies towards a negative triangularity tokamak power plant @CUP_Plasma #JPPtalk Sign up to join: cup.org/3PuaO8q?utm_so… More info: cup.org/3rpLRTs?utm_so…

Excellent video about the calculations Manhattan Project scientists did to reassure themselves that the denotation of the first atomic bomb would NOT ignite the atmosphere and destroy the world. youtube.com/watch?v=nD-Dco…

@formbar Apparently every poster from the Swiss Plasma Center was scheduled for Friday afternoon, all 18 of them 😂

When the conference organizer publishes the schedule 3 weeks before the conference, you see that your presentation is scheduled for Friday afternoon and of course you have already booked the return trip, leaving the conference site on Friday at lunch time.

🚨 ICYMI: This week, I chaired the @housescience Energy hearing on fusion. It's clear that the process that our sun & stars use to generate energy is within our grasp — progressing from a scientific experiment to commercial reality. 👉 Read my op-ed: thehill.com/opinion/congre…

Have you been curious about #fusion energy, but don't really understand it? We're here to help. 😁 Register for our free course: "Introduction to Fusion Energy and Plasma Physics," which is designed specifically for the public. June 5-15 🗓️ ➡️ suli.pppl.gov/2023/course/

@carriere4 @dkirtley @Helion_Energy Yes, I got a solid answer from David. In brief, yes the 95% number refers to the round-trip efficiency from capacitor bank through their system and back to the capacitor bank. And the 95% efficiency cited on Helion's website was achieved without the plasma present.

Hi @dkirtley! I had two questions about @Helion_Energy. The website says "magnetic energy recovery with 95% efficiency". Does this means when the capacitors discharge for a shot, 95% of the energy returns post-shot? And is a plasma present for this test or is it purely vacuum?

@carriere4 Fair question 😅! Well I like my current job, think I'm doing valuable work, and don't think I'd enjoy (or particularly excel at) the day-to-day responsibilities of a startup CEO

Someone should make a #fusionEnergy startup on spin-polarizing fuel. It could hugely benefit fusion (50% more power density, ignition 50% lower, etc) and the tech is hopefully independent of the fusion scheme. If you solve it, you could license your tech to all other startups.

References: iopscience.iop.org/article/10.108… journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/1… link.springer.com/article/10.100… burningplasma.org/activities/upl…

@MattLoszak Proliferation is a technical but key point that is explained in my book Hubris - The future is uncertain, which is especially true for fusion (given how poorly understood the devices are). It's overconfident to say definitively fusion will or won't play a role in our future grid

@MattLoszak Proliferation - The strongest argument against fission. To decarbonize we need to put power plants EVERYWHERE including unstable countries. Fusion can be used to make bombs, but you need to modify plants and there is no excuse to have fissile material (easy to detect) on site.

Investors have poured billions into fusion💥, hoping to fund the ‘holy grail’ of energy. I believe they’re funding an expensive science experiment that won’t play a role in our future grid (but will still be great for humanity). Here’s why ⬇️