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Neutral Beam Injection is not cheap. It does not look like they are adding large neutral beam injectors for start up based on the article diagram comparing the two machines (Norm vs Norman), plus the NBI start up use is only for 10ms. Looks like a significant improvement. (For continuous operation ...

The paper basically says TAE has simplified & significantly lowered the cost of their machine by changing the way they create the FRC plasma. Looking at the diagram of the two machine configurations (new vs old) it would appear the length of the new NBI machine (machine that uses neutral beam inject...

LOL! Yes, typo, should be ‘GF', General Fusion.

Thanks for the specifics on the plasma. GM did a lot of testing to find the right geometry for the plasma. Creating the right plasma dynamic shape in their injector that enables the plasma to retain geometry during adiabatic compression is a feat. Amazing work.

They haven’t started compressing the plasmas yet, just injecting them into the LM-26 chamber. FYI, LM-26 has a lithium shell which will collapse by using massive current flow to the external coils. The spheromack topology FRC plasma is supposed to adiabatically collapse (GM has proven in tests), thu...

Sorry, not clear, regulations & siting permits are always a sword hanging over Fusion builds & having connections to the top is important. Also not sure if Helion is getting any Fed money, if so connection to A.I. (Sacks’ focus) also is important.

Short video interview with David Kirtley. Not much new there for us who follow Helion, but still worth noting. SJ, thank you for that link. You sell the interview short for 2 reasons: First, who is interviewing. David Sacks (another tech savvy billionaire) is a direct reporting member of Trump’s te...

Helion’s ability to sub cycle load follow means load leveling batteries are not needed. OTH, ‘Solar’ & ‘wind’ need massive batteries. Moreover, the ability to ramp load is not an issue like it is for fossil & fission because thermal cycling is not a big issue for Helion (turbines are huge chunks of ...

This is also interesting. I was under the impression that the size of the systems were dictated by plasma physics and wall loads more than by the magnet strength.

Perhaps David Kirtley is talking about the length of the system?

Everyone has problems with their models, it is why they have to build these expensive machines in stages of increasing size & power. Models are getting better, but by using patches (hybrids).

So, I would not expect net electricity quite yet.

Thanks SJ. I would be ecstatic if it performed as expected, especially wrt the larger diameter needed for gyro radius.

Polaris in operation in 2024 is a super milestone. Congratulations to Helion!

Helion Polaris video showing construction and one of the first pulses they did.

I saw that video & at the end of it was what appeared to me a pulse, & it was my guess that it was a pulse operation of Polaris. So, it is your information based on this pulse that Polaris is now in operation?

Merry Christmas to the Talk-Polywell community!
Happy to have survived another year. May 2025 be the year that net electric from fusion is proven & proven to be practical.

Tile survival whether on chopsticks or a pad (landing impact shockwave) is yet to be proven. Greater shock absorbing is possible with the chopsticks, still that said, Mars will have no chopsticks in the beginning. Perhaps the issue with landing shockwave & tiles is why EM has kept reentry active coo...