Dr. Scott Hsu, ARPA-E Program Director, discusses the difference between scientific energy breakeven and wall-plug energy gain in nuclear fusion development.
0:00 / 0:24exact quote · 24.9s
720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“My personal opinion is that wall plug gain It's kind of like the Kitty Hawk moment, right? Or the Wright brothers moment that people like to allude to. Because it really shows it, that this is re it's really an existence proof now, right? That not only can you get energy gain, but it could be done in a practical way. That creates net energy, and it's the net energy that becomes practically useful.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading:
filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard
(the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Dr. Scott Hsu
PredictionHeld up
Hsu predicts someone will achieve fusion scientific breakeven during the 2020s
“If I were a betting person, I would say yes. I think somebody will achieve scientific break-even this decade, and possibly more than one.”
Dr. Scott HsuDec 23, 2021▶ 41:05Is nuclear fusion getting close?
Opinion
Hsu: New superconductors enable major fusion milestones at smaller, cheaper scales
“What took Something, say, the size of ITER to reach the next major milestone in fusion, people think can be done now with much smaller sized systems and much lower cost systems.”
Dr. Scott HsuDec 23, 2021▶ 12:46Is nuclear fusion getting close?
PredictionNot checkable as stated
Hsu: Scaling fusion gain beyond Q=1 risks encountering unstudied new physics
“So I would say going from .7 to one is is not a huge jump but going from one to 10, you, you're, or from, you know, one to a hundred in inertial fusion you're likely to encounter some new physics that, that haven't been studied yet, which makes it riskier.”
Dr. Scott HsuDec 23, 2021▶ 33:07Is nuclear fusion getting close?
Insight
Hsu: Core plasma physics is a minor driver of total plant cost
“Even though you can optimize your fusion core and get to high gain, honestly, at the end of the day, those things are a smaller driver of the ultimate total cost.”
Dr. Scott HsuDec 23, 2021▶ 36:27Is nuclear fusion getting close?
AssertionSupported
Hsu: A single train car of fusion fuel could power the US
“Yeah, so the example I like to look at is one train car of fusion fuel, and that's like a little over a hundred tons. Imagine a train car of coal, for example, But if it was a train car of deuterium, tritium fuel that would provide enough energy for the U.S.'s…”
Dr. Scott HsuDec 23, 2021▶ 6:33Is nuclear fusion getting close?
AssertionSupported
Hsu: Nuclear fusion produces no fissile material and needs no geological storage
“There is some waste, but it's short-lived waste, radioactive waste and there's no fissile fuel, which is another concern. But for sure, you also don't need geological storage of the waste.”
Dr. Scott HsuDec 23, 2021▶ 7:16Is nuclear fusion getting close?
Made with StarZero
Turn any episode into a week of clips.
This entire site, over 200 episodes transcribed, diarized, checked and made playable,
runs on the StarZero media pipeline. Drop in your own episode and the podcast clipper finds the
moments worth sharing, cuts them, captions them, and reframes them for every feed.
We use essential cookies to make the site work. With your permission we
also use analytics cookies (Google Analytics and Mixpanel) to understand
usage and improve StarZero. See our Cookie Policy.