Podcasts about National Ignition Facility

In this episode of the Insiders Guide to Energy podcast, Scott Mercer, CEO of Focused Energy Inc., provides a comprehensive overview of the future of fusion energy and its potential to revolutionize global power generation. With the rising demand for energy driven by technologies like AI, Mercer explains how fusion could decouple energy production from resource consumption, offering a cleaner, more efficient solution. He delves into the technological innovations behind laser fusion, which mimics how the universe itself generates energy, and highlights the global race to commercialize this groundbreaking power source. Mercer outlines the core differences between laser-based and magnet-based fusion approaches, explaining how Focused Energy is working on scalable laser fusion plants, modeled after successful experiments at the National Ignition Facility (NIF). He discusses the company's ambitious goal to commercialize fusion by the 2030s, turning this scientific milestone into a real-world solution for global energy transition. By utilizing advanced laser systems and high-energy targets, Mercer envisions fusion energy plants generating gigawatts of power to meet the world's growing needs. Listeners will gain insight into the challenges and opportunities of commercializing fusion energy, including supply chain development, engineering hurdles, and the broader impact on the global energy market. With an emphasis on long-term sustainability and decarbonization, Mercer makes the case for why fusion is critical for achieving a cleaner, more reliable energy future. Whether you're an energy enthusiast or industry expert, this episode offers a fascinating look at the cutting-edge technology that could reshape the world's energy landscape. We were pleased to host: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-mercer-7ab2929/Visit our website: https://insidersguidetoenergy.com/

As private and government interest in nuclear fusion technology grows, an array of startups have arisen to take on the challenge, each with their own unique approach. Among them: LaserFusionX. Today on Faster, Please!—The Podcast, I talk with CEO Stephen Obenschain about the viability of fusion energy, and what sets his approach apart.Obenschain is the president of LaserFusionX. He was formerly head of the Plasma Physics Division branch at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory.In This Episode* Viability of commercial fusion (0:58)* The LaserFusionX approach (7:54)* Funding the project (10:28)* The vision (12:52)Below is a lightly edited transcript of our conversationViability of commercial fusion (0:58)Pethokoukis: Steve, welcome to the podcast.Obenschain: Okay, I'm glad to talk with you. I understand you're very interested in high-tech future power sources, not so high tech right now are windmills…Well, I guess they're trying to make those more high tech, as well. I recall that when the Energy Department, the National Ignition Laboratory [NIF], they had the—I guess that's over about maybe 15 months ago—and they said they had achieved a net gain nuclear fusion, using lasers, and the energy secretary made an announcement and it was a big deal because we had never done that before by any means. But I remember very specifically people were saying, “Listen, it's a great achievement that we've done this, but using lasers is not a path to creating a commercial nuclear reactor.” I remember that seemed to be on the news all the time. But yet you are running a company that wants to use lasers to create a commercial fusion reactor. One, did I get that right, and what are you doing to get lasers to be able to do that?I don't know why people would come to that conclusion. I think we are competitive with the other approaches, which is magnetic fusion, where you use magnetic fields to confine a plasma and get to fusion temperatures. The federal government has supported laser fusion since about 1972, starting with the AEC [Atomic Energy Commission]. Originally it was an energy program, but it has migrated to being in support stockpiled stewardship because, with laser fusion, you can reach physics parameters similar to what occur in thermonuclear weapons.Yeah. So that facility is about nuclear weapons testing research, not creating a reactor—a fusion reactor.Yeah. All that being said, it does advance the physics of laser fusion energy, and what the National Ignition Facility did is got so-called ignition, where the fuel started a self-sustaining reaction where it was heating itself and increasing the amount of fusion energy. However, the gain was about three, and one of the reasons for that is they use so-called indirect drive, where the laser comes in, heats a small gold can, and the X-rays from that then that drive the pellet implosion, which means you lose about a factor of five in the efficiency. So it's limited gain you get that way.Your way is different. It sort of cuts out the middleman.Okay. The better way to go—which, we're not the only ones to do this—is direct drive, where the laser uniformly illuminates the target at the time that Livermore got started with indirect drive, we didn't have the technologies to uniformly illuminate a pellet. First at NRL [Naval Research Laboratories], and then later at University of Rochester in Japan, they developed techniques to uniformly illuminate the pellets. The second thing we're doing is using the argon fluoride laser. The argon fluoride laser has been used in lithography for many years because it's deep UV.The unique thing we have been trying to do—this was when I was supervising the program at the Naval Research Laboratory—was to take it up to high energy. We started years ago with a similar Krypton fluoride laser, built the largest operating target shooter with that technology, demonstrated the high repetition rate operation that you need for energy and NIF will shoot a few times a day—you need five to 10 shots per second to do a power plant—demonstrated that on a krypton fluoride laser, and, more recently, we switched to the focus to argon fluoride, which is deeper UV and more efficient than the Krypton  fluoride. And that basically—at NRL when I was supervising it—reached the energy record for that technology. But we've got a long ways to go to get it to the high energy needed for a power plant.Now, what the immediate goal of my company is to get the funds and to build a beam line of argon fluoride that would have the energy and performance needed for a power plant. One of the advantages to laser fusion: you want have a situation where I'm building more than one of something, so for an implosion facility, you have many beam lines, so you build one and then you have the advantage of building more, and a learning curve as you go toward a power plant. We developed a phase program where first we build the beamline, then we build a NIF-like implosion facility only operating with the argon fluoride, demonstrate the high gain—which is a hundred plus for a power plant—and then, after doing that, do the physics in parallel, develop the other technology you need, like low-cost targets. (They can't be expensive. The NIF targets are probably tens of thousands. We can't spend that.) We're going 10 shots per second. All the technologies required for a pilot power plant build a pilot power plant, which, in my view could be maybe 400 megawatts electricity. However, its main function would be to develop the procedures, test the components, and so forth for the follow-on, mass-produced power plants. So one, when you build a pilot power plant, you want to operate it for a few years to get the kinks out before going to mass production. The vision is to go from the beginning of that to the end in about 16 years.So the challenges are you have to generate enough heat, and you have to be able to do this over, and over, and over again.Right. That's right. It has to be high reliability. For an implosion facility, a hundred-thousand-shot reliability is okay. For a power plant, it's got to be in the billion-shot class.And at this point, the reason you think this is doable is what?I think we have confidence in the pellet designs. I have a lot, and I have colleagues that have a lot of experience with building large excimer systems: KrF [Krypton Fluoride Excimer Laser], ArF [Argon Fluoride Excimer Laser]…Those are lasers?Yes. And we have credible conceptual designs for the facility.There's a lot of companies right now, and startups, with different approaches. I would assume you think this is the most viable approach, or has some other advantages over some of the other things we're seeing with Commonwealth Fusion Systems, which gets mentioned a lot, which is using a different approach. So is the advantage you think it's easier to get to a reactor? What are the advantages of this path?The LaserFusionX approach (7:54)Well, for one, it's different. It's different challenges from the Commonwealth Fusion Systems. There is overlap, and there should be collaboration. For example, you have to, theirs is also deuterium-tritium. However, the physics challenges are different. I think we're farther along in laser fusion to be able—it's a simpler situation than you have. It's very complex interactions in tokamak, and you also have things… have you ever heard of a disruption? Basically it's where all of the magnetic energy all of a sudden goes to the wall, and if you have something like what Commonwealth Fusion Systems—they've got to be careful they don't get that. If they do, it would blow a hole in the wall. We don't have that problem with laser fusion. I think we're further along in understanding the physics. Actually, the National Ignition Facility is ahead of the highest fusion gains they've gotten in facilities. I think that they're somewhere just below one or so with the jet. They're up at one and a half. To what extent are the challenges of physics and science, and to what extent are the challenges engineering?Well, the physics has to guide the precision you have on the laser. And I won't say we're 100 percent done in the physics, but we're far enough along to say, okay. That's one reason where I envision building an implosion facility before the pilot power plant so we can test the codes and get all the kinks out of that. Nothing's easy. You have to get the cost of the targets down. The laser, okay, we've demonstrated, for example, at NRL—And NRL is…?Naval Research Laboratory.Naval Research Lab, right.A hundred-shot operation of the KrF laser. We use spark gap for that. We need to go to solid state pulse power, got up to 10 million shots. We need to get from there to a billion shots. And some of that is just simply improving the components. It's straightforward, but you've got to put time into it. I think you need really smart people doing this, that are creative—not too creative, but where you need to be creative, you are creative, and I think if, basically, if you can get the support, for example, to build (a beam line is somewhere around a hundred million dollars). To build the implosion facility and pilot power plant, you're getting into the billion shot, billion dollar class and you have to get those resources and be sure enough that, okay, if the investors put this money in, they're going to get a return on it.Funding the project (10:28)I think people who are investing in this sector, I would assume they may be more familiar with some of the other approaches, so what is the level of investor interest and what is the level of Department of Energy interest?Well, one of the challenges is that, historically, the Department of Energy has put money into two pots. One, laser fusion for stockpile stewardship, and magnetic fusion for energy. That's starting to change, but they don't have a lot of money involved yet, to put money into laser fusion or inertial fusion energy. And one of my challenges is not that the companies are aware of magnetic fusion, they don't understand the challenges of that, or laser fusion, or what's a good idea and a bad idea. And like Commonwealth Fusion systems I think has a good technical basis. If you go the next one down to Helion Energy, they're claiming they can burn helium three made from deuterium interactions, which violates textbook physics, so I'm very… I wonder about that.Would it surprise you, at the end of the day, that there are multiple paths to a commercial fusion reactor?Oh no. I think there are multiple paths to getting to where I get fusion burn, and maybe I make electricity. I think ultimately the real challenge for us is: Can we go reasonably fast? At 16 years, I'm considered somewhat slower than others. The ones that are saying five years I think are delusional. The ones that are saying 50 years, or say never, I don't think understand that yeah, we're pretty far along in this.How big, or rather, how small, theoretically, could one of these reactors be? I know there's been talk about using nuclear fusion as a way to provide power for these new data centers that gobble up so much power that they're using AI for. Would this be the kind of reactor that would power a city power, a big factory power, a data center, all of the above?I think you can get down, at least with our approach, to a couple hundred megawatts. However, my own vision is you're probably better off having power stations for some of the nuclear—with these, the big nuclear plants have multiple reactors at one place, and you'd get the advantage, for example, in our case, to just simply have one target factory and so forth. I don't think we're going to be able to compete. I don't know how small modular reactors go—a hundred megawatts or so, I would guess, and probably can't get down there, but one of my own goals is to get the size down as much as possible, but I think we're talking about hundreds of megawatts. The vision (12:52)What's the big vision? Why are you doing this?Why am I doing it?Yeah, what's the vision? What drives you and where do you think this goes over the next two decades?I may have the best route to get there. If I thought one of these other ones were going to get there, no problem… but all of us have challenges, and I think we can get there. I think from a standing start. As far as getting investment, I've just had pre-seed money, I don't have the big bucks yet. I've brought on people that are more experienced than me at extracting money from VCs and investors. (I was told you know a few billionaires.) Basically, for me, I need a few tens of millions to get started—like I'd say, about a hundred million to build the beamline. And then after that… actually I have a conference call on Friday with a representative of the investment bank industry that is very dubious about fusion.I mean, you can understand the skepticism, as a technology. What do they say? “It's the future of energy and always will be.”But the really good thing, I think, about the private investment is that the public investment has been too much focus on big machines which will give you physics, but have pretty much zero chance of being a direct path to fusion energy. You know, $25 billion and I make 500 megawatts thermal, occasionally, and we show that to a power plant executive, they're going to say, “You're kidding me.” We hope to get down cost for the power plants in the few-billion-dollar range.Faster, Please! is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit fasterplease.substack.com/subscribe

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Have you ever wondered about the emotional depths of your furry companions or the latest in scientific breakthroughs? Join us on a heartwarming and intellectually stimulating journey where we bridge the gap between the compassionate world of veterinary care and the cutting-edge advancements of science. This week, we're sharing the stage with Dr. Melanie Butera, who brings the touching story of a deer named Dilley to life, a tale that captured hearts worldwide and emphasizes the profound connections between animals and humans.Our conversation with Dr. Butera delves into the realities of being a veterinarian, the emotional rollercoaster of saving lives, and the unforgettable Christmas Eve rescue that will leave you reaching for the tissues. But it's not all tears—we're also unpacking the thrilling success of the National Ignition Facility's fusion experiment, equipped with diamond capsules and an army of lasers. And for a lighter note, find out how even a simple workplace fish tank can have a surprisingly soothing effect on your day.Expect laughter and perhaps a new perspective on the world around you as we recount Bunsen and Beaker's adventures in and out of the classroom, revealing the untold benefits of dogs in educational environments. From the poignant to the peculiar, this episode is a tapestry of stories that celebrate the spirit of discovery and the unbreakable bond we share with our pets!Dille the DeerLink 2Bunsen and Beaker Links:30% off the first month at Zencastr - use the code in the show!https://zen.ai/3LXIX2UYb1RLXwtWHHjryXAutdr3HS5EpVHMW80BOKgSave 10% at Bark and Beyond with the coupon code BUNSEN!The Ginger Stuffie is on presale so check the link here!Join The Paw Pack to Support The Show!https://bunsenbernerbmd.com/pages/paw-pack-plus-communityOur Website!The Bunsen and Beaker Website has adorable merch with hundreds of different combinations of designs and apparel- all with Printful- one of the highest quality companies we could find!www.bunsenbernerbmd.comSign up for our Weekly Newsletter!Bunsen and Beaker on Twitter:Bunsen and Beaker on TikTok:Bunsen and Beaker on FacebookSupport the showFor Science, Empathy, and Cuteness!Being Kind is a Superpower.https://twitter.com/bunsenbernerbmd

Please consider donating to our good friend Sue Lee Bun and help her fight Cancer. gofundme.com/teamsuebun https://venmo.com/u/Bun-TrailWelder The National Ignition Facility at Lorence Livermore Labs is where they cause the Big Bang. Jimmy and Tyler were lucky enough to be invited on a tour of the NIF. This is where they superheat small molecules and create fusion power. They learned so much about lasers and it made them feel like their lasers were very inadequate. Send us old license plates:SnailTrail4x4 / MORRFlate1065 National Dr, Suite 5, Sacramento, CA 95834 Want to win some Tires? Our friends at Yokohama are donating a set of tires for the 750 Apple Podcast reviews giveaway winner. Also, like before, we will give away swag packs every 50 until we get to the main giveaway. All reviews need to be left on Apple Podcast to be entered. Congratulations to TannerIsCooler for winning the 550 reviews swag pack. CALL US AND LEAVE US A VOICEMAIL!!!! We want to hear from you even more!!! You can call and say whatever you like! Ask a question, leave feedback, correct some information about welding, say how much you hate your Jeep, and wish you had a Toyota! We will air them all, live, on the podcast! +01-916-345-4744. If you have any negative feedback, you can call our negative feedback hotline, 408-800-5169. 4Wheel Underground has all the suspension parts you need to take your off-road rig from leaf springs to a performance suspension system. We just ordered our kits for Kermit and Samantha and are looking forward to getting them. The ordering process was quite simple and after answering the questionnaire to ensure we got the correct and best-fitting kits for our vehicles. If you want to level up your suspension game, check out 4Wheel Underground. Episode 477 is brought to you by all of our peeps over at patreon.com and irate4x4! Make sure to stop by and see all of the great perks you get for supporting SnailTrail4x4! Discount Codes, Monthly Give-Always, Gift Boxes, the SnailTrail4x4 Community, and the ST4x4 Treasure Hunt! Thank you to all of those who support us! We couldn't do it without you guys (and gals!)! Febuary's Giveaway is a set of 17" Coyote Inner Beadlocks. Inner Beadlocks are a fantastic way to make your wheels have the beadlock feature when you don't have beadlock wheels. It not only locks in the outer beadlock like everyone is used to but it also locks the inner bead as well. Jimmy runs a version of these on Bobcat and absolutely loves them. Massive thanks to MORRFlate for donating a full set of Coyote Inner Beadlocks for this months giveaway. If you're interested in winning this month's giveaway make sure you sign up on Irate4x4.com Snail Squad Membership. Congratulations to Sergio Rodriguez for winning January's Giveaway is with RollerCam. RollerCam makes quick and easy tie-down straps for everyday purposes. Their new patented design helps you sinch down the strap tightly and helps hold a tighter strength than traditional cam straps. Their new Rope Roller works with Paracord and allows you to tighten any situation quickly. If you need some tie-down straps make sure to sign up for the giveaway tier on Irate4x4.com Listener Discount Codes: SnailTrail4x4 -SnailTrail15 for 15% off SnailTrail4x4 MerchMORRFlate - snailtrail to get 10% off MORRFlate Multi Tire Inflation Deflation™ KitsIronman 4x4 - snailtrail20 to get 20% off all Ironman 4x4 branded equipment!Sidetracked Offroad - snailtrail4x4 (lowercase) to get 15% off lights and recovery gearSpartan Rope - snailtrail4x4 to get 10% off sitewideShock Surplus - SNAILTRAIL4x4 to get $25 off any order!Mob Armor - SNAILTRAIL4X4 for 15% offSummerShine Supply - ST4x4 for 10% off4WheelUnderground - snailtrail for 5% Midroll Music by ComaStudio

What is nuclear fusion?Nuclear fusion produces energy by fusing atoms together. Atomic cores (nuclei) merge together to form a heavier—though unstable—nucleus, releasing mass to regain stability. This mass release corresponds to an energy release, given Einstein's equation E=mc2, which says in part that mass and energy can be converted into each other. The sun, along with all other stars, uses nuclear fusion to generate energy, which is released as heat and light. The 2022 Fusion Breakthrough In late 2022, scientists led by Dr. Annie Kritcher at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) briefly replicated the power of the sun. Replicating the sun's power requires replicating the extreme heat and density conditions within the sun's core. Atomic cores are positively charged, meaning they repel each other. To overcome this barrier, scientists need to apply massive amounts of heat and keep atomic cores extremely close together. For the first time, scientists produced more energy from fusion than the amount of energy it took to maintain these conditions. Fusion is a greenhouse-gas-free source of potentially unlimited electricity, powered by hydrogen we can take from water, and creating no long-lived radioactive waste. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, fusion generates four times more energy per kilogram than the fission used for powering nuclear plants, and nearly 4 million times more energy than burning fossil fuels for energy. What's Next?Commercial nuclear fusion is still a long way off. While the physics aspect of fusion is “solved,” fusion remains a complicated engineering problem. The National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has the most powerful laser in the world to blast heat at atoms, but it is the size of three football stadiums, very old, slow, inefficient, and clunky. There are still unanswered questions, such as how to affordably capture fusion energy, and how to keep a fusion reaction going for a long period of time. And although the laser shots at the NIF were weaker than its fusion output, the amount of energy drawn from the grid to create those lasers is 120 times more than the fusion output generated at LLNL. About Dr. Annie KritcherDr. Annie Kritcher is a nuclear engineer and physicist at the National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Weapons and Complex Integration's Design Physics Division. She led the recent nuclear fusion breakthrough at LLNL. In 2022, Kritcher was elected fellow of the American Physical Society. She earned her PhD at UC Berkeley. Further ReadingA shot for the ages: Fusion ignition breakthrough hailed as ‘one of the most impressive scientific feats of the 21st century' | Lawrence Livermore National LaboratoryUK Power Grid Could Have First Commercial Fusion Reactor By 2030sWorld's largest nuclear fusion reactor promises clean energy, but the challenges are huge - ABC NewsAnnie Kritcher leads revolutionary nuclear fusion experimentIAEA, What is nuclear fusion?NOVA Now Universe Revealed Podcast, Can We Recreate the Power of Stars Down on Earth? (YouTube or NOVA Podcast website) For a transcript, please visit https://climatebreak.org/the-clean-energy-potential-of-nuclear-fusion-with-annie-kritcher/

In this episode of Nuclecast, Adam Lowther interviews Kim Budil, Director of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). They discuss various topics related to LLNL's work in nuclear weapons design and modernization. The conversation covers the achievement of ignition, the recruitment and retention of talent, the role of the National Ignition Facility, workforce challenges, modernization and manufacturing efforts, safety and security of warheads, other programs at LLNL, integrated deterrence and multi-domain operations, knowledge transfer and training, and Budil's wishes for the lab. Budil highlights the importance of LLNL's work in national security and the exciting opportunities it offers for aspiring scientists and engineers.Socials:Follow on Twitter at @NucleCastFollow on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/nuclecastpodcastSubscribe RSS Feed: https://rss.com/podcasts/nuclecast-podcast/Rate: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/nuclecast/id1644921278Email comments and topic/guest suggestions to NucleCast@anwadeter.org

In this episode, the global data empire is Zero Create, Zero Speed, and Zero Quick software. The National Ignition Facility repeated nuclear fusion reactions. The CDC's urgent threat on fungus.

What if there were a way to generate massive amounts of affordable, carbon-free energy with minimal environmental or safety risk? Sounds too good to be true, but nuclear fusion just might be the kind of energy source that America—and the world—has been waiting for.Michl Binderbauer is the CEO of California-based TAE Technologies, a company trying to develop an aneutronic commercial fusion reactor. Michl joins us on this episode of Faster Please! — The Podcast to explain how his team is trying to make fusion power a real thing.In This Episode* Fusion's Moment (1:11)* The Technical Challenge (12:11)* The Economic Challenge (15:33)* The Role of Government (22:20)Below is a lightly edited transcript of our conversation.Pethokoukis: What is sort of the current state of your company's technology, and in describing that, could you tell me how it sort of differs from other approaches in the field, keeping in mind I am not a nuclear physicist?Binderbauer: Understood. Alright, well it's a great introductory question. So TAE has been around, as you probably have read, for a good two decades plus, but the 25 year anniversary was just this past April, actually. We're at the stage now, it's really exciting, where the machine we're under construction on now, which we call Copernicus, which is our generation six, is actually intended to get us to a point to demonstrate that we can harvest more energy than we have to feed it. And this is on a really engineering comparison, how much energy comes into the site and deploys on the machine versus how much can you harvest. To be fair, this is not a full power plant, so we're going to measure the heat output, the collective heat output on it. Now that's where we're going, and that's really enabled by 20 plus years of a journey of, interestingly enough, a lot of scientific nuance discoveries, but mostly technology development.What you learn is that the journey that we were on was mostly one of underestimating the complexity of power supplies, vacuum systems, heating systems in the form of us, this means energetic particle beams, and the technological tool chest around those things and making that work as a symphony, as a nice orchestra to do what we need it to do, and that's really where we spend most of the time, and now we're at the point where there's a confluence in understanding the science, understanding or having full practice capability, mastery of the tools, bringing these two things together in the sixth generation machine to drive net energy output. That's the goal. The other thing you asked me was how do we differ and to kind of contrast that a little bit?Because this is a very interesting moment for fusion, broadly, which are a number of startups, of course some of my listeners might be familiar with the breakthrough from the National Ignition Facility, which isn't really meant to create a nuclear power plant, but it was a great proof of concept that we can do some sort of fusion here. So I guess in a somewhat understandable way, given my own personal limitations, what are you doing that's sort of different than maybe some of the other companies such as, I mean I've written about Commonwealth Fusion and a few others, as well.Of course. Let me start by saying that, for most of that I should give credit to my brilliant PhD mentor who was a technical co-founder and co-founder in general of TAE. Norman Rostoker was his name, and Norman had an illustrious career in the field of fusion science and, in fact, accelerators and a few other areas of physics. He was a sort of polymath and really broad guy, which probably was a critical ingredient to get to where we are today. And so while he was very instrumental in the early days of the field in putting together a lot of the fundamental theory and things that I always joke and say, “You can't get a PhD in this field without suffering through a lot of the stuff he discovered.” But he also was very critical at the later stage in his career and he looked at this and said, “If we want to build something that caters to power production in a civilian way with good economics and the right kind of maintainability and practicality, then maybe what we're doing as a field today on the large sort of federal or national program-funded research was sort of missing the mark a little bit because it was building towards the Tokamaks, which some of your readers may know, those  donut-shaped machines, the biggest of which is under construction in the south of France right now, it's a big international project. And Norman looked at that and said, “That can get us to maybe net energy but not necessarily practical net energy or economic net energy.”In the end it's about an applied end product that we're going after, not textbook knowledge, in a sense, or a proof point for a laboratory experiment. With that in mind, when the company, before it even started—this is in the early '90s when I became a student—he had a very delineated philosophy of end in mind: Let's look what this needs to look like. And that's pretty trivial to define, right? If I ask you, what do you think a good power plant should look like, you could probably tell me. If we can make it non-polluting, great, we want to make sure that it doesn't have maintenance every day. It's up most of the time and it can compete with what the grid needs today in terms of economics, who else makes power with from coal, the gas to whatever else. And that's kind of how we started, we said that would be the ideal reactor, and now how can we cater to that. And what is the gap if you reverse engineer from there to today that you have to fill? And that's really where we started and that led to a remarkably different trajectory.One of those, the first one, frankly, was fuel, right? When you think about tritium, which is the conventional goal set, and that's a fuel that's heavy hydrogen, when you “burn” that, quote-unquote, you get neutrons, which we know from fission, those are what propagates the fission process, and if you have a lot of neutrons, you get radioactivity. And tritium by itself is also used in our warheads. It's not the ideal material you loose in a civilian setting, it's typically classified, et cetera, so there's all these headaches and there's very little tritium, by the way, to go around. There's like 50 kilograms of free tritium in the world, and that's super expensive, something like $30,000 a gram or so is what's usually quoted. So there's a lot of handicap there if you want to turn that into an economic prosperous thing. And so we said, “Alright, well, what else is terrestrially possible?”And so not to be philosophical and say God gave us a very narrow bookshelf, but it kind of is. On one end you've got the neutronic fuel cycle with tritium, and then on the other end of this small bookshelf you have hydrogen and boron which are copiously available, both. There's no radioactivity to go in, and by the way, when they burn you get three helium particles, which is where our initial name came from, Tri Alpha Energy, we call helium particles in nuclear physics alpha particles. And so you look at it and you say, “Oh, that's pretty good!” I don't have radioactivity as a byproduct, I don't have to worry about shielding, I don't have high costs associated with those things. And by the way, if you look where boron is used today, it's dirt-cheap commodity products, it's detergents and soaps and cleaning products and things like that. So, in a way, it fits the bill.Now its big handicap is it needs a higher burn temperature to cook.Very hot.Yeah. You look at tritium on one end, that's about a hundred million degrees, which already sounds insane, but keep in mind, as a physicist, we sort of define that as just the energy state in that material beyond the gas. We call these plasmas. This plasma is at a hundred million degrees for tritium. If you want to burn boron, you need about a billion degrees. Now that sounds absolutely crazy, but it's not the stove plate hot of a solid. It's a very few particles that get to zip around in the container at very high energy, and that gets you to that definition of eventually a billion degrees.By the way, for reference, the big Hadron Collider at CERN, the LHC, that actually makes charged particle clouds with temperatures up to five trillion degrees. So we can actually do this. Amazingly, humans have a technology base to actually do that. So we started with the idea of if we wanted that fuel cycle, we've got to find the container and the process that can hold that together and create those energetic states we need. And that led us ultimately to what is referred to as a “field reversed configuration,” and I won't bore everybody with the detail of that, it's a mouthful to begin with, but it's a very interesting magnetic container.I will say that much, that instead of, in the case of most other confinement systems where you have a lot of magnets on the outset—and by the way the magnets are a big cost component in a reactor, they're superconducting, they're large in scale, complex to manufacture—and in this case, in the FRC, most of the field is actually created by the plasma itself.So plasma is discharge particles, if they flow, they create a current and the current can make a magnetic field, and so the plasma can self-envelope with a magnetic field that it generates from its currents and that can help, believe it or not, hold it in place. It sounds kind of perverse, but it works. And the idea behind that was derived about 50 years ago—almost everything infusion had some origins back many, many decades ago—but it was always considered too finicky to make work because one thing you can appreciate, if there's anything wrong in the flow in the plasma, well then the fields start to deteriorate so it can very quickly get into negative feedback cycle unless you can keep it stable and well controlled.And that's what we developed now. So now we have this perfect incarnation of it where we can run at will for as long as we want. We control this with active feedback today with extremely fast circuits and very smart software that's machine learning based, that self-corrects, recognizes patterns, and stuff. So take it as a supposition. Now we have ability to make these field reversed configurations at scale, meters in size, and can hold them steady as long as we want. And now what's interesting about that container is that has a much easier scalability, from a physics perspective, to those high energy conditions. This is why it's the right container to marry with the hydrogen boron, and most people just didn't go there for two reasons, I would think.One is that when the field works mostly on, say, Tokamaks, then there is so much knowledge base developed there that, in a way, it self-propagates and the incoming young people that get graduate education, they work on what's the most prolific thing, which happen to be Tokamaks. So it sort of self-propagates.And the other thing, of course, is people felt that confinement or the ability to hold this material together is already really stressful, and so if you have to go to a hundred million degrees, let's try to celebrate there before we bother going further. Norman was more maverick and said, “But that's not a good endpoint to be, so why don't we shoot for something a bit more out there that can really bring all that together. As a graduate student, I was game for that. I thought this was a brilliant idea. It appealed to me enormously to say let's connect what we're trying to do to the applied end product, and that's where we started, first in the university and then built the business.neutral beams, the plasma maintains lasting, high-temperature field reverse configurations.The Technical Challenge (12:11)Where you are right now, what is required to get to the endpoint, which is a commercial reactor?  Does that require continuous incremental progress and success, or does it still require something that you might call “leaps” in the technology? Where are we to get to that endpoint?Of course I should also explain that temperature increments like you're walking up a ladder, there's different steps to it. At the step where we are now, we're operating today the machine, the generation five—which we actually call “Norman” by the way, in its honor, we named it Norman. The reason that was fitting is because it established the scientific proof that you can actually create stable, long-lift field reversed configurations with the right attributes, and today we're doing that about 75 million degrees in the current machine that runs every day about 50, 60 experiments. So we know we can scale, we're really sure we can scale this to a hundred million degrees. What gives a hundred million back to the fuels, that doesn't give you boron but that gives you tritium. If you think about an approach of sequences, is you ramp up to a billion degrees, somewhere you have to cross a hundred, so you have something harvestable there from an economic opportunity.And so Copernicus, the next machine generation six that I alluded to earlier is the machine that's going to enable us to get into the tritium-level regime. This machine is going to show net energy capability at the a hundred to 150 million degree mark, which is typically where people operate with tritium. We were slated to do that by about '26, somewhere late-'25 into '26, and that's what we're constructing and fully projected to do. Now assuming success on that—which I believe is very much in our favor, we've been less than a factor of two of those operating conditions already and we have the engineering and the mastery, the operational mastery on this in hand—then the next step after that is to scale that up and build a machine that's about a factor of eight or so up in energy, and that gets you into the regime of the boron operation, and that's the stage when we think we will have net energy demonstrated out of hydrogen boron, and that's probably early 2030s.So again, coming back the next three years, make a machine that gets into the tritium equivalent operational regime. One thing I should point out, perhaps people may question, are we using tritium in the machine directly? We are not. What we're doing, and I can get into why that is, Commonwealth for instance—you mentioned earlier Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS)—they're trying to be a bit more ambitious and build this Tokamak and eventually fuel it with tritium. That has a much larger price tag and operational complexity because tritium is not an end game for us. I just want to enable the energetic state to burn tritium without actually doing it. The field has today sufficient enough confidence and maturity to understand that if you can hold the material together at a hundred, 150 million degrees with the right density and everything, yes, you could make tritium-based net energy if you wanted to, and that'd be for somebody else to do, but TAE wants to march on and build its boron reactor.The Economic Challenge (15:33)So there's a technical challenge that you feel like you're on track and you're sort of hitting some milestones there, and then there's sort of the economic challenge that we just don't want to get this thing to work, you want to get this thing to work so it makes sense that someday this thing can get plugged into an electrical grid. How do you feel about that aspect? How pricey or inexpensive or expensive will this energy be, assuming the not-insignificant technical challenges are met sometime in the next decade or what have you?Yeah, so great question. Obviously, we haven't built one yet. We haven't built the prototypes yet, let alone the full power plant, but there is actually a quite sane projection forward to those cost points from the fact that, after 25 years of working on this, we have a pretty good sense what we need. We have a great supply chain and partnerships established with people who built, not exactly this, but things like this. So you can do some estimates and you also know, as I said earlier, magnets are one of the biggest items, so there's a large amount of cost in there. The other big item that between those two controls more than two thirds is the heating equipment, and that can be radiofrequency heating like a microwave basically, or what we mostly use is injecting highly directional beams of atomic particles, neutral atoms that come in and then they collide with the fuel and then they basically transfer the energy that we directly shoot in and it becomes heat in the machine.So those two things, the heaters and the container system, the magnets, are the big expense items. When you get a sense for where you need to be and what the geometry looks like and so on, you can actually make a reasonable estimate at cost, and so I'm saying this, at the same time I'm asking for forgiveness if we're going to be off because obviously, in the end, there'll be a lot of detail that'll add to that. But I think what we believe, and I have confidence that that's correct, that the first generation of plants coming out of this, let's say it's somewhere in the mid-2030s, we'd have the first commercial plants installing and not plant one, which is a hand-built one-of-a-kind, right? But if you built maybe tens of plants, you will be at a point where you have some learning curves that bring prices down, you kind of know now how to do it. I wouldn't say it's mass produced yet, but it's going into a more efficient production cycle. I think we will slot in somewhere in the midfield today of generation assets.So if you're looking at solar, wind—solar maybe more than wind today—but you also add things like gas in the US, those are on the low end of the economics in terms of what they call LCOE, the Levelized Cost of Electricity, and then if you look at the upper end, you will find nuclear and the things where there's a lot of safety margin built in. We'll be somewhere in the field in between there. That gets you pretty competitive right there because it has two other incredible attributes. One is that there is really no variability in fuel costs because it's literally free because you need so little. Fusion is super high energy dense, so you don't need much.And the other aspect is that it doesn't pollute, really. There's no carbon involved, there's really no radioactivity to speak of. And so you are ending with something that can be baseload power, that's dispatchable, as they call it today. The human controls when it's on and when it's not, not the sun or the wind. And you have essentially green energy. In that sense, even if it's more expensive than some of the cheapest things today, but it's midfield, it'll be very competitive on a global basis and it'll be an important component that the world will need.How big a facility would you need to power Cincinnati or Chicago? My only experience is looking at the rather big nuclear fission reactors which are fairly big, so would this be a lot smaller than that?Well, two things: There's the machine size and then there's the installation size, the site. In nuclear fission today you have exclusion zone around the plant. There's a lot of the plot of land that it's on and then some incremental infrastructure, safety, security shielding and so on adds a lot of additional cost and scale. If on the boron machine, the actual machine is a couple, maybe three double-decker buses back-to-back, something like that, maybe a bit taller, but not that much. So that would be comparable to a large gas turbine, for instance. Or if you are in a hydro plant and you're looking at the generating units, they'd be sort of on that scale. So it's not outsized relative to what conventionally is used in the utility space today.Now if you look in the land footprint, it's pretty minimal. You're looking at a handful of acres at most. In fact, maybe even less over time. Now that's with hydrogen and boron because you then don't have radioactivity to speak of. You don't have the chance during an accident. The worst-case accidents that a plant like that would suffer would be industrial scale things. Things like a bad fire in a factory would just be similar, but it doesn't have nuclear meltdown capability. There is no chain reaction kind of thing, like we know from Chernobyl—and by the way, this isn't just true for TAE, this is true for all of fusion, it makes it really safe. So those attributes will shrink the site down. So if you're asking me how much can we get out of one of these systems at that scale, probably somewhere in the order of half a gigawatt, 400 to 500 megawatts is sort of what we're shooting for.It's a larger gas turbine system and if you wanted to get gigawatt-level power like you would get out of a fission nuclear plant today, you would probably have, say, two, three of these units next to each other. What I really think the world will go to and what we hear from talking to a lot of the utility people, it's a more distributed grid, ideally. You have things on the 300–500 megawatt scale that deploys in a way where you have more redundancy if you needed it, there's more reliability, et cetera. This is the scale that I think you would look at, so feeding a city like Chicago out of one plant, or the whole Chicago metropolitan area, is not going to happen. You would have a distributed set of systems, and you think 400 megawatts or so, you get a few hundred thousand households that run on that, and then you scale from there.The Role of Government (22:20)You've been working on this for some time and obviously I work at a think tank, so I always think, do you want government to do something that it's not doing? Do you want government to stop doing something that it's currently doing? I know I've certainly talked to some startups, newer startups, they're in partnerships with the Department of Energy. So what is your engagement currently and what would you need, or not need, from government going forward to get to where you need to go?That's a great question and one that has evolved. In the past, we've been purely privately funded and we built everything we've done so far on private capital and we're kind of the oldest of that. Now, as you said, there's a lot of younger companies in the space too, and I think this is great. We get more shots on goal and it makes us more valid. We're not the only lone idiots out there. There's actually reason to believe that there's many smart people trying now, so that's a good thing.Now where we're going, though, is a stage where I think public-private partnerships actually start to make sense. When you look at the history of any kind of energy technology that came about, nuclear is sort of—I hate to use it because it seems like we're so similar, we're obviously very different in some ways, we share the taxonomy “nuclear,” but that's about it—but fission, if you look at the evolution, it gets subsidies. There's a risk offtake for the early plants that the government tends to shoulder. That can be a loan guarantee, it can be other kinds of financial arrangements, and then eventually it becomes commercial enough in the sense that people believe in the viability, they have a good sense for its reliability and so on, and then it just propagates into the market in a very capitalist free market sense. That transition out of the lab into that stage of really rolling out at scale I think is where we absolutely need to count on government support.In fact, what's wonderful to see now, over the last couple of years in particular, and you read about this, the White House last year had a summit where we and a few others in the front running in the private sector were there together with the national labs and people from DOE, and we had a very productive conversation about what the White House framed a bold decadal vision for fusion. Important in that is the recognition that it's not always 30 years away and always will be, it's much closer. And what can we do proactively and collectively to accelerate that?I think that's what's really heartening to see, that as we're getting to that proof point, now we're getting net energy and then we want to leap to a prototype and a power plant. We're going to need that help, and there is a public-private partnership around multiple things on the technology or production side, but then also moving into the ultimate: How do you fund and risk underwrite these early plants when utilities typically are more risk averse? That we see on the federal level, and then on the state level, I don't know if you follow that, but recently California and North Carolina had a couple of bills coming out—for instance, California, we've had this nuclear moratorium where everything nuclear in nature is sort of not tolerable, and that's been modified. Fusion now is excluded out of that and in fact is now part of what they would call the benign side of the future of energy. In fact, the California bill made it very clear that it's to be treated as clean energy, essentially. And so in North Carolina, so you have now a blue state and right state looking at and saying, we want this. We need this, and we recognize the chance is high that over the next decade this comes about.The other thing I can add is that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, they just this year in a sort of landmark first step, the commission ruled in terms of where do we slop the regulatory framework around fusion. It's not in the old Part 50, which deals with the fission world, but it's going to be in a world that's much closer to where you would regulate medical accelerator that makes pet isotopes for oncology scanning and stuff. So they recognize that this is, while nuclear in taxonomy, it's a very different form of risk to the public, and therefore the level of regulation is lower, and that's equally important.The interaction with the government is super important now, and we're very heartened by the fact that we see there's really a nearing and a mutual excitement about bringing that out as quickly as possible against the backdrops from climate change to whatever else people are worried about with the national security and energy independence.Obviously, from my perspective, what I like is the idea that if fusion can succeed, it becomes eventually a source of abundance because there's so much fuel here that we can harvest and we think we can do this at very economic levels, that you can lift up those parts of the world that today are living on the other side of the gradient in a very sort of depressed, low quality of life. In fact, if you look at all the energy use projections or demand projections forward, you can see that we're going to more than double, and most of the demand comes from the underdeveloped world. Fusion can be a very big contributor to a more equitable world as a whole. It's all these attributes that I think get people really excited, and now it's no longer just this visionary dream. We're really, really close to doing it. I think that's why you see the government and everybody coming together now and beginning these earnest conversations over the next few years: How do we structure programs from regulation to working together to ultimately loan guarantees and other things in a public-private partnership, and bring it to the grid. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit fasterplease.substack.com/subscribe

No episódio de hoje vamos nos atualizar sobre as novidades relativas ao processo de fusão nuclear para a geração de energia, você sabia que o National Ignition Facility nos EUA conseguiu gerar energia positiva pela segunda vez usando a fusão nuclear? Como andam os investimentos? Será que vale a pena investir na fusão nuclear? Voicê já parou para pensar qual é o prejuízo causado pelas mudanças climáticas, que são desencadeadas pelo uso de combustíveis fósseis e de outras fontes não tão limpas assim? Saiba que a fusão nuclear pode ser a salvação da humanidade, geração de energia eficiente, e limpa de verdade, esse é o futuro da Terra, o futuro da energia no nosso planeta.

In December 2022, scientists at the National Ignition Facility, of NIF, at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory did something that had never happened before on Earth – controlled fusion ignition.What is nuclear fusion and why does it matter? This week on The Buzz, we'll be talking about why last year's experiment represents an enormous breakthrough in the future of energy, by hearing from some of the public sector scientists directly involved.Featuring:Alex Zylstra - Experimental Physicist at Lawrence Livermore National LaboratoryJohn Edwards -  Inertial Confinement Fusion Program Director at Lawrence Livermore National LaboratoryLearn more at lasers.llnl.gov!  Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform to never miss an episode! For more from ACT-IAC, follow us on LinkedIn or visit http://www.actiac.org. 

What is nuclear fusion?Nuclear fusion produces energy by fusing atoms together. Atomic cores (nuclei) merge together to form a heavier—though unstable—nucleus, releasing mass to regain stability. This mass release corresponds to an energy release, given Einstein's equation E=mc2, which says in part that mass and energy can be converted into each other. The sun, along with all other stars, uses nuclear fusion to generate energy, which is released as heat and light. The 2022 Fusion Breakthrough In late 2022, scientists led by Dr. Annie Kritcher at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) briefly replicated the power of the sun. Replicating the sun's power requires replicating the extreme heat and density conditions within the sun's core. Atomic cores are positively charged, meaning they repel each other. To overcome this barrier, scientists need to apply massive amounts of heat and keep atomic cores extremely close together. For the first time, scientists produced more energy from fusion than the amount of energy it took to maintain these conditions. Fusion is a greenhouse-gas-free source of potentially unlimited electricity, powered by hydrogen we can take from water, and creating no long-lived radioactive waste. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, fusion generates four times more energy per kilogram than the fission used for powering nuclear plants, and nearly 4 million times more energy than burning fossil fuels for energy. What's Next?Commercial nuclear fusion is still a long way off. While the physics aspect of fusion is “solved,” fusion remains a complicated engineering problem. The National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has the most powerful laser in the world to blast heat at atoms, but it is the size of three football stadiums, very old, slow, inefficient, and clunky. There are still unanswered questions, such as how to affordably capture fusion energy, and how to keep a fusion reaction going for a long period of time. And although the laser shots at the NIF were weaker than its fusion output, the amount of energy drawn from the grid to create those lasers is 120 times more than the fusion output generated at LLNL. About Dr. Annie KritcherDr. Annie Kritcher is a nuclear engineer and physicist at the National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Weapons and Complex Integration's Design Physics Division. She led the recent nuclear fusion breakthrough at LLNL. In 2022, Kritcher was elected fellow of the American Physical Society. She earned her PhD at UC Berkeley. Further ReadingA shot for the ages: Fusion ignition breakthrough hailed as ‘one of the most impressive scientific feats of the 21st century' | Lawrence Livermore National LaboratoryUK Power Grid Could Have First Commercial Fusion Reactor By 2030sWorld's largest nuclear fusion reactor promises clean energy, but the challenges are huge - ABC NewsAnnie Kritcher leads revolutionary nuclear fusion experimentIAEA, What is nuclear fusion?NOVA Now Universe Revealed Podcast, Can We Recreate the Power of Stars Down on Earth? (YouTube or NOVA Podcast website)

Annie Kritcher from the National Ignition Facility is here this week to talk to Dan about a huge breakthrough in nuclear energy! Find out what this breakthrough in energy production means for the planet and what role Annie played in this scientific marvel. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Burning fossil fuels to generate electricity and heat is one of the biggest contributors to climate change, making a fast transition to clean energy crucial to the solution. Fortunately, the technologies for a sustainable energy system already exist. Wind, solar and batteries all offer a promising pathway to a healthy and liveable planet, but what are some of the other, lesser known technologies that could help save the day?In this episode Gail and Loyiso look at two Global Goals and discover how new innovations (Goal 9) are offering solutions to greener, cheaper and cleaner energy (Goal 7). They ask Gabrielle Walker, a leading voice on carbon capture technologies, how we can remove the carbon that's already in the atmosphere, they find out from Vaitea Cowan, founder of Enapter, if Green Hydrogen will make it OK to fly again, and ask plasma physicist Tammy Ma, if one day we will be able to generate unlimited energy like the stars. Guests:Gabrielle Walker, co-founder of CUR8 and co founder of Rethinking Removals.Vaitea Cowan, co-founder of EnapterTammy Ma, plasma physicist at the Lawrence Livermore's National Ignition Facility. For more:https://www.globalgoals.org Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, the final of a three-part series about energy news of December 2022, Don, Kirk and Shawn begin with some Lightning Box discussion, as well as news about an Oregon company, NuScale, that has received design approval for a Small Modular Reactor (SMR). For the main topic, the group discusses the achievements on the National Ignition Facility (NIF) on December 5, with soundbites of the announcement that the laboratory reached nuclear fusion ignition, stating that we a step closer to commercial fusion technology. Story Links: U.S. approves design for NuScale small modular nuclear reactor Nuclear Fusion: Inside the breakthrough that could change our world | 60 Minutes EP: 15 Timeline 00:17 – Intros 06:08 – The News 15:17 – Main Topic: Discussion of the National Ignition Facility's achievements 26:41 – Outro How to reach us: Twitter: @ChangingNRG Facebook: @ChangingNRG Email: changingenergy@wemc.com Phone: 919-863-6331

How useful will nuclear fusion be? In a major breakthrough last year at the National Ignition Facility in California, 192 lasers achieved fusion – and created energy - for the first time. It was clearly an important moment. But might the development of fusion technology come too late? Owen Bennett Jones speaks with Sharon Ann Holgate, author of Nuclear Fusion: The Race to Build a Mini Sun on Earth (Icon Books, 2022). Owen Bennett-Jones is a freelance journalist and writer. A former BBC correspondent and presenter he has been a resident foreign correspondent in Bucharest, Geneva, Islamabad, Hanoi and Beirut. He is recently wrote a history of the Bhutto dynasty which was published by Yale University Press. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

How useful will nuclear fusion be? In a major breakthrough last year at the National Ignition Facility in California, 192 lasers achieved fusion – and created energy - for the first time. It was clearly an important moment. But might the development of fusion technology come too late? Owen Bennett Jones speaks with Sharon Ann Holgate, author of Nuclear Fusion: The Race to Build a Mini Sun on Earth (Icon Books, 2022). Owen Bennett-Jones is a freelance journalist and writer. A former BBC correspondent and presenter he has been a resident foreign correspondent in Bucharest, Geneva, Islamabad, Hanoi and Beirut. He is recently wrote a history of the Bhutto dynasty which was published by Yale University Press. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How useful will nuclear fusion be? In a major breakthrough last year at the National Ignition Facility in California, 192 lasers achieved fusion – and created energy - for the first time. It was clearly an important moment. But might the development of fusion technology come too late? Owen Bennett Jones speaks with Sharon Ann Holgate, author of Nuclear Fusion: The Race to Build a Mini Sun on Earth (Icon Books, 2022). Owen Bennett-Jones is a freelance journalist and writer. A former BBC correspondent and presenter he has been a resident foreign correspondent in Bucharest, Geneva, Islamabad, Hanoi and Beirut. He is recently wrote a history of the Bhutto dynasty which was published by Yale University Press. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/science

How useful will nuclear fusion be? In a major breakthrough last year at the National Ignition Facility in California, 192 lasers achieved fusion – and created energy - for the first time. It was clearly an important moment. But might the development of fusion technology come too late? Owen Bennett Jones speaks with Sharon Ann Holgate, author of Nuclear Fusion: The Race to Build a Mini Sun on Earth (Icon Books, 2022). Owen Bennett-Jones is a freelance journalist and writer. A former BBC correspondent and presenter he has been a resident foreign correspondent in Bucharest, Geneva, Islamabad, Hanoi and Beirut. He is recently wrote a history of the Bhutto dynasty which was published by Yale University Press. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/economics

Join physicists Drs. Jeff Zweerink and Eric Hedin on Stars, Cells, and God for an informative conversation on the use of nuclear fusion to address our energy needs.   A recent nuclear fusion breakthrough at the National Ignition Facility brought this topic to mainstream news. While this breakthrough is a tremendous accomplishment, the news coverage has prompted many questions about the feasibility of someday using nuclear fusion as our primary power source. Hedin and Zweerink discuss the scientific background of the achievement and address the remaining hurdles to using nuclear fusion as a replacement for fossil fuels.   References: National Ignition Facility Surpasses Long-Awaited Fusion Milestone

In December, the National Ignition Facility announced a breakthrough in nuclear fusion technology: for the first time, a nuclear fusion reaction created a net gain of energy, and since that reaction doesn't emit carbon or other pollutants, a lot of people have proclaimed that we are one step closer to achieving “the holy grail of clean energy.” But as exciting as this breakthrough is from a scientific perspective, “holy grail of clean energy” is a bit of a stretch. Ethan breaks down why today's clean energy sources are way further developed than nuclear fusion and why nuclear fusion isn't necessarily required for a clean energy transition in this week's “Tip of the Iceberg.” The Sweaty Penguin is presented by Peril and Promise: a public media initiative from The WNET Group in New York, reporting on the issues and solutions around climate change. You can learn more at pbs.org/perilandpromise. Support the show and unlock exclusive merch, bonus content, and more for as little as $5/month at patreon.com/thesweatypenguin. CREDITS Writers: Ethan Brown, Madeleine Salman, Maddy Schmidt Fact Checker: Hallie Cordingley Editor: Megan Antone Producers: Ethan Brown, Olivia Amitay, Hallie Cordingley, Shannon Damiano, Maddy Schmidt Ad Voiceover: Maddy Schmidt Music: Brett Sawka The opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the host and guests. They do not necessarily reflect the opinions or views of Peril and Promise or The WNET Group.

How did we achieve nuclear fusion? Neil deGrasse Tyson and comedian Chuck Nice learn about thermonuclear fusion, the world's most powerful lasers, and harnessing nuclear power with operations manager at The National Ignition Facility, Bruno Van Wonterghem.NOTE: StarTalk+ Patrons can listen to this entire episode commercial-free.Thanks to our Patrons Gavin Mallow, Willest74, Isaac Labbe, Allen, and Beefcake for supporting us this week.Photo Credit: U.S. Department of Energy from United States, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

During this episode, Ken goes deeper with his impressions of the all-new 2023 Genesis GV60 EV; How one Colorado university is heating and cooling buildings using sewage; and how fusion energy beats the numbers for a first-ever breakthrough. HAPPY NEW YEAR! Change is coming to the RoadWorthy Drive Podcast in the new year and we couldn't be MORE excited! Be sure to WATCH THIS SPACE for more information as it unfolds...

For years, researchers and scientists have chased after the allure of fusion energy.  The challenge has always been that it requires more energy to start the process than energy produced as a result - until now.  Call this one small step for man. If you are a victim of human trafficking or suspect that someone is, there is help. 1-888-373-7888 is the number of the National Human Trafficking Hotline. You can also text HELP or INFO to 233733. Over 200 languages are spoken and the help is available 24-hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

The news of a major nuclear fusion breakthrough seemed to break the internet last month - we've all got questions, and we're all so excited about this new potential renewable energy source. I'm deeply honored to be joined by Dr. Tammy Ma, Lead Scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's National Ignition Facility, to discuss this scientific milestone. Dr. Ma explains the significance of this ignition reaction for the scientific and energy communities, challenges to scale, and the incredible potential benefits of energy access worldwide. Dr. Tammy Ma earned her bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering from Caltech in 2005, then received her master's degree in 2008, and Ph.D. in 2010, both from the University of California, San Diego. Following graduate school, she completed a postdoc at LLNL before becoming a staff scientist in 2012. Ma was recently awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Science and Engineering, the highest honor bestowed by the United States government on early-career science and engineering professionals. She also received the American Physical Society 2016 Thomas H. Stix Award for Outstanding Early Career Contributions to Plasma Physics Research. Articles for your nuclear fusion curiosities: Scientists Achieve Nuclear Fusion Breakthrough With Blast of 192 Lasers (NY Times) Why nuclear fusion is so exciting (Harvard Gazette) DOE National Laboratory Makes History by Achieving Fusion Ignition (US Dept of Energy) Thanks to our sponsor! Use code ECOCHIC60 for 60% at GreenChef.com/ECOCHIC60 PS - I'm hiring! Email your resume to me at laura@lauraediez.com with a blurb about why you'd feel you'd be a good fit to support ECO CHIC's PR/marketing. Meet me online - @ecochicpodcast on Instagram + @lauraediez on Tiktok.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fusion power, clean and limitless, long elusive to scientists, may be headed our way sooner than many suspected thanks to a breakthrough experiment in early December at the Lawrence Livermore National Lab (LLNL) in California. In this episode of Grid Talk, host Marty Rosenberg talks with Annie Kritcher, the physicist who designed the successful experiment that recreated the energy source of the sun.She explained: “What we're doing here is essentially creating a miniature star in a lab about the size of a human hair to half the size of the human hair. We have 192 giant lasers and when we say giant, that means that the whole system that is used to create this laser energy and all the details associated with it, it's the size of three football fields when you put all of the 192 laser beams together.”  Fusion research has been going on for decades, but the December experiment is a significant breakthrough and represents a new approach. “The thing that's different this time is that for the first time we've actually demonstrated in the laboratory that we can achieve fusion energy gain in a controlled way. Before that, we've never actually generated fusion energy output that was controlled in a laboratory setting. This result motivates and is a proof of principal for all the different approaches out there,” said Kritcher.That increases the likelihood of success.“There's also a huge resurgence in the number of people working in this area and the different approaches that are being looked at and when you have that many people looking at a problem, the progress is highly accelerated.”Dr. Annie Kritcher is the design lead within the Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) team as part of the National Ignition Facility at LLNL. Dr. Kritcher started at LLNL as a summer intern in 2004. She earned a PhD in Nuclear Engineering and Plasma Physics and a MS Nuclear Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. Annie earned her BS in Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences at the University of Michigan.

In der 138. Folge von "Lauer und Wehner" reden Ulrich und Christopher über 50 Jahre Sesamstraße, die Silvesternacht von Berlin, das Fusions-Experiment an der National Ignition Facility und Joe Bidens geheime Dokumente.

1) Tammy's scientific background and how an LLNL outreach event influenced the career trajectory of her highschool self 2) A deep dive into the National Ignition Facility and some of the momentous experiments Tammy has been a part of 3) An explanation of fusion reactions, lasers, and the various components involved in the recent fusion breakthrough 4) Lawrence Livermore's mission to create a fusion industry that is equitable, diverse, and just

We discuss the historic fusion announcement with Tammy Ma, lead for the Inertial Fusion Energy Initiative at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where the breakthrough was achieved. For pictures and more info, visit http://www.energy-cast.com/158-nif.html

Top quark Jim Cooney rejoins the crew and gives us a deep dive into the breakthrough in nuclear fusion at the National Ignition Facility. Mars rover Perseverance is busy storing samples of Mars for a future mission to bring home, and the Sun may have a 17-year cycle in addition to the well-known 11-year cycle. Ring in the new year with the astroquarks to learn about all this, comet trivia, and more.

This week, we're closing out 2022 with a scicomm roundup. First, we're talking about the new hot supergroup that's taking the Tree of Life by storm, next, we crown new science royalty, and finally, we ignite a conversation about the future of energy. Also, be sure to check out our social media accounts so you don't miss our top 5 countdown of our most downloaded episodes in 2022. Your Hosts] James Reed (https://twitter.com/James_Reed3) Steffi Diem (https://twitter.com/SteffiDiem) Jason Organ (https://twitter.com/OrganJM) Credits Editing-James Reed Mastering- James Reed Music: - Intro and Outro- Wolf Moon by Unicorn Heads | https://unicornheads.com/ | Standard YouTube License - End of the Line by The Traveling Wilburys | (C) 2007 T. Wilbury Limited - Additional Sounds- Inside a Computer Chip by Doug Maxwell |https://www.mediarightproductions.com/ | Standard YouTube License The Science Night Podcast is a member of the Riverpower Podcast Mill (https://riverpower.xyz/) family scinight.com (www.scinight.com)

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and DOE's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) recently announced the achievement of fusion ignition at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) — a major scientific breakthrough decades in the making that will pave the way for advancements in national defense and the future of clean power. On Dec. 5, a team at LLNL's National Ignition Facility (NIF) conducted the first controlled fusion experiment in history to reach this milestone, also known as scientific energy breakeven, meaning it produced more energy from fusion than the laser energy used to drive it. This first-of-its-kind feat will provide unprecedented capability to support NNSA's Stockpile Stewardship Program and will provide invaluable insights into the prospects of clean fusion energy, which would be a game-changer for efforts to achieve President Biden's goal of a net-zero carbon economy. “This is a landmark achievement for the researchers and staff at the National Ignition Facility who have dedicated their careers to seeing fusion ignition become a reality, and this milestone will undoubtedly spark even more discovery,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm. https://lasers.llnl.gov/ Charles Seife, a professor of journalism at NYU's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, has been writing about physics and mathematics for two decades. He is a critic of the hype surrounding fusion. He is the author of nine books books, SUN IN A BOTTLE AND including Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea (2000), which won the 2000 PEN/Martha Albrand Award for First Nonfiction; Proofiness: The Dark Arts of Mathematical Deception (2010); and a forthcoming biography of physicist Stephen Hawking (2021). Before arriving at NYU, Seife was a writer for Science magazine and had been a U.S. correspondent for New Scientist. His writing has also appeared in The Economist, Scientific American, ProPublica, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Discover, Slate, Smithsonian, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and numerous other publications. He has also been a scientific consultant and writer for television documentaries about science and mathematics. Seife holds an A.B. in mathematics from Princeton University, an M.S. in mathematics from Yale University, and an M.S. in journalism from Columbia University https://www.charlesseife.org/ Connect with Professor Keating:

Skeptics joke that nuclear fusion is the energy source of the future … and always will be. But when the Biden White House made a big announcement about the progress of fusion research last week, even diehard skeptics surely took note. My guest on this episode of Faster, Please! — The Podcast is Arthur Turrell, plasma physicist and author of 2021's excellent and must-read The Star Builders: Nuclear Fusion and the Race to Power the Planet.In This Episode* The consequences of fusion's latest breakthrough (1:06)* Where does fusion go from here? (3:55)* The best path forward for fusion (8:14)* The importance of fusion for an energy-abundant future (13:13)* Will star power take us to the stars? (24:09)Below is an edited transcript of our conversation.The consequences of fusion's latest breakthroughJames Pethokoukis: On December 14, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm announced that researchers at Lawrence Livermore had succeeded in generating a net-energy-gain fusion reaction. Just how consequential is this?Arthur Turrell: Jim, I would say that we're witnessing a moment of history, really. Controlling the power source of stars, I think, is the greatest technological challenge humanity has ever undertaken. If you look back at human history, there are different stages where we've unlocked different types of energy sources. You can think about unlocking wood. You can think about when humans started to use coal, which packs in more energy than wood. You can think about nuclear fission, which has even more energy than coal. A lot more, because it's a nuclear technology instead of a chemical one. And then you can think about this moment when we have the first proof of concept of using fusion for energy. And of course, fusion unlocks huge amounts of energy: 10 million times, kilogram for kilogram, as compared to coal.There are two main approaches to fusion as I understand it. This was what they call inertial confinement, and then there's magnetic confinement. Does it make a difference, as far as where this technology goes, that it was inertial confinement versus magnetic?It's absolutely a huge scientific achievement. The level of precision and the level of innovation and invention that the researchers at Lawrence Livermore have had to deploy to get here is just an astonishing feat on its own, even if we weren't talking about how this could eventually change the supply of energy.Does it get us anywhere? I think the honest answer is we don't know. We, today, don't know what version of fusion, what way of doing fusion is going to ultimately be the one that is the most economical and the most useful for society. But what I think this result will do is have a huge psychological effect because throughout fusion's history, researchers have said, “Hey, I'd really like to, you know, build a reactor, a prototype reactor.” And funders have quite reasonably said, “We don't even know if the principle works. Go off and show us that it can produce, in principle, more energy out than is put in.” And of course, fusion research has been trying to do that since the 1950s. Now we finally and absolutely have proof of that. I think that it's going to crowd in innovation, interest, and investment in all types of fusion because even though this approach got to that milestone first, it doesn't necessarily mean that this is going be the most economical or the best in the long run.Where does fusion go from here?I think it's Benjamin Franklin who gets the credit, at least that's what I learned in third grade, for discovering electricity in the 1700s. We didn't get the first electric motor until the 1820s, and we really didn't get factories electrifying their factory floors really until the first decades of the 20th century. So this could be an amazing discovery, but it could be a long time just based on how fast it takes advances to be modified and diffuse into an economy. It could be quite some time, if ever, before this actually gets plugged into a grid.Right. Traditionally, these new energy sources take a long time to come onstream. One of my favorite facts, and I have to double check that I've got the year right here, but I think the first solar cell was working in 1883. And only now in the last few years has solar energy become commercially viable in terms of cost. These things take a long time, or they have historically. And here's the really important point. It's never about the amount of time. It's about the amount of investment and political will that we put behind it.If our elected representatives choose to really push this and put lots of funding behind it, and the private sector decides that it's really going to push this, things will move much faster. Correspondingly, if we don't put lots of investment behind it, things will move more slowly. But you are absolutely right when you say that there is a gap here between what we've seen — which is an astonishing experiment, but only scientific feasibility — and what you'd have to have for fusion energy to be on the grid — which is solving some of the engineering and economics challenges that stand in the way between this one-off experiment and doing this repeatedly and economically at scale.For decades, there was very little in the news about fusion research. And since 2019, there have been some big stories about the advances happening in government labs and about the work in the private sector. It seemed like there was already a lot of excitement before this advancement. I can't believe this won't generate even more interest.Absolutely. I think this has been building for quite a long time. It's very tempting to say not much has happened in fusion. But I think if you look back over the decades, there have been improvements. They've been quite steady, and they've probably been coming at the rate you would expect with the level of investment and dedicated resources it's had. But the improvements have been arriving quite steadily. And looking at the history of this particular experiment, the National Ignition Facility, when they've got improvements since 2012 when they really started this type of campaign, the improvements have resulted in a five- or six-times increase in the release of energy. Back in 2019 when the book I wrote about this came out, I sort of said, “Well, they're not actually that many improvements away, so if they can carry on the same trajectory, they're going to crack it at some point.” And last August in 2021, they got to 70 percent, which at the time was a world record as well. And it's kind of like, because fusion scales nonlinearly, especially in this type of doing fusion, this laser fusion, actually they're almost there and it's just a matter of time until they crack it. So I think it's been building for a while. And the huge successes, because things have just happened to have gotten close now after all of this time in both magnetic confinement fusion and in inertial or laser-based fusion, mean that has really stimulated the private sector as well. The whole thing is starting to build on its momentum. And I think that now this is going to cause the wave to crash over and we're going to see efforts to turn this into a power source be completely electrified by this news.The best path forward for fusionIf what happened at Lawrence Livermore Lab does not present an obvious path to commercialization, what else is going on that seems more obvious? We differentiated between magnetic and inertial confinement fusion. Other people will point to deuterium-tritium fusion versus aneutronic fusion. Where is the most likely path, and does it come from government, from the private sector, that will lead us to a commercial reactor?Of course, it's hard to know exactly, but we can certainly make some sensible guesses based on what we know today. To answer the second part about deuterium-tritium fusion or aneutronic fusion, just so your listeners are aware, these are about different types of fuel that we're putting into fusion reactions. So the first kind, deuterium-tritium, those are just special types of hydrogen. Frankly, all of the really serious attempts to do fusion today using these because they require much, much less extreme conditions than the other types of fusion reaction, though people get very excited about the type of fusion that doesn't produce any neutrons, aneutronic fusion, because it has less radioactivity. But it's much, much harder to do.Would it be a better power source? Some people have said that with deuterium-tritium fusion, you would still need some sort of boiler. You'd be using a steam turbine, just like you would if it was coal. While aneutronic actually creates electricity itself.In principle, yes. People haven't really demonstrated that principle in practice. But yeah, that's why people are excited about it, because every time you change energy from one type to another you lose some of the useful energy and you just have a more direct setup with the aneutronic fusion. But I think that's some way away. In terms of what's practical for the next steps to getting to an energy source, there are paths using both this inertial approach and using the magnetic approach.Some of the private-sector companies are using this magnetic confinement approach. I think Commonwealth Fusion Systems, that's what they do.That's right. And Tokamak Energy as well. There are pros and cons of both different approaches. In terms of the kind of approach that the National Ignition Facility is taking, there are some big technological gaps in terms of something that looks more like a power source. This was a single shot of a laser on a single experiment. If it was to be anywhere close to being a useful power source, they would have to do probably 10 shots on that laser a second. And instead of a gain of 1.5, so instead of getting 1.5 units of energy out for every unit of energy you put in, you'd have to probably get at least 30 units of energy out than you put in. Now, as I say, this thing scales nonlinearly, which means that you might get there faster than you think. But it's still a big technological gap.And even if you solve all of that, of course you've then got to do what you said. Ultimately, we're extracting the heat energy and we're using it to turn water into steam, and we're powering a turbine. Now, what some of the people who are working on this magnetic confinement approach would say is that even if they haven't got to net energy gain yet, they have created a lot of gross energy. So they have generated about 30 times more gross energy than NIF produced in output energy in a single experiment. And they would say that some of the steps further down the line are a bit easier to achieve on magnetic confinement fusion. But honestly, I don't think we really know yet. And because we don't know, it's a good thing that we have both public and private sector exploring a range of different options here.How seriously should I take anybody who gives me a date? How confident should I take any of these predictions at this point?Well, that does depend, Jim. Was it the president of the United States who said this to you? Because I feel like he's got some control over it. I think the first question to ask when anyone says that is, at what level of investment? Because that's the thing that's going to make the difference. If we stop all funding to fusion tomorrow, if people decide to do that, then it's going to take forever. But equally, if President Biden says it's going to take 10 years, and he makes a commitment to put in the money that could potentially make that happen, then I'd take it a bit more seriously. I think 10 years is a very tight time scale. But as I've probably mentioned before we saw in the pandemic how even untested technologies can be deployed at great speeds, faster than anyone could have imagined, where there is the political will and the societal need and the money to make it happen.The importance of fusion for an energy-abundant futureWhy is this an interesting source of energy?Nuclear fusion, it's interesting scientifically because every time you go outside on a sunny day, those rays you're feeling on your face from the sun are generated by nuclear fusion. So this is literally the reaction that lights up the universe. It's the reaction that created a lot of the elements that we are made out of, particularly bigger elements. And it was right there at the start of the universe as well, creating some of those fundamental building blocks of life. So it's an extraordinary reaction, and it's amazing to start to be able to control it. But there are practical reasons, even if you don't care about the science at all, to get excited about nuclear fusion as well.It's potentially a very safe source of energy. There's just no chance of meltdown. It's not a chain reaction. If you turn off the laser or you turn off the magnets, the whole thing just stops. So it's hard to start, easy to stop. It also, as far as we can tell, isn't going to produce any long-lived radioactive waste. It will produce some from the reactor chamber itself, so not as a byproduct of the fuel, unlike fission. Maybe the reactor chamber at the end of the plant's life might be rated low-level radioactive for about 100 years as opposed to the potentially thousands of years in fission. So that's another advantage. I should say, though, that fission is an amazing power source and we should be doing a lot more with it. And actually, if you look at the data, it's very safe. But some people don't like it, regardless. It's difficult to get it built. And then the other thing is that renewables are fantastic as well. They work today. They're never going to run out in any practical sense. But they do have this problem that they need to use a lot of land area or a lot of sea area to generate relatively small amounts of energy. I think you've always got pros and cons of these different energy sources.You would need batteries, too, right? Because of the intermittency, potentially, you would need a lot of batteries. Big batteries.Potentially you would need batteries too. Are batteries a bigger technological challenge than getting fusion working on the grid? I don't know. I'm probably a bit more relaxed about the batteries thing. Intermittency can be a problem with them, but also land is such a premium for other things — for food, for people to live — that I think that ultimately might be the bigger issue. And also people don't want to have these things built. They get blocked often. Whereas fusion and fission potentially — definitely in the case of fission, but almost certainly with fusion as well — the actual land area for the amount of energy generated is very, very attractive. So that's another reason. And finally, the fuel for nuclear fusion isn't going to run out anytime soon. There's enough of it on the planet to keep everyone on Earth…The fuel for the kind of fusion we're talking about, deuterium-tritium, where does that fuel come from?They're both special types of hydrogen. Ignore these quite wacky names. They're kind of special, rare types of hydrogen. But the thing is, they're not that rare. Deuterium is one of the ingredients, and about five grams of every bathtub of seawater is deuterium. So there's just absolutely phenomenal amounts of it in the sea. And chemically, it's exactly the same as normal hydrogen. So if we extract it, it doesn't really matter. It's not going to change anything, the fact that we're using it up. And then the other ingredient is a bit more tricky. It's something called tritium. It's very, very weakly radioactive. It's only harmful if you were to ingest it. But the problem is it decays over time into other things, so there's not very much of it around at any one time. But you can create it, and you can create it from another element called lithium.Lithium is very common in the Earth both in ore and in seawater, and there's plenty of that to go around as well. Although of course, it does have some other uses, for example in batteries. So between those two, that's how you do it. Now there are problems: how do we turn the lithium into tritium, that needs to be solved on the kind of engineering side. But in principle, we've got enough fuel for thousands, if not millions, of years of energy for everyone on the planet to have the same level of consumption as people in the US, which you might be surprised to hear is quite high.So this was net energy gain: more energy out than put in. But then you talk about wall plug energy gain in your book. Is that the next big step?You know what, it kind of depends on where we want to focus our efforts, actually. There are a few ways we could go right now. For the benefit of your listeners, in this experiment, what they're measuring is the energy in, the energy that was carried by those laser beams to the target, and the energy that came out of that target from fusion reactions. Now, to actually power up and create those laser beams took a lot more energy. While about three megajoules of energy came out of the target, it took 400 megajoules to actually charge up the batteries, or the capacitor banks that they're called, to actually create those laser beams that had the two megajoules of energy. Wall-plug efficiency would be generating more energy than this entire system, so more than the 400 megajoules and more than the entire facility.The thing to say about the National Ignition facility is it was built to do ignition. It was built to do the scientific bit. They never cared about the fact that their lasers are horribly inefficient, because they knew that wasn't really what they were aiming for. What I suspect they will do on this machine, which is really built for optimizing what happens at the target end, is to try and up the gain as much as they can. Perhaps to a factor of four or five times rather than one-and-a-half times as they've done here, which is probably about the limit of this particular machine.But in the long run, of course, we've got to generate more energy than the facility as a whole. And that means probably going up to gains of at least 30 times. And eventually, if you're doing this form of fusion in a power plant, you'd use way more efficient lasers. This thing was designed 20-plus years ago and the laser efficiency is below 1 percent. There are lasers around today that can fire much faster and which have a 25 percent efficiency. And they're still not quite there in terms of energy terms. But with a bit more technological tweaking, maybe they could be. There are lots of ways to get over this wall-plug efficiency issue in the future. We haven't optimized for that. That is a good next challenge. But there are other parts of the problem that you could work on too.When you look at what government is doing, what some of these private sector companies are doing, what ultimately is the path that you get most excited by and you're like, “I don't know for sure, but this could be it.” This is not investment advice!No, it's absolutely not. It really depends on what kind of a commitment… Assuming things carry on in much the way they did yesterday and the day before, which is not a given, of course, I think probably the most promising path is a big magnetic confinement fusion device called ITER, which is currently being built in the south of France. And ITER is very expensive and on a very big scale but will probably show net energy gain using the magnetic approach. We'll start to test out some of the engineering issues around a prototype power plant. Now, it is not a prototype power plant, but it will start to look at least some of those engineering challenges. I think one possible path for fusion could be ITER gets finished, they're successful in testing out net energy gain and showing it can work in the magnetic way, which I think they almost certainly will (previous experiments with magnetic confinement have got very close), and they'll test out some of the engineering things. And then the private sector could come in at that point and say, “If you're doing it on that scale, it's going to be really expensive and we're going to have really low learning rates” — the smaller you can make a technology, the faster you learn how to make it even cheaper. That could be the time when the private sector really comes in and says, “We can do it for you. We can make them smaller and cheaper, and therefore, we can make the learning rate higher, making this technology more effective.” But that's just one scenario. There are lots of other ones. If the US government, and maybe other nations too, decided to really, really push the laser-based approach, then maybe that could be the one where we see the most progress towards a prototype power plant.Do you think some of these existing private sector companies, like Commonwealth Fusion Systems, I think another one is TAE Technologies, do you see them as legitimate players?Absolutely. Some of them are working on really interesting approaches. And like I say, because we don't know what works, I think it makes a huge amount of sense to let entrepreneurs and innovators just see what sticks to the wall. A lot of them aren't going to get there, because a lot of the designs won't work or they'll have to pivot to slightly different designs. And that's absolutely fine. The ones that are looking at fusion reactions that aren't deuterium and tritium, I am more skeptical of, personally, because that reaction just takes so much more energy to get going. Obviously never say never. The one that I'm probably most excited about, on paper anyway, is Commonwealth Fusion Systems. What the public laboratories have done is build up this huge body of knowledge about what does work. And no one is anywhere near as far ahead as the public laboratories in the UK and the US and the international collaboration ones. They're really the only people who've gotten anywhere close to doing this, because they're the only ones who've actually run with real fusion fuel for a start. Or at least they were until about two years ago. The thing that's quite nice about Commonwealth Fusion Systems is they're really building on tried and tested tokamak technology, but then they're saying, “Hey, the thing that really makes this work is having really powerful magnetic fields. So if we could just find a way to dramatically improve that part of the technology, we could make this dramatically smaller and dramatically easier as well.” I like that approach because they're really just doing this one change. And they've got some really promising technology to do it as well. Some of the advances they've made in superconductors are really exciting and probably stand alone as inventions.Will star power take us to the stars?Finally, we talked about the use case for fusion. It seems to me that there would be a strong use case, as you just mentioned, right here on Earth. But also in space, where we're going to need energy. I haven't really heard much of that mentioned in all the excitement about fusion, but I've thought about it, and I bet you have too.I certainly have. Just for the benefit of people listening, once you are wanting to explore space — and I think it's part of the human psyche to want to explore unknown frontiers, so I think we want to do that; I think most people would take that as a given — if you want to go beyond the very local area, like the Moon and Mars, it's very difficult to do it with conventional rocket technology, because essentially you have to carry the fuel with you. Imagine if you are trying to have a wood-fired interstellar rocket: The amount of wood you have to carry with you is just going to make life much more difficult. It's going to be difficult to get into orbit and then to actually get the thrust you need.Now, one of the great things about nuclear fusion is that it is the most high-energy-density, so amount of energy per kilogram, reaction that we have access to on Earth. It's the highest energy fuel stuff that we can possibly imagine, and it is basically the only one that is going to be able to do this longer-distance travel, because it can get us up to the speeds that we need to actually make some real progress across space. As I like to say, star power is literally the only energy source that can take us to the stars. So we should be doing it for that reason as well. Absolutely. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit fasterplease.substack.com/subscribe

Vědci z americké National Ignition Facility překonali zásadní hranici. Fúzní jaderná reakce v jejich zařízení vyrobila více energie, než kolik bylo třeba dodávat. Bude znamenat tento vědecký průlom řešení klimatické nebo energetické krize? Filip Titlbach se ptá vědeckého redaktora Petra Koubského.

On this episode of the DefAero Report Daily Podcast, sponsored by Bell, Dr. Steve Fetter, an award-winning nuclear physicist who is the dean of the Graduate School at the University of Maryland, discusses the national security implications of the National Ignition Facility's Dec. 5 experiment at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory that for a millisecond produced more energy than it consumed, how the test that involved firing 192 lasers at hydrogen atoms was primarily intended to improve America's thermonuclear arsenal, why the groundbreaking test would make for an impractical source of sustainable energy, whether the nation that invested the atom bomb still has the skills to make them, and lessons from the Manhattan Project with Defense & aerospace Report Editor Vago Muradian.

Last week, LLNL's National Ignition Facility successfully 'ignited' a nuclear fusion reaction equivalent to what takes place in the sun: the conversion of hydrogen to helium + energy. In a first, the experiment produced more energy than was needed to initiate the reaction. While the experiment lasted only fractions of a second, it proved what had been hypothesized since the 1960's: that lasers can be used to induce energy-generating fusion in a laboratory setting. The enormity of this achievement is that it brings the possibility of cheap, clean and safe nuclear fusion energy one step closer to reality. Joined by guest hosts Julio Friedman and Darren Hau, Climate Now sat down with Dr. Annie Kritcher, the principal designer for the successful fusion experiment, to discuss what they have accomplished, why it was so significant, and what the National Ignition Facility will be focusing on next in their work to make nuclear fusion a viable energy source.Key Questions:What was the experiment that was performed, and why was it's success so significant?What are the next set of challenges to address in developing nuclear fusion as a clean energy source?Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.Contact us at contact@climatenow.comVisit our website for all of our content and sources for each episode.

(0:00) Jason's new gig! (1:05) Twitter's new privacy rules, notable suspension, doxing dynamics (20:48) Nuclear fusion breakthrough and geopolitical ramifications (42:58) Jason and Sacks's big night (51:11) State of the markets: Coupa acquired by Thoma Bravo, startups at all stages seeing heavy valuation reductions, what LPs are thinking (1:22:08) TV catch up, worst person in tech bracket Follow the besties: https://twitter.com/chamath https://linktr.ee/calacanis https://twitter.com/DavidSacks https://twitter.com/friedberg Follow the pod: https://twitter.com/theallinpod https://linktr.ee/allinpodcast Intro Music Credit: https://rb.gy/tppkzl https://twitter.com/yung_spielburg Intro Video Credit: https://twitter.com/TheZachEffect Referenced in the show: https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/41483/checkoutcom-chalks-70-off-valuation https://twitter.com/Cernovich/status/1602457619431493634 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1603190155107794944 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Ignition_Facility https://www.ft.com/content/4b6f0fab-66ef-4e33-adec-cfc345589dc7 https://www.neimagazine.com/news/newsfusion-industry-survey-shows-significant-increase-in-private-investment-9860867 https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/thoma-bravo-buy-coupa-software-615-billion-2022-12-12 https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/41483/checkoutcom-chalks-70-off-valuation

The National Ignition Facility exists with the goal of achieving fusion ignition with high energy gain. We're talking about this this week because recently, they were able to have an energy output greater than the energy input, which is a big deal. Learn more about rocket science with Rachel Teichman, LMSW and Victor Varnado, KSN. Produced by Victor Varnado & Rachel Teichman Full Wikipedia & news article here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Ignition_Facility#Breakeven,_December_2022 https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/13/science/nuclear-fusion-energy-breakthrough.html WE APPRECIATE YOUR SUPPORT ON PATREON!https://www.patreon.com/wikilistenpodcast Find us on social media! https://www.facebook.com/WikiListen Instagram @WikiListen Twitter @Wiki_Listen Youtube Get bonus content on Patreon Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Back in January, we spoke to a scientist at the National Ignition Facility about how close they were to achieving what's been called “one of the most impressive scientific feats of the 21st century.” This week, they announced they've finally done it. A version of this episode originally ran on January 5, 2022. For more, go to http://vox.com/unexplainable It's a great place to view show transcripts and read more about the topics on our show. Also, email us! unexplainable@vox.com We read every email. Support Unexplainable by making a financial contribution to Vox! bit.ly/givepodcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week's episode discusses a concept unveiled for the world's first artificial womb facility, aka a baby factory where you can create a designer baby leading to a discussion of all of the horrific dystopian realities this could create. We also discuss the recent scientific win of creating net-positive nuclear fusion and what that could lead to. Lastly, we discuss the recently proposed ban on Tiktok by congress.   Subscribe and leave a 5-star review! ----more---- Donate to support the show by going to https://givesendgo.com/redpillrevolution   Our website https://redpillrevolution.co/    Protect your family and support the Red Pill Revolution Podcast with Affordable Life Insurance. This is attached to my license and not a third-party ad!   Go to https://agents.ethoslife.com/invite/3504a now!   Currently available in AZ, MI, MO, LA, NC, OH, IN, TN, WV. Email austin@redpillrevolution.co if you would like to sign up in a different state   ----more---- Full Transcription    Welcome to the Revolution. Hello and welcome to Red Pill Revolution. My name is Austin Adams, and thank you so much for listening. Today, we are going to be touching on some wild scientific discoveries today and a few things that aren't scientific discoveries, , so let's talk about it. The very first thing is that the United States, uh, some scientific institution came out and talked about their ability to create potentially clean energy in an unlimited fashion. It was basically a, a scientific experiment that they'd been working on for quite some time where they were running 192 lasers. To try and see if they could cause nuclear fission fusion, nuclear fusion, , not fission, nuclear fusion. And that could mean for us unlimited clean energy, which would be nice according to what the cost of gas is. So that would be cool, although it's a much better than it's been. I would say it's about almost half of what I was paying at one point over the last few years. Anyways, after that, we are going to touch on Congress introducing a bill to ban TikTok over spying fears. Oh my gosh. It's almost as if somebody recommended that, I don't know, what was it, three years ago now, maybe four years ago. And now it's just a legitimate conversation all of a sudden because it didn't come from Donald Trump's mouth. And then, We are also going to be talking about Joe Biden getting a little upset over somebody bringing up his quote unquote fucking age , according to Joe Biden. He was pretty mad about that. And then lastly, what we are going to talk, talk about is the craziest thing, which is a company that unveil unveiled the world's first artificial womb. And if your face looks like mine right now, um, and it should, you, you're probably just as concerned as you should be. Um, it's pretty crazy and it's, uh, really, actually, really concerning. So we'll talk about that too, all of that and more. But the first thing I need you to do is go ahead and hit that subscribe button. Button. Hit the like button if there's a like button around, depending on what you're watching this on. And leave a five star review mean the world to me. It takes five seconds of your day. There's probably not too many things throughout your day right now that you could get some very beautiful, very wonderful karmic response from. And that is just by cooking a button on your phone. If you're driving, I forgive you. But when you stop, subscribe and leave a five star review. All right? Takes two seconds outta your day. It would really, really mean a lot if you hang out with me here consistently. You listen to this podcast, I appreciate you beyond words. Uh, but also I would appreciate if you leave a five star review, head over to Red Pill Revolution. Um, dot co.com is for losers red pill revolution.co. And sign up for the sub. All right, the sub's going to include all of the links, all of the videos, all of the topic videos, all of the episode, video, and audio directly to your email every single week, along with a little article that I write, depending on the week, um, about, uh, certain topics that we discussed as well. That's free, doesn't cost you anything. At the very bottom of that, you can sign up to be a paid subscriber, which just means that you actually, uh, really appreciate my content. And, uh, I think it's like $7 or whatever you can choose to, to pay as much as you want, I believe as well. Um, but I would appreciate it. All right, uh, no ads here. Um, that's all I got for you. So thank you so much for being a part of this, and let's jump into. Welcome to Red Pill Revolution. My name is Austin Adams. Red Pill Revolution started out with me, realizing everything that I knew, everything that I believed, everything I interpreted about my life is through the lens of the information I was spoonfed as a child. Religion, politics, history, conspiracies, Hollywood medicine, money, food, all of it. Everything we know was tactfully written to influence your decisions and your view on reality by those in power. Now I'm on a mission, a mission to retrain and reeducate myself to find the true reality of what is behind that curtain. And I'm taking your ass with me. Welcome to the Revolution. All right. The very first thing that we are going to talk about today is going to be a fusion energy breakthrough. Which could lead to unlimited clean energy, which they're saying may just be 10 years away, which would be, again, pretty nice for everybody's bank account, although I'm sure they'll find a way to charge you in some way. But this is a pretty incredible breakthrough and, and it's not something that I've been following, but it seems like everybody's making a big deal about it. So let's figure out why . This says that US scientists have announced a breakthrough in nuclear fusion that could totally transform our energy needs. And this is coming from the Daily Beast. It says, the US Department of Energy announced Tuesday that it has accomplished net energy gain, one of the ma most major breakthroughs in making fusion a viable form of energy. For the first time ever, this milestone expert's hope paves the way for a possible future of unlimited clean energy. Now I'm gonna give you my breakdown cause I watched this release today on, uh, YouTube live of. The US Department of Energy discussing this, and I'm gonna tell you what I think happened and then we'll see how wrong I am  by reading the full article here. So from what I watched today, the US Department of Energy came out and celebrated the fact that they potentially worked out a way to cause a net energy gain in nuclear fusion, which sounds kind of crazy. It's pretty simple what they did. That's not that simple , but it's simple to explain enough to me. What it sounded like they did is they took 192 laser beams all in this small little glass container pointing at a singular spot, the half the size of a bebe. And what their goal was to do was to heat that little half little bebe up to a round 3 million degrees Celsius, and in doing so, they would cause a net gain of energy. which just means that what they did is they put in, let's say you put $1 in on this side of the machine and $2 comes out on this side of the machine. So the amount of energy that they actually put into heating up this BB caused the BB to emit more energy than it had taken in. So 192 laser beams all pointing at this little bebe. And that allowed them to create a, a, a small bebe to turn into as hot as a star and emit so much energy that it could be used for other purposes. And what I believe they said is that it, they put in about two kilo jewels of energy and out on the other side came three kilojoules. So a one point. Times net positive increase in energy from what they put into this that they would get on the outside of that. So you can imagine all of the applications that this could be used for, but that was my interpretation of it. That's what I heard. And this could be used in many ways. Initially it's gonna be used for military applications, I'm sure more than anything, but, and they said that Biden hopes to have this in place, which I'm sure he has so much poll when it comes to nuclear fusion , that this would only take 10 years to be commercial. Which is what this article here is alluding to. And it sounded like we were a bit farther away from that, according to the individual that was the spokesperson for the US Department of Energy, which said that they thought that we were several, several decades away. And then they ev they, the, the journalist on site actually even challenged her and said, well, Biden, you said Biden's goal was 10 years. You're saying it's going to take five, potentially three to five decades before we u utilize this technology. How do you reconcile that difference? She said, uh, and the response was all of, but you know, that's our hope. We really hope to be using this in the future, but we can't say it really is gonna depend on private investors and the private companies coming in and looking to invest into this. Sounds like they had somewhere around the realm of like 55 million or something. Maybe. Maybe it was, yeah. I believe if I recall correctly, it was 55 million. So let's see how right or how wrong I was by reading this article that actually explains it in a way that somebody sat down and wrote it out. So , they said, uh, this is an incredible ex, incredibly exciting result. Said St. Stefani DM, a fusion energy researcher at the University of Wisconsin Madison. She added that the breakthrough demonstrates how investment in modeling and detailed physics understanding is paying off With these recent advances, US Secretary of Energy, Jennifer Granholm, told reporters at a press conference on Tuesday that researchers at the National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California were able to produce more energy from a fusion reaction then was required to create it during a December 5th experiment, hence the net energy gain. Now, this says a big quote here was from the White House Office of Science and Technology says that we have taken the first tentative step towards clean energy source that could revolutionize the world. This is a landmark achievement for the researchers and staff of the national IG Ignition facility who have dedicated their careers to seeing fusion ignition become a reality, and this milestone will undoubtedly spark more d. Last week, they shot a bunch of lasers at the app pellet of fuel, and more energy was released from the fusion ignition than the energy of the lasers going in. Wow. I was correct . So, uh, got that one right. Um, Rodi Prab Bahar, policy director for the White House of Office of Sciences and Technology said that the press conference, this is such a tremendous example of what perseverance really can achieve. The experiment used a process called inertial confinement fusion, which was involved, which involved shooting nearly 200 of the world's most powerful lasers at a tiny amount of hydrogen in order to replicate the nuclear fusion reaction that occurs every single moment on the sun. The lasers use 2.05 megajoules of energy to start the reaction resulting in a creation of 3.15 megajoules of energy. That's more than a 153% increase of power. While momentous, there are a few caveats. For one, the reaction lasts to the nanosecond, so it's not quite the constant self-sustaining process that we see play out on the sun. The amount of energy produced was also a mere fraction of what we get from a regular wall electricity outlet. Wow, that's disappointing. , LL and L Director, Kim Badillo also told reporters that researchers are still a few decades away from being able to create a commercially viable fusion reactor. However, this breakthrough is a consequential if somewhat small step towards the ultimate goal of limitless zero carbon energy production. We have taken the first tentative steps towards a clean energy source that could revolutionize the world along with clean energy initiatives. The fusion reaction also paves the way for a slightly more nefarious undertaking, the strengthening of the US national defense infrastructure. Marv Adams, the Deputy Administrator for Defense programs at the National Nuclear Security Administration, explains that the net energy game produced by the N I F helps advance national security in three ways. Um, this says is another large quote here, which says, in a world where we have fought wars over energy, energy, resources, and access to resources used in energy production, fusion brings us hope and an amazing challenge for one that helps defense programs maintain competence without testing nuclear weapons. It also helps bolster our weapons deterrence. The breakthrough also jettisons the US to the forefront of fusion energy research, serving as a signal to both our allies and enemies that we know what we are. I would hope so. . The announcement also included a few slightly mixed signals from the speakers while Bil stressed that there were still decades away from seeing fusion reactors that could be used as a part of widespread energy infrastructures. Grant Holmes said that President Joe Biden envisions a commercial fusion reactor, which in within 10 years, well thank God he won't be around to see that he was wrong. . Uh, however, BiDil explained that while inertial confinement fusion had achieved net energy gain, other types of fusion reactions, specifically magnetic fusion, which much farther along, uh, it says that the foundational technology to begin to scale up towards a power plant is further along than the magnetic fusion community. It's building more directly off the work that's been done in recent decades of facilities like Jet and the United Kingdom, the Princeton Plasma Physics Lab, and. Nevertheless, Beil and her colleagues were bullish on the fact that the latest accomplishment was a major first step in providing out the vi viability of fusion energy for commercial purposes and potentially eliminating the energy woes that have plagued society since the Industrial Revolution. Yeah, it's funny how we didn't have energy woes until we decided to industrialize our culture. . Uh, in a world where we have fought wars over energy, we already read that quote. I'm extremely excited to see what's next in this field as we come to push innovation and drive towards a cleaner, more sustainable and equitable and just future. It's interesting how they can equate it to equity and justice. So as of right now, it means nothing for us at all, other than the fact that they can really heat up a BB for over a nanosecond. But at the moment, this does nothing for us. It does bolster our public outlook. From, like they said, allies and enemies regarding what our science and technology capabilities are and gives hope for the future that we will one day be able to also fly aircraft like the UAPs and UFOs that seemingly just blast off from anywhere in any direction, at any speed that they want at all times without any fear of ever getting rid of their energy source. Hey, that would be cool. All right, so that's what I got on that one. It is pretty cool though, I would say I watching it, it was interesting, you know, looking into the, the, there hasn't been too many large breakthroughs in nuclear science or anything really like this that, that we've heard big, large articles about recently. And so, uh, it is interesting. I'll give them that. And it is interesting to see what we could be able to do with this in the future. However, it seems a little bit farther. Then most people would hope that we're actually gonna be using this unless some people from the private sector step in and start to fund these things for profitable purposes. Because if we know anything about our government, it basically sucks at everything. And every $5 you throw into it, four gets thrown away. And by thrown away, I mean passed on to politicians and then one goes towards the actual entity or thing that you wanted to. And that's a very, very generous percentage that I just gave them there. So . All right. Um, this article comes from the Hill and it says the biggest five, uh, takeaways from the Fusion Energy Breakthroughs. And I'll just read you the headlines in here, which says, it's the first time a net energy gain has come from fusion. That's a cool thing. It's seen as other, another potential source of carbon free energy. Uh, then the next thing it says is breakthrough positions. Breakthrough positions, us or US as leader in global quest for fusion. Fusion still years off from becoming a mainstream energy source, and it has military implications. Hmm. Says, uh, this is a tiny scale version of the same process used to kick off a hydrogen or thermo nuclear bomb, which uses fusion power to release 1000 times as much energy as the bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945. That's terrifying. Fusion reactors don't contain nearly enough fuel to produce what kind of ex, uh, that kind of explosion. And a thermonuclear bomb requires a separate atomic explosion to trigger ignition according to the International Atomic Energy Agency. But US officials hinted at military applications, fusion is an essential process in modern nuclear weapons. And a milestone like this one has a strong argument for Amer American military. . The successful test demonstrates America's world leading expertise in weapons relevant technologies, while continuing to show our allies that we know what we are doing. , I like how that's the quote that everybody, we know what we're doing. Like I sure as hell hope. So if you're spending 55 million in, beaming a bunch of lasers at a tiny little bebe to do so. Yeah. Seems, seems like, uh, seems like you should know what you're doing. Anyways, let's go ahead and move on. Uh, this says that, oh, that this says that. I'm gonna take a drink of water. There it is. So much better. This says that Congress introduces a bill to ban TikTok over spying fears. Interesting. How somebody else, I can't exactly recall who, but somebody else seems to have proposed this several years ago for the same exact reason. , but now, apparently, because it's not that. So that, that, that person, um, that so-and-so who did this, uh, now seems to be a good idea because this was a bipartisan effort to ban TikTok. And let's go ahead and read this article, which comes from, uh, in gadget.com. Politicians in the US and house, uh, the politicians in this house and Senate have put forward bills to ban TikTok over worries China could use it to spy on Americans. And then it goes on to say, uh, that American politicians aren't just restricting access to TikTok. They now hope to ban it outright. Members of the house in Santa have introduced matching bills that would block transactions from any social media company in or influenced by China, Russias Cuban, or Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, the Anto Antisocial CCP Act. Averting the national threat of internet surveillance, oppression, censorship, and influence, and algorithmic learning by the Chinese comic Party. Wow, that's quite the name. Um, is meant to shut down access to TikTok and other apps that could use theoretically funnel, that could theoretically funnel American user data to oppressive government censor news or otherwise manipulate the public. Who in the world would allow a social media company to use user data to censor news or otherwise manipulate the public? No. Nobody would do that. Not, not, not the Lord and Savior. Mark Zuckerberg, not our man. Jack Dorsey, now formally known as Elon Musk, , CEO of Twitter. Um, we could never imagine the world. And then really it is. That's funny how it is now, just basically Instagram and TikTok or Instagram and Facebook that are the, the per purveyors of.  or welly in truth in the us But the fact that this, this is not being brought to light for our own companies is, is, is somewhat comical too, because literally we just found out that Twitter was actually actively censoring and blocking the active president of United States from utilizing Twitter while he was the sitting president for no reason at all, for no reason. They had no reason at all to do so, so they made one up and that seems like a good, it's absolutely against our first amendment and also is tampering with election outcomes, right? So, so hopefully if this bill is being in, in enacted, we will see some type of backlash for the things that are coming out with Twitter, although likely not because the government, as we also found out, was also involved in these things. So this goes on to say the rational echoes what US political leaders have argued for years. While TikTok has taken efforts to distance its international operations from those in China, such as the storing of US data domestically, critics have argued that parent company bite dance is ultimately at the mercy of the Chinese government. TikTok could potentially profile government workers and otherwise surveil Americans. According to the often repeated claims Republican bill co-sponsors send. Senator Marco Rubio and Mike Gallagher tried to draw links between some bite dance leadership in the Chinese Communist Party in an opinion piece in the Washington Post this November. At the time, 23 directors had previously worked by state backed media and at least 15 employees still did. The bill is also sponsored by House Republican Raja Krishna Mothy, that's quite the last name. K R i s A H N A M O O R T H I, Krishna Mothy. All right. In a statement, a TikTok spokesperson said it was troubling that members of Congress were putting forward legislation to ban the app. Rather than waiting for a national security review to wind down the bills will do nothing to advance national security according to the company. The firm added that that would continue to brief Congress on plans developed under the watch of security officials. The social network has consistently denied plans to track American users, uh, or otherwise deliberately assist Chinese surveillance efforts in the country. TikTok already faces some legal action. The states of Maryland and South Dakota have banned TikTok on government devices over security concerns in Indiana meanwhile sued TikTok for allegedly deceiving users about China's data access and child safety violations. The lawsuit with fine TikTok in demand changes to the services info handling and marketing claims, uh, says that whether or not the bills become legislation is uncertain. President Biden revoked former President Trump's orders to ban TikTok downloads, and instead required a fresh national security review. He's not expecting to override his own order. And while the bill sponsor characterize the measure as bipartisan, it's not clear the call for TikTok ban has enough support to c clench the necessary votes and reach Biden's desk To some degree, the anti-social CCP Act is more of a signal of intent rather than a practical at attempt to block TikTok. Hmm. Yeah. So it, it, Trump already tried this, literally did enact this and banned TikTok because of exactly this reason. And now it's being proposed again on both sides of the aisle. And the only way that it would get enacted is if Biden himself said, oh, you're right. I was wrong. And the likelihood of that happening unless he just forgets where he is and accidentally signs the bill before, I don't know, having to go empty his. Empty his colostomy bag or whatever he, he has his, his depends diapers, um, , I don't think there's much of a chance of this passing, but it is a signal to people. Like it said, it's a message that's being portrayed and, and it's a conversation that's being had around TikTok now pretty consistently as this one of the, as the most threatening social media application. I mean, I don't have it on my phone anymore. Now, I, the, a big piece of that is because I built my account and then got it banned for literally no reason whatsoever. Still have not received a response from them for that, uh, 55,000 people that were following there. But that's a different conversation. In this case, uh, you know, the, when you go through the terms of service, when you look at it, and, and a lot of people have been coming out and talking about this, it is by far the most aggressive application in stealing all of your data. It looks at all the text messages you send, it looks at all of the photos that you have access to on it. It, it basically tracks you everywhere you go. It knows exactly what you're typing into search bars. Every single piece of information that is on your phone can be accessed by TikTok and by the Chinese Communist Party. So, uh, you have to take that into consideration when you understand that the Chinese Communist Party may be our overlords in about 30 years. , and it may, may affect your social credit score that you, uh, I don't know, posted a funny dance on TikTok that got flagged for violence.  anyways, so there's that. Uh, I don't think anything is gonna happen with this, but the fact that it's even being talked about again, is good that it's in the public light and any, any at all pressure on social media companies to be more transparent, to stop collecting as much data, to start pushing our society in a positive direction as, as opposed to one of just straight consumerism and grossness surrounding the, the five to ten second videos that once you realize that you're literally just playing, if, if there was a little lever on the side of your phone that you had to, you know, use like a slot machine every time you wanted to see a new TikTok, I think we would start to look at each other. Pretty weird . It's like you, we are literally, we are absolutely just completely addicted to our phones and not even addicted to our phones at this point. I've talked about this before. It's the monopoly of attention through the large corporations, right? It what the way that the, the internet used to be. 50 50. Geez. It's not been long. 50 years. Um, so the, the way the energy, the, the internet has been or was originally back in the late nineties, early two thousands, even into the late two thousands was, uh, really until we got into social media apps. What, like 2006, 2007, Facebook started to come out. So it, it was the, you could, people would save bookmarks and go to the websites that they wanted to go to. Now people just go on directly to social media to get the feed of everything everywhere, all the time.  and it's this str, you know, shopping mall of information as opposed to going directly to other sources. That's why you have a really big trouble with this downturn of, of, you know, website sales and obviously you had the.com bubble, which, which maybe had a piece of that. But really what you're seeing is a monopoly of attention. And, and you see this everywhere. You see this with our, our food distribution, right? There's a, a Kroger, a Whole Foods, uh, Winn Dixie, and uh, uh, I don't know, whatever, whatever the hell other places there are around this country that you buy food from. But there's usually only one in each area that you go to. , right? The mom and pop shops have a really difficult time even being in the conversation, right? And that's not even bringing up Amazon. Amazon is completely taking over almost every business and being in, in a, a business that utilizes Amazon in some way, shape or form it, it's crazy to find out that Amazon gets its business by basically completely undercutting the businesses that it's buying stuff from. So by being the largest distributor, it also distributed distributes it at the lowest price, leading them to make the profits. And the company who actually came out with the materials and the product itself came up with the ideas, did the marketing, all of that makes less. And so you see this whole conglomeration of, of human collective consciousness that is all streaming through one to five different doors, depending on what you're talking about. If you're talking about food, you go to this place. If you're talking about, uh, Internet, or I'm sorry, talking about news. You go to these three sources. If you're talking about any interaction with any human ever, you go to social media. If you wanna buy anything, literally on the entire world, you go to Amazon, right? All this monopolizing of attention so that the mom and pop shops go away and the people who profit are the ones who are already billion and trillionaires and everybody else goes outta business. And you saw the worst of that when you saw that Target and Home Depot were allowed to be open while mom and pop hardware stores and mom and pop grocery stores were shut down, right? Because they have the biggest lobbying power. So I'm glad to see any one of these big, I'm, I'm really glad to see what's going on with Twitter right now. All of the files that are coming out, the Twitter files right now, I think we're on like. Five or or stage five of those. The things that it's come out with more recently is that Donald Trump was silenced and, and blocked from Twitter for no reason that there was cooperation with the government during that time. Uh, that there was, uh, initial tweets that were being deleted as a result of political affiliations. And then shadow Banning was absolutely real in that there was communications happening back and forth between Biden's team and Twitter during the Hunter Biden laptop situation. Right. And there's more to come. So we'll have to keep our eyes on that too. All right. Now next we're gonna talk about, uh, the, um, ecto life, which is the 30 or the world's first artificial womb. And then another thing I'd like to talk about, we're actually gonna skip the Joe Biden be an old thing cuz that's something we all know. No need to bore you with that. But I did find something on conspiracy Reddit, which I found to be quite interesting and it has since been. Deleted. So more recently, project Veritas came out with a video discussing the dean of a very well known school. Um, the man goes by Joseph Bruno at Francis w Parker School, and he admitted to showing children's sex toys in school during sex ed class thinking, oh, look at this butt plug. Like, look at this dildo. Like it's disgusting. The dean of a school, the dean, not a random 21 year old blue-haired Antifa member that infiltrated the school system. No, this is the dean of a well-known, established private school. All right. Which obviously makes it even more concerning. So let's go ahead and read this and, and now each of these statements come with receipts. So I will include this in this week's podcast companion. All right, which again, go to red pill revolution.co or go to. ck.com, um, or I'm sorry, red pill revolution.dot com, and you can sign up directly through red pill revolution ck.com. All right, so this has just started a deep dive on the private school dean that was showing children how to use sex toys Project. Veritas caught the Dean of students, Joseph Bruno at Francis w Parker School, admitting to showing children how to use sex toys in class. The school has some bizarre policies in place, including segregation from whites from others. The school has come out in strong support of the dean. The incident appears to be a textbook example of grooming. The school is in Chicago and is expensive with many famous alumni, including Anne Hench, who is reportedly investigating child abuse before her mysterious death in Hench has been open about her abuse at a young age. There were also very powerful political connections and billionaires engaged in bazaar missions. They are are connected to Democrat and Republican politicians. All right. Now the first thing is the Project Veritas Undercover video. So let's go ahead and see if we can pull that up first. And this is a video again, just coming directly from Project Veritas on Twitter. Let's see if we can actually get it to pull up for us. Hmm. Looks like it might have gotten deleted. All right, so you can go watch it yourself. Look up, uh, project Veritas, project veritas.com. Project Veritas on Instagram, project Veritas on Twitter. And you can find this video. All right. Uh, but it says that the school completely scrubbed their social media, and it said that this individual who seemed to do a pretty deep dive, and again, every one of these statements has a link backing up its statements here. So I was looking through the list of alumni and donors, and one name jumped out, Pritz. This family of billionaires was very actively in pushing sex ed. The children sex change medical procedures for children. They're invested in many medical companies that make the surgical equipment and meds for sex change operations. They donate to tons of medical associations, medical schools and clinics and hospitals. They have paid their way onto many boards. One member is cur, uh, is the current governor of Illinois. Wow. One member of the family is the current governor of Illinois. Another was the Secretary of Commerce under former, uh, under Obama, and another was a former Hillary Clinton Press campaign manager. The majority of their sex ed sex change activities for youth are coordinated through their nonprofit tawan foundation. The foundation is led by Jennifer Pritzker, formerly James Pritzker. Uh, and here Jay Pritzker is seen speaking as a guest of honor at Francis w Parker School, speaking to students about his transition from male to female. And there's an article about that directly from the school's website. And I got it pulled up right here. Um, it says, military re veteran historian, businesswoman, investor, developer philanthropist, transgender woman, and Parker graduate Colonel Jennifer Pritzker, 68 years old, returned to the school recently to speak at Morning X about the importance of understanding the military's role in a democratic society. Wow. This is not who I want teaching my children, . And that is quite the introduction, by the way. Anyways, let's go ahead and, uh, redone it goes, uh, on to say that Pritzker is also a donor and alumni to the school who's given millions. Note that Pritzker's donation to all sides. Um, literally everyone. Rudy Giuliani, Biden Bush, Alpac, Nikki, Halle, uh, Democrats of Tennessee, Democrats of Texas, R n C, Tammy Duckworth, labor Party, farmer's Party Libertarians. It just goes on and on for decades. It looks like the family is just buying influence from everybody. Here is a very interesting article about Jay Pritzker's involvement in SY synthetic sex identity by an investigative reporter. Balik comes from Tablet Mag. Another family Tom or another family member, Tom Pritzker, was recently revealed to be one of 12 John Doz, uh, being accused of one being one of Jeffy Epstein's and GLA Maxwell's co-conspirators in the underage sex trafficking of young women. Wow. I wonder how, where this association comes from in the family. Uh, the Pritzker family is discussed at three 11 of this video. Tom Pritzker's, Epstein connection is discussed at the start of this video. The family is consistently in USA's top 10 richest family, but asides from Illinois, they have almost zero name recognition, almost as if they're trying to maintain a low profile to avoid scrutiny and inquiry. Chicago Times and Vanity Fair documented several factions of the family's agreed on full display as they went to war with each other when the patriarch died in the late 1990s, even though they had all been left generations worth of wealth. Dean of Students, Joseph Bruno, specifically mentions in the Project Veritas video that he has an unlimited budget and that the administration would not at all be concerned about exposing underage children to at best, inappropriate information. The links I shared are barely the tip of the iceberg of this bazaar network. It goes much deeper and gets much darker. Predictably, there are already articles in MSM that attempt to preemptively shield any criticism notably of j Pritzker as transphobic or anti-Semitic. Some of the links didn't generate property. All right, cool. The very first, uh, thing that goes on to say is, um, have some, a quick few little responses here, uh, is somebody tells them to hide his IP address. . Somebody says Good work. Uh, yeah. Anyways, so interesting that the Dean of students, that project Veritas called out for basically teaching children how to use butt plugs in dildos is related to the Pritzker family, which is related to Jay Pritzker, right? Jay Pritzker was the one with, with, uh, let's see, no, Tom Pritzker, who is related to Tom Pritz. Who is one of the 12 John Doe that was being accused of being one of Jeffrey Epstein's co-conspirators. Wow. That is pretty wild. Now I don't really know what to make of this, but I thought it was an interesting correlation between this guy and this family. Let's go ahead and see if we can actually get a little bit more information about who this guy is. Let's see, the Pritzker family. So it is just talking about, uh, so basically the school was being funded by one of these people that are part of these families. And it's no coincidence that you're somebody who is a part of Jeffrey Epstein's co-conspirators would be trying to groom children at a high school age. Uh, That has since been deleted off of Reddit. You can't, you cannot find that. You cannot find it on, on conspiracy as at least that came from, uh, posted by Bonding Chamber was the name on Reddit. Uh, so go give that person a look and see if they come out with anything, cuz it did look like there was a seat in a certain amount of, uh, information here. That was pretty well, uh, pretty well dug up. So, um, anyways, let's go ahead and move on. The next and final topic that we are going to discuss here is the, uh, ecto, what is it? Ecto Life. Ecto Life is the name of this company. Okay. And let's see if I can even get a company website for you. No. Hmm. All right. Ecto Life had a press release recently saying that they revealed a concept which was the world's first artificial womb facility. So I have a video for this, and then we will go on and read some of this article here and here we go. Introducing Ecto Life. The world's first artificial womb facility, powered entirely by renewable energy. Ecto life allows infertile couple to conceive a baby and become the true biological parents of their own offspring. It's a perfect solution for women who had their uterus surgically removed due to cancer or other complications with ecto life, premature births and C-sections will be a thing of the past. Ecto life is designed to help countries that are suffering from severe population decline, including Japan, Bulgaria, South Korea, and many others. The facility features 75 highly equipped labs. Each state-of-the-art lab can accommodate up to 400 growth pods or artificial wounds. Every pod is designed to replicate the exact conditions that exist inside the mother's uterus. A single building can incubate up to 30,000 lab grown babies per year. Ecto life allows your baby to develop in an infection-free environment. The pods are made of materials that prevent germs from sticking to their surfaces. Every growth pod features, sensors that can monitor your baby's vital signs, including heartbeat, temperature, blood pressure, breathing rate, and oxygen saturation. The artificial intelligence-based system also monitors the physical features of your baby and reports any potential genetic abnormalities. The pods are equipped with a screen that displays real-time data on the developmental progress of your baby. These data are sent directly to your phone so you can track your baby's health from the comfort of your zone. The app also provides you with a high resolution live view of your baby's development. A special section in the app allows you to watch a time lapse of your baby's growth and share it directly with your loved ones. Because babies can recognize language and learn new words while still in the womb. Ecto life Growth Pods feature internal speakers that play a wide range of words and music to your baby. Through the app, you can choose the playlist that your baby listens. You can also directly sing to your baby and make them familiar with your voice before birth. Our goal is to provide you with an intelligent offspring that truly reflects your smart choices. Ecto life improves your bonding experience with your baby, thanks to a 360 degrees camera that's fitted inside your baby's growth pod. You can use your virtual reality headset to explore what it's like to be in your baby's place. See what they see, and hear what they hear. All right. I'm gonna pause that right there and we'll, we'll listen to the rest of this because this is so wild. This company is trying to artificially grow babies in a warehouse, and they spent how many millions of dollars producing this singular video, which is like movie level animation and cinematography, and. Cgi, like they spent so much money producing this video that where do you think this money is coming from? And, and here's another more interesting topic besides the fact that how creepy this video is, because if you have, you gotta see the video because what they're showing you on the screen is like this cgi, like mimicry of what this facility would look like. And they try to make it look all cool and hip and baby pods and like, but you know how, like, how discu could you imagine walking into this facility and seeing 30,000 babies lined up in like a football field arena, just sitting there in a glass jar on a shelf somewhere? And this to me, just tells me exactly where they're trying to go with this. What is a woman. If, if a, if a uterus is no longer magical, is no longer the, the, the, the giver of life and some cold, sterile glass box is where we're gonna grow our children, then the, the, the whole goal of all of this is, is transhumanism. This is transhumanism. Transhumanism is here. It is, uh, if you don't know what transhumanism is, it's basically humans trying to take control of our evolutionary cycle and push it in the direction that we want it to go, not where God wants it to go, not where fate wants it to go, not where the world or evolution needs it to go, but where we are playing God, we as humans are playing God by shoving a bunch of embryo little babies into a warehouse, 30,000 babies deep. As they minimize the, the, the power that is the femininity as they tell you that your uterus and capabilities of carrying children means nothing. Meanwhile, they wanna market to you so they can further commoditize children being born into this world because you know how much this is gonna cost. This, they try and play it off. Like, it's like, oh, this is gonna help Japan who has lowering numbers, and, oh, this is gonna help Venezuela, who's been really having an e Coli breakout, like, fuck no. This is going to benefit the celebrities who are going to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to have their son be seven four with the jawline of Arnold Schwarzenegger and the right hook of Mike Tyson and have their daughter looking like a Victoria's Secret supermodel walking out of the womb. And they're gonna spend $200,000 on it, and they're gonna give them a, a, a ridiculous sliding scale of IQ and all of the, like, this is going to become a commodity for rich people. And that does not even touch on the potential of this. Because if this is being marketed this way right now, this is already in effect somewhere, in a warehouse in China, in Ukraine, in some, a few skated country that doesn't have real laws surrounding this, that can do whatever the hell they want. This is already happening somewhere that they are growing babies in test tubes. And if you think human trafficking is horrible right now, can you imagine what it's gonna look like when a baby is born, as many babies as you could ever want, is born in a pod, in a glass tube, in a dusty warehouse in Ukraine, and you can buy it.  on the, the, on Amazon and have it shipped to your damn door. And you didn't need love, you didn't need attention, you didn't need a relationship. You don't have any of the foundations of what it takes to be a parent. In order to get this. You just need money. And the people that this is going to heavily affect initially is not going to be the, the, the downfall of Japanese, uh, uh, population. It's going to be the rich and the famous who are capitalizing off of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to curate a picture. Perfect in high IQ baby with blue eyes and whatever the jaw line of, uh, handsome squidward This is terrifying, really. Cause if you think of it from a human trafficking perspective and, and you understand that this is already happening. You know, if they're spending millions of dollars doing this type of marketing for it, the CGI that goes into this video, you know that this is absolutely some country, some evil super villain somewhere has a dusty warehouse of 30,000 babies all lined up. And what happens if this goes wrong? What if this already went wrong? This is definitely didn't 100% perfectly fucking happen where you're just come out with a baby that looks great. How many, how many, one armed, three nosed, two-headed babies came out of this type of experiment and what happened to those? Because there's no way that they just 100% accuracy fired off this crazy scientific God-like experiment. And we're just supposed to expect that nothing went wrong in the meantime when you were, oh, I don't know, growing test tube babies in a dusty warehouse without any oversight. What? What in the world? Science is becoming like alchemists and dark magic wizardry and dark magic, and that is our today's science between mRNA, gene therapy and test tube babies and bombs a thousand times. The, the efficiency in, in, in size of what we saw in Hiroshima being created. Right now, science has gone rogue, wuhan lab gain of function research. Talk about that again, right? What, where do we draw the line? When, when is it? Because here's what you have to understand. Science is five steps ahead of legislation, if not 10 or 20, right? When you look at leg, leg, leg. When you look at regulatory agencies, when it comes to the financial markets, They are so far behind what is happening in crypto. That's what we're finding out with ftx, right? They're so far behind and they're trying to catch up, and they're trying to make legislation that, that, that helps protect people. And by people, I mean human beings, which is the exact thing that these scientific villains are creating in little baby test tubes in the meantime for proof of concepts so that they can sell them to celebrities so that those celebrities can have hot and smart babies instead of the ones that God intended for them to have. And then all of the weirdness, like, oh, pretend to be your baby in our glass tube with your virtual reality headset. How about, no, how about, I don't wanna do that. How about this is disgusting. And I draw the line at at, at Scientifically Grown test tube babies like nobody, nobody asked for this. Nobody maybe besides Claw Schwab in the World Economic Forum. Nobody wants this. Nobody needs this. And talk about fertility issues. Yeah. Okay. You got, you got a hysterectomy. That's horrible. There's, there's surrogates out there. You don't need to grow a baby in a test tube because how many, how many times? What happens when it does go wrong? Right. What happens when there is an anomaly in their genes like they talked about? What happens when there's an, it's a it, it comes out with three noses. What are they gonna do with that baby? Hmm. And if they're already doing this and somebody gets ahold of this technology, which they will, and some billionaire can, I don't know, like Jeffrey Epstein can grow babies in his basement. And this is commercialized. This technology will be commercialized just like nuclear submarines were sold off from Russia. This technology will eventually hit the black consumer market. The underground grossness. That is the place where people purchase illegal firearms that people purchase. Uh, literally human trafficking occurs in, in drug markets. Like this will be a technology that we will have invented that will never go away. There's nothing you can do about it. And then you will have a future. Jeffrey Epstein growing babies in his basement, all because you wanted to fiddle. Fuck around, trying to see if you could what? Congratulations, you made a baby in the test tube. Now what? Nobody asked for this. Using a wireless haptic suit connected to your baby's growth pod, you'll be able to sense their kicks in the womb and share this experience with your friends and family members. You know how else you can experience haptic feedback in the womb? I don't know. Maybe be pregnant. Where, where did we get this idea that women aren't women? Babies aren't babies coming from women. Women don't gain their power from the ability to literally create life like they are stripping humanity of its sense of humanity. We do not need this at all. We don't need you to, to put a haptic feedback suit on for me to feel my baby kick. You know how I felt? My baby kick. I put my hand on my wife's stomach. That's how you feel a baby kick. You don't put on a haptic feedback suit. You weirdos. Like how? How many of the people at this scientific corporation actually have children? Cause I would venture to say zero. Nobody what? Who wants this? And what stops this from becoming a slave trade, right? If you can literally clone babies in your basement and, and grow humans at will, why not cr cr why? What stops these humans from becoming lower class citizens and what stops us from becoming lower class citizens if they're just that much smarter and more beautiful than us? What stops us from becoming the peasants and they take over the damn world, and now because we weren't grown in the test tube, we're not as good as they are for life, and, and it becomes this whole war like you're, you're, we're, we're causing a domino effect in the future that that was not intended for us. Again, these scientists are acting as if they are gods and nobody asked for. Be able to sense their kicks in the womb and share this experience with your friends and family members. With ecto life, your baby will receive the best nutrients that can support their growth. Each group of pods is connected to two central bioreactors. The first bioreactor contains nutrients and oxygen, which are supplied to your baby through an artificial umbilical. This bioreactor also contains a liquid solution that serves as the amniotic fluid that surrounds babies in the mother's uterus. It's rich of vital hormones, growth factors, and antibodies that sustain your baby's growth and development. Thanks to a system controlled by artificial intelligence, each baby receives custom nutrients tailored to their needs. The second bioreactor is designed to eliminate any waste products produced by the babies. The artificial umbilical cord helps the babies to release their waste products into the second bioreactor. With the help of a delicate layer of engineered enzymes, the second bioreactor can then recycle waste products and turn them back into useful nutrients. This way, the facility ensures a steady and sustainable supply of fresh nutrients to your baby. With ecto life, miscarriage and low sperm count are a thing of the past prior to placing the fertilized embryo of your baby inside the growth pod. In vitro fertilization is used to create and select the most viable and genetically superior embryo, giving your baby a chance to develop without any biological hurdles. It's amazing them. It's amazing seeing them go through so much effort. This huge technological ar virtual reality baby with bio, what did they say? Biowaste and, and nuclear bioreactors and all of this, like AI, techno, you know, what does all of this? A human woman, a human woman's body does literally every single piece of this. It monitors them. It gives them the infor, it gives them the nutrients they need. It, it, it protects them with the am am like it. It does all of that. It already does that. The umbilical cord does not need to be artificial. We already have all of these things taken care of. Thank you. Evolution. Thank you Earth. Thank you God, for creating women, real actual women who can make babies without a Biore react. Just seeing the, the, the, the lengths that they're willing to go to strip us from our humanity is incredible. And if you want your baby to stand out and have a brighter future, our elite package offers you the opportunity to genetically engineer the embryo before implanting it into the artificial womb. Thanks to CRISPR Cas nine gene editing tool, you can edit any trade of your baby through a wide range of over 300 by genetically engineering a set of jeans. The elite package allows you to customize your baby's eye color, hair color, skin tone, physical strength, height, and level of intelligence. It also allows you to fix any inherited genetic diseases that are part of your family history, so that your baby and their offspring will live a healthy, comfortable life free of genetic diseases. Hold it, look and push. Say goodbye to the pain of childbirth and birth related muscle contractions. Ecto Life provides you a safe, pain-free alternative that helps you deliver your baby without stress. The delivery process is smooth, convenient, and can be done with just a push of a button. After discharging the amniotic fluid from the artificial womb, you'll be able to easily remove your baby from the Growth pod. Everything is perfectly designed so you and your partner can enjoy the delivery process. To ensure full transparency, our post delivery free d n paternity test helps you confirm the genetic identity of your baby so you can return home knowing that your baby is genetically yours. You don't have to worry about power cuts or carbon footprint. Ecto life uses, highly efficient, been sitting here with my mouth open this entire time. Their premium package. Choose your baby's eye color and their hair color, and their intelligence and their genital size. With our premium 2.0 package that only costs you an additional 1.7 million. Where does the, where do we step in and just draw the line? How do, how do we wave our hands at science and go, no, thank you. Don't want this one. Let's pass it as humanity. Like we're allowing a, a subsection of culture, of humanity, of humans to determine the evolutionary trajectory of our species without the consent of. What is it? 0.03% of people 0.0 0, 0, 0, 0 0, 0 1% of people have anything to do with this type of scientific, uh, research. And then as a much smaller percentage have anything to do with the, the, the actual enacting of this type of thing. And we're going to allow them to genetically modify babies and test tubes so that you can pick its eye color, like it's a tomagotchi. Like wh where, when do we get a say and, and, and how do we do, do we wave our hands? Do we gotta go back and, and give the, the, the nerds a swirly again  to tell 'em this is not okay. Like, wh wh where, where do we get our. How do we get to say no? As a human species, we draw the line at genetically modifying babies in test tubes without human intervention because we have no idea at all what the implications are of this technology at all. Clean, renewable energy consisting of solar and wind power. The highly advanced pods operate with minimal energy needs, making it easy for your baby to make it to full term without any complications. And for those who want a more convenient solution, ecto life is made accessible so your life can be easier. Thanks to our miniaturized, bioreactors, and long-lasting batteries, you can use ecto life growth pods at the comfort of your home, allowing you to incubate your baby in your building without the need to visit our factory. By owning your special growth pod, you will have the ability to build a happy family, one baby at a time away from any birth complications. The concept of Ecto life facility was designed by bio technologist and science communicator Hasha Melley. It relies on groundbreaking research work that has been conducted by scientists and engineers since 1950s. Tired of waiting for a response from an adoption agency. It's also weird how there's, so there's a few very slight but significant gramer issues in the reading of this script here since 1950s is not a proper sentence. So the amount of money that they spent on this for them to have grammatical errors in their scripting for how this woman is reading this is, is kind of bizarre to me. Since technology that was being developed since 1950s, since the 1950s, I don't know, just seems off to me that such a large production would have misspoken sentences, like wrong scripting that was put out as a result of this. And they even said, you could take this to your home. Like just don't come to our baby factory to get your baby. We're gonna put the baby growth encapsulated directly next to your bed so you can grow a baby. Just like you can grow a monster plant . Like, uh, this is just, I don't even know how to feel. I do know how to feel about it. I'm, I'm appalled. This is the most disturbing thing I have come across in my entire. The fact that we are even contemplating this, the fact that we are even allowing this, the fact that this is not a explosion of outcry regarding this, this disgusting technology that is being unveiled as a baby factory. How many baby factories do you think there are already around the world? And what is gonna happen when there's a baby factory in, in the but underneath Epstein Island, just pumping out babies to be whatever in the world they wanna do with them, where they can even genetically modify that baby to be unbelievably beautiful and intelligent or stupid, completely unsent. , but you have a, a, a 10 model, Victoria's secret model, uh, human that comes out of this without even the ability to speak or think for themselves or with very high levels of agreeableness and very low levels of muscular strength. Like all of the, all of the things that come into play with this. And imagine the world where a government only allows you to do this through their technology and what are they gonna do to this baby to be able to track it moving forward. What if, what if the government's going to ban women getting pregnant and having babies at home? And all you, the only way that you get to allow to have a baby, which again, is already happening in China, where they don't want you to have a boy or a girl. And if you have a girl like you, get one or two babies. And if you have more than that, it was literally they would come knock on your door and take your baby from you. So it's not outside the realm of possibility that a government would intervene in, in the, the, the. The outcome of reproduction. It's already happening. So we're already moving towards this. And, and what about a world where a government only allows you to go through their system to have your baby and every one of those babies that they put out, when the back round algorithm of whatever AI technology is giving your child's sentience in this little test tube that is not from the universe or God, they just, you know, ratchet up a little bit more agreeableness, they ratchet up a little bit more, uh, I don't know, naivety, they ratchet down a little bit more of the, uh, I don't know, um, ability to think for yourself. And they ratchet down depending on what your income level is or your personal intelligence or your social, I, your, your social credit score determines what type of baby you can have. What if that happens? And the, the government is telling you, oh, well, you only have a, a, a four 20 social credit score out of 800. So you don't, you don't, you get an ugly baby that's stupid is under six or is under five six and can barely speak for themselves. That's the only type of baby that you want. But it's the only bit's, the only baby you can get because if you have a baby yourself, we're gonna come grab it from you because it's not an agreeable Americanized test tube baby that you had to pay a hundred thousand dollars for over a loan period for the rest of your life to have a baby. There's a really interesting place that our humanity goes, and by interesting, I mean completely dystopian as a result of this technology being rolled out. If it's even real, and I'm sure it is just based on what we know already they were doing with the chimeras and all, all of this, this, this weird cloning and all of the things that have been going around in the background. So, and, and then there's even like arguments being done based on this that's trying to argue this use case. How disgusting. Now there's an article that comes from science in stuff.com/ecto life dash artificial dash wombs. And you can read a little bit more about this. I will let you do your own research. That is my, that's my thoughts on it. This is disgusting. It's hyper concerning. Um, you know, just looking at this. A brave new world. No, no, a dystopia where you don't have access to children unless you go through the AI algorithms that are being implanted into your children's brain at. , which you have no control over, and they're designing your baby around your social credit score. You know, whatever level of your social credit score, which is really just your level of agreeableness to the government, allows you which type of baby that you get. Do you get a smart one or you get a dumb one? Do you get a pretty one? Or you get a stupid one? You get a tall one or you get a short one, you get an athletic one, or you get a, a weak ass little baby  and it's all based off how, what, what type of that mean tweet that you said about Joe Biden calling him old now. Now you can't have blonde hair, you can only have brown hair and then all of a sudden you, you spoke up about XII and ping and now you can only have red hair  and super, super white pasty skin. Uh, nothing against red-haired, pasty skin people. I'm, I'm pretty close to you. Um, , you can see where this goes. And, and really you can't see where this goes, but you can see how dark it can get, whether it's human trafficking, whether it's social credit, score based babies, whether it's, uh, all of these horrific ideas come to mind, and this is just scratching the surface is what is gonna be the result of this. Totalitarian governments are only allowing you to go through their technologies which have embedded within these children certain qualities that make them good citizens instead of self thinking individuals. So have a baby while you can guys, , have a baby while you can with the same jeans and eye color and hair color and intelligence and athleticism that the good Lord and universe intended for you. And on that note, Thank you guys so much for listening. I appreciate you so much from the bottom of my heart. Head over to Red pill revolution.co and leave a five star review wherever you're at right now. Um, whether you're on Spotify, apple Podcasts, Google Podcast, I don't think anybody uses that, but wherever you are, leave a five star review. Hit the subscribe button, go follow us on YouTube. I have a new Instagram, well, it's my old one, but it's the backup that's doing pretty well right now. Go follow it. The Austin J. Adams on Instagram. Uh, truth social is Red Pill Revolt, a primary account, red Pill Revolt. And that's all I got. All right. Thank you guys so much for listening. If you'd like to donate and help fuel the Revolution, help uh, me to continue the work that I am doing here. 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Today US Department of Energy Secretary Granholm announced a nuclear fusion breakthrough at Livermore Labs. However, this doesn't necessarily mean we're going to be getting commercially viable fusion reactors anytime soon. Economist Eli Dourado wrote in a piece today: “Nuclear fusion has long been hailed as the next great energy source, capable of providing nearly limitless power without the harmful emissions and waste associated with other forms of energy generation. This week, the National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory announced that it had achieved “ignition,” which occurs when the energy output from plasma in a fusion reactor exceeds the energy put into the plasma. With continued investment from government and the private sector, we are likely to see many such scientific milestones reached in the next few years.   it is important to be wary. Many of these milestones have little bearing on the commercial viability of nuclear fusion. Despite the press releases, the National Ignition Facility conducts weapons tests, not clean-energy research. There is no realistic path from the kind of fusion being celebrated this week to any sort of commercial project. To a lesser extent, that may also be true of progress that we're seeing in other fusion projects, even commercial ones.” In the 1970s, many thought we were only a few years away from fusion, but here we are today still burning oil, gas and coal. To explore why, I wanted to repost a fantastic episode of a podcast from a friend of the show. Ben Reinhardt is the host of the Idea Machines podcast, a show that explores innovation systems from history and today. In this episode, Ben interviews Stephen Dean, who was present at the creation of America's investment in fusion in the mid-70s and has been working in the space ever since. It's a fascinating exploration of how government-funded science can fail us. Ben Reinhardt is also the creator of PARPA, a private sector DARPA aiming to “unlock robust technology to open new frontiers” which you can check out at parpa.org. This show was recorded in 2021. Here's the link to the plan discussed in the podcast: https://fire.pppl.gov/us_fusion_plan_1976.pdf Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

El Laboratorio Nacional de Ignición (National Ignition Facility) en los Estados Unidos reporta que ha conseguido generar una cantidad neta positiva de energía por fusión nuclear. Gracias por sus comentarios, interacciones, apoyo económico y suscripción. Escuche y descargue gratuitamente en MP3 2022/12/12 Fusión Nuclear Energía Positiva. Gracias por su apoyo a El Explicador en: Patreon, https://www.patreon.com/elexplicador_enriqueganem PayPal, elexplicadorpatrocinio@gmail.com SoundCloud, https://soundcloud.com/el-explicador Spotify, https://open.spotify.com/show/01PwWfs1wV9JrXWGQ2MrbY iTunes, https://podcasts.apple.com/mx/podcast/el-explicador-sitio-oficial/id1562019070 Amazon Music, https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/f2656899-46c8-4d0b-85ef-390aaf20f366/el-explicador-sitio-oficial YouTube, https://youtube.com/c/ElExplicadorSitioOficial Twitter @enrique_ganem Lo invitamos a suscribirse a estas redes para recibir avisos de nuestras publicaciones y visitar nuestra página http://www.elexplicador.net. En el título de nuestros trabajos aparece la fecha año/mes/día de grabación, lo que facilita su consulta cronológica, ya sabe usted que el conocimiento cambia a lo largo del tiempo. Siempre leemos sus comentarios, no tenemos tiempo para reponder a cada uno personalmente pero todos son leídos y tomados en cuenta. Este es un espacio de divulgación científica en el que nos interesa informar de forma clara y amena, que le invite a Ud. a investigar sobre los temas tratados y a que Ud. forme su propia opinión. Serán borrados todos los comentarios que promuevan la desinformación, charlatanería, odio, bullying, violencia verbal o incluyan enlaces a páginas que no sean de revistas científicas arbitradas, que sean ofensivos hacia cualquier persona o promuevan alguna tendencia política o religiosa ya sea en el comentario o en la fotografía de perfil. Aclaramos que no somos apolíticos, nos reservamos el derecho de no expresar nuestra opinión política, ya que éste es un canal cuya finalidad es la divulgación científica. ¡Gracias por su preferencia!

The U.S. Department of Energy and the DOE's National Security Administration announced today that "fusion ignition" had been achieved on December 5, 2022, at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. They are calling it the "scientific energy breakeven" - when more energy is produced from fusion than from the laser energy used to drive the experiment. Carried out at the National Ignition Facility, "LLNL'S experiment surpassed the fusion thresh-hold by delivering 2.05 megajoules (MJ) of energy to the target, resulting in 3.15 MJ of fusion energy output..." Touted as a breakthrough in "clean fusion energy" the DOE says it is progress towards a "net-zero carbon economy" using a process of "inertial confinement fusion", whereby a tiny pellet of hydrogen plasma is bombarded with lasers. It has also been referred to as a ‘Holy Grail' able to provide unlimited clean energy, giving the achievement a mystical element akin to the climate activist who smashed tablets on Mt. Sinai recently. Realistically though it may take up to several decades before the fusion reaction results could be scaled upward and used to replace all current forms of energy. If such an achievement has actually be reached and unlimited clean energy with no carbon and no radioactive waste can be developed within a few decades then the world is about to change dramatically with only a little hydrogen fuel able to power cars, houses, etc., for hundreds of years. However, despite the DOE's announcement, the media has reminded us that we should not forget about Climate Change and green technology. The DOE also said the technology would be implemented equitably with a diverse and inclusive workforce. Does this means psychotic, mentally-ill, thieves like Sam Brinton, formerly at the DOE's Office of Nuclear Energy, will be in charge? According the Kardashev scale of energy consumption, harnessing the power of a star, as we now may be able to do, elevates us from a Type I civilization, one harnessing the power of a planet, to a Type II civilization. In other words, a civilization changing advancement, in league with China's artificial sun which achieved 17 minutes of sustained fusion in late 2021-2022, is been reduced to political correctness, with the credit largely being given to a man with dementia in the White House. It's almost as if limitless fusion-generate energy with no byproduct could be a sophisticated form of propaganda to rejuvenate us to investing in the green new deal. What about the dangers of proliferation and of the implications that man could hold the power of a sun in the palm of his hand, thereby becoming God? Ironically, on December 2, the US Air Force unveiled the B-21 Raider, its first new bomber in over 30 years, designed to use weapons that haven't been invented yet. Beyond that is the concern over proliferation, as we have been warned about for decades in cartoons, comics, movies, and television shows. From Spiderman and Batman to the video games Fallout and old animated movies like Atlantis, we have fictional warnings about clean energy, usually nuclear, turned into a weapon. In the Twilight Zone aliens offer unlimited energy to help cure disease and climate problem, but only with 'To Serve Man' for dinner. Beyond the scientific is the occult, with the Livermore experiment being referred to as the 'Holy Grail' - an object that has an ability to touch God and heal the Planet. This is a process of alchemical transformation at its core, turning a little into abundance like Jesus with 5 loaves and 2 fish. It also has the ability to call upon advanced life in the universe, especially as 2022 marks the 75th anniversary of Roswell, an even that occurred just a few years after the first atomic bombs detonated.Here we are tapping into other worlds with fusion and quantum computers, intentionally or unintentionally opening gateways as we merge heaven and earth with the power of the sun in the palm of our hands.

Today US Department of Energy Secretary Granholm announced a nuclear fusion breakthrough at Livermore Labs. However, this doesn't necessarily mean we're going to be getting commercially viable fusion reactors anytime soon. Economist Eli Dourado wrote in a piece today: “Nuclear fusion has long been hailed as the next great energy source, capable of providing nearly limitless power without the harmful emissions and waste associated with other forms of energy generation. This week, the National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory announced that it had achieved “ignition,” which occurs when the energy output from plasma in a fusion reactor exceeds the energy put into the plasma. With continued investment from government and the private sector, we are likely to see many such scientific milestones reached in the next few years.   it is important to be wary. Many of these milestones have little bearing on the commercial viability of nuclear fusion. Despite the press releases, the National Ignition Facility conducts weapons tests, not clean-energy research. There is no realistic path from the kind of fusion being celebrated this week to any sort of commercial project. To a lesser extent, that may also be true of progress that we're seeing in other fusion projects, even commercial ones.” In the 1970s, many thought we were only a few years away from fusion, but here we are today still burning oil, gas and coal. To explore why, I wanted to repost a fantastic episode of a podcast from a friend of the show. Ben Reinhardt is the host of the Idea Machines podcast, a show that explores innovation systems from history and today. In this episode, Ben interviews Stephen Dean, who was present at the creation of America's investment in fusion in the mid-70s and has been working in the space ever since. It's a fascinating exploration of how government-funded science can fail us. Ben Reinhardt is also the creator of PARPA, a private sector DARPA aiming to “unlock robust technology to open new frontiers” which you can check out at parpa.org. This show was recorded in 2021. Here's the link to the plan discussed in the podcast: https://fire.pppl.gov/us_fusion_plan_1976.pdf Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced founder and former CEO of crypto company FTX, has been arrested in the Bahamas and charged by federal officials with eight counts of fraud, conspiracy, campaign finance law violations and money laundering.  He is being accused of funneling customer money into his hedge fund to make investments and loans to himself.  About $8 billion in client funds have gone missing with only $1 billion being recovered.  The difficulty there is that there was no adequate record-keeping as it was found out the multibillion-dollar company was using QuickBooks.  Dan Primack, business editor at Axios, joins us for what to know.   Next, a significant breakthrough when it comes to fusion energy, something that could one-day provide us with unlimited clean power.  Researchers at the National Ignition Facility were able to achieve what is called ignition, getting more energy out of a reaction than what they put in.  The team fired 192 laser beams at a small fuel pellet and produced a small amount of net gain energy.  While this is an important step in proof-of-concept of the science, it is still a long time away from being a commercially viable energy source.  The lasers and equipment used would have to be drastically upgraded to produce more energy.  Umair Irfan, senior correspondent at Vox, joins us for this fusion energy breakthrough.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Department of Energy's National Ignition Facility has achieved an important step toward the goal of generating unlimited clean energy.

The Department of Energy's National Ignition Facility has achieved an important step toward the goal of generating unlimited clean energy.

A net energy gain for fusion in a lab is a landmark scientific achievement but we're decades away from commercialization according to experts. We have to decarbonize the planet by 2050. Will fusion energy contribute? Utility solar farm that lays the panels flat on the ground is commissioned. The Salton Sea in California could provide all the United States lithium needs and then some (CNBC video link). And it could be the greenest lithium in the world. The Keystone pipeline spills its wares all over Kansas. Will traditional nuclear energy be effective to reach our climate goals? A study casts shade on that idea. 17:36 - The fusion breakthrough in California. What it doesn't mean for the race to net zero and what it does mean for our grandchildren. Free New York Times article on this. As well we'll have stories on Canada cancelling fossil fuel subsidies, sorta,  an update on the people shooting at a power substation causing blackouts, sails for cargo ships, people who hate wind turbines are more likely to think the moon landing was fake, plus a new study on traditional nuclear helping or not helping the fight against global warming, and much more! A listener in Virginia asks us about a proposed new community solar farm near him and how he should deal with the misinformation floating around. Buy us a cup of coffee with PayPal Donate! or e-transfer to cleanenergyshow@gmail.com Thanks for listening to our show! Consider rating The Clean Energy Show on iTunes, Spotify or wherever you listen to our show. Follow us on TikTok! @cleanenergypod Our YouTube Channel! @CleanEnergyShow Your hosts: James Whittingham https://twitter.com/jewhittingham Brian Stockton: https://twitter.com/brianstockton Email us at cleanenergyshow@gmail.com Leave us an online voicemail at http://speakpipe.com/cleanenergyshow See you next week! Transcript Clip: Simply put, this is one of the most impressive scientific feats of the 21st century. Brian: Hello, and welcome to episode 143 of the Clean Energy Show. I'm Brian Stockton. I'm James Whittingham. This week fusion breakthrough, all clean energy needs have been met. This podcast is no longer necessary a go. Listen to Joe Rogan. Oh, wait. I'm hearing in my ear that people are overreacting to this. News and commercialization is still decades away. The world's first utility scale solar project is going ahead. With solar panels sitting flat on the ground, these green energy hippies were just too lazy to put them up on a proper mount. The salt and sea in California apparently has more lithium than Nevada's. Lake Mead has dead bodies. Some think there's enough lithium to power the entire United States. And then some. Huge congratulations to TC Energy's keystone pipeline that has successfully leaked more oil than any other pipeline since 2010. Wait, I'm being told that's a bad day as well. We have stories on Canada canceling fossil fuel subsidies. While sort of an update on people shooting at power stations sales for cargo ships, people who hate wind turbines, and more are more likely to think that the moon landing was fake. Plus, a new study on traditional nuclear helping or not helping the fight against global warming, and much more on this week's edition of The Clean Energy Show. Yeah, so first up for me is an update. As you know, I'm trying to get rid of fossil fuels in my own house because I love the planet, and I don't want to burn any more fossil fuels than I have good fuel. So made a little bit of progress. Been speaking to a contractor who could put in an Arctic type air source heat pump so I can get rid of my natural gas furnace. And the latest update is that it's 16 weeks from when you order it because there's a backlog four months and they want you to pay upfront. Oh, you got to pay upfront. You got to pay up front. Yeah. So the point being this week, because we talked about these kinds of subsidies upfront 100%, right? You got to pay 100% upfront. Why is heat pump and then wait 16 weeks? Because there's just huge demand for them, which is basically what's going on all over the world. Like, there's a couple of stories here. I've got one from Clean Technica. The title is Heat Pumps Are on Fire globally. They mean, as in getting more popular, heat pump sales rose 15% in 2021, and they're expecting for something similar or greater this coming year. Europe. They rose by 35% in 2021. And of course, they're very much trying to get off of Russian gas in Europe. And heat pumps is definitely one of the ways to do it. And there's another story here from China. China is actually the world leader on heat pump adoption. Of course, they have a very large population. They do things big in China when they, when they do them. So sales are up 35% in Europe and 45% in China for heat pumps. So I bring this all up because we were talking in the last couple of weeks about subsidies that are available for things like heat pumps. So I'm in the Greener Homes Grant in Canada, so I should get about $5,000 to help offset this cost. In the US is the Inflation Reduction Act, and starting in January, there's going to be subsidies for people to do things like put in heat pumps and other kind of energy upgrades. But I wanted to tell our listeners because there is going to be a global shortage of heat pumps. So if it's something you're thinking of doing, start talking to somebody now and maybe beat the rush, because there's definitely going to be a rush in January in the US. Can a person invest in a heat pump company? I mean, is there anybody who's on the stock market that would make a good investment? Not that I'm aware of, but I'm going to make a note of that and check later because yeah, that's probably a smart idea. Well, get back to us. I'd be curious to know. And then certainly anyone who makes effective, the most cost effective heat pump and maybe the most efficient heat pump, they're going to win the game, especially if they patent that technology. So, I mean, keep an eye on developments there because they are. Sure, yeah, no, there's two things like the cost of the unit and then the efficiency of the unit. Generally speaking, you're going to kind of be paying more upfront, which is the common refrain here on the clean energy show. You're probably going to be paying more upfront for the equipment, but it will be hopefully cheaper in the long run. It's a bit of a weird equation where we live because in this ridiculous frigid place and our natural gas prices are still quite good. Our natural gas is still fairly cheap here. So I'm not necessarily going to be saving money right away by doing this. It's more of a long term gambit and I just want to get the gas out of my house. Yeah, I was going to say paying for it up front. You'd run the risk of them going out of business. But then they're not going to go out of business, are they? The chances are I don't think so because it would be terribly wrong for a heat pump company to go out of business us at this point. Yeah, I suppose the contractor could go out of business, but it should be fine. Well, we'll talk more about that as we go along because heat pumps are the new thing, even where we live, apparently. We're certainly going to monitor if you freeze into a Popsicle or not after you get your heat pump because we get down to -40 here as we talk about our electric vehicles. It's much more of a no brainer if you're on the west coast or on the east coast of Canada or pretty much anywhere in the world where people live. Pretty much anywhere in the world. It's just our ridiculous climate. And just coincidentally, we have fairly decent natural gas prices. By the way, we're still looking for clean energy show property in Hawaii, if you have any. Yeah, please. Anyway, Brian, I want to say thank you to our donors because we've had big donations to the show. Not just donations, which are humbling enough, but big ones. And thank you to the people who have done that. One person chose to do an email transfer, an e transfer, rather via email, because they didn't want to lose any fees and make the most of their donations that did that, and it worked out nicely. So thank you to everyone. I won't name you because you didn't say you could be named, but you know who you are. We appreciate you greatly. Thank you. Thank you very much for your donations. This is an independent production. We've been doing it for over two years now. And we do it because we love the show and we love the planet. But it's also nice to get some money and so James can get a new toaster. I guess we're approaching our third year pretty quick. Before you know it'll be three years. My goodness. That's right, we're coming up on three. Say, did you happen to see Saturday Night Live, the comedy live comedy show in North America? Here I saw part of it was Steve Martin and Steve Martin, I saw part of it they were doing in the opening monologue, which I thought was quite well done, they were doing each other's eulogies. They had pretended to have written each other's eulogies. And this is Steve Martin reading from his eulogy that he had prepared pre death for Martin short, his friend. But I would always be haunted by Marty's last words, tesla Autopilot engaged. I thought that was funny, so I played it on the show. My son, he's been nagging me just before Showtime today, this big fusion announcement. I was waiting to hear from him on this because he's one of these people, these silver bullet people, which is almost everyone. It's probably 99% of the people listen to our show. I'm sorry, but everybody has this silver bullet where it's a pet of theirs, an energy pet. Yeah, whether it's nuclear as a whole, some people, or do that. And then there's nuclear fusion, which has been talked about. I mean, I learned about nuclear fusion from my hairdresser 25 years ago. He's like, oh, it's coming quick, it's coming quick. And you know, that's going to be the thing that's going to solve this whole problem. And of course, a lot of people believe that, and there's nothing wrong with that. I mean, it's been frustratingly long to get to the achievement that we're going to talk about shortly after we update some other stories. But he says this, my first text from my son after the announcement is, oh God, you're going to hate this. So right away he's assuming that I'm going to be upset by this because I've been telling them, arguing with him about nuclear, that you can't compete on cost. And he says the first fusion reactor has been built that produces more energy than it consumes. And later on, after a bunch of bickering and quotes and articles sent back and forth, he said, you said solar would be so cheap that it would be even cheaper than fusion, even down the line. And I was actually quite excited about this announcement on a personal level. I spent the better part of a week researching and digging into this so that I could talk about it on the show this week and have my facts straight. Well, it turns out I was right. Not to spoil the story, but I'm afraid I was right that it is going to be very expensive. I'll get to it later, okay. But it's not going to happen quickly and it's not going to happen cheaply. And the people who made the announcement are the people saying that. So it's not me poopoo nuclear. I am, however, quite excited on a personal level that my kids generation and my grandkids generation will have power that won't have to deal with nuclear waste. It'll be completely safe and completely it's a wonderful technology that has very few caveats of any I mean it's just aside from expense and not being developed yet into a power plant. But yeah, we'll talk about that later. Those substations, I keep seeing them in the news when I'm flipping through the channels. It's turning into a big story. The shooting of the substations. Yeah. So we talked about this probably last week where in North Carolina there was a shooting attack on an electrical substation and 30, 40,000 people were without power for almost a week. Then a few days after that, news of gunfire near the Duke energy facility in South Carolina. Now it seems like probably nothing happened with that one. There were some shots heard, no power outages. But there's a great article on NPR about this. North Carolina attacks highlight the vulnerability of power grids. So here's the thing. There's 55,000 electrical substations around the US. And most of them are kind of vulnerable. These things are liquid cooled. This is the main kind of danger. They're liquid cooled so you can take a rifle shoot into them and then all the liquid drains out and then they overheat and then they fail. Probably the whole thing fails. And I'm guessing it's not just one component, not one capacitor or one individual component. The whole thing has to be replaced. We shouldn't be telling people this, but it is the dues and some of them have been over the years sort of fortified, like put up like brick walls and stuff. Is that right? I didn't know that. But there's 55,000 of them, and they're not going to be particularly well protected, of course. Yeah, it's a concern. I mean, it's maybe not something we should be worried about yet, but I don't know. Who knows? Well, if somebody decided to get organized and attack on a coordinated basis, I mean, a week long power outage for tens of thousands of people is nothing to sneeze at. And it sounded like it was awfully easy to do with. I wonder if they had the knowledge of what they were doing or if it was just they were shot at it and got lucky and just got lucky. I'm not sure. I mean, presumably they knew. I mean, it's this issue of the cooling liquid leaking out. Well, let's hope it was a disgruntled power employee and not somebody who knows what they're doing and trying to disrupt the United States. People talking about on television experts saying that you can't really protect the power, it's just not going to happen. You have to find the people doing it and then get to it that way. I mean, you could put up more barriers, and some of them do have brick walls around them or whatever, but it seems unlikely. I mean, if it turns into a bigger problem, then perhaps there'll be a mass deployment of walls. Not at the moment. And one of the problems that I keep seeing mentioned is that a lot of these stations, they want to be away from people. People don't want to look at them. So they're kind of isolated. In fact, some of them are extremely isolated. They're very remote in rural areas, not near populations. Yeah. So ground mount solar. I know that you brought this up on the show several months ago. This is the idea of putting solar panels just completely flat on the ground without any hardware or panels really at all. Yeah, they're just connected together somehow. So you level the ground first. You probably have to level it, make a nice, smooth, level chunk of land, and you probably have to make us sort of like drainage ditches and stuff like that. So we have one now that's coming online in Texas. And this is 100 MW. This is a decent sized solar project. Ten times what we have here where we live. They're making 10 MW here, and it's just a normal one on regular mounts. This is 100 MW. This story is from Electric, and it will be the only utility scale solar farm that is mounted flat so far to date. There's many advantages to this, but one of them is just that you can put more panels in the same kind of area. That's right, because you're basically just sticking them up right next to each other. So if you're in an area where land is an issue, and you don't quite have enough land for this stuff. Now, of course, there's downsides to that, too. Like you don't get the advantage of the angle of the sun. But as we talk about frequently on the show, the whole solar system will eventually be so overbuilt that those kinds of issues aren't that big a deal. But one of the biggest benefits of this, as near as I can tell, is they can just basically they throw a roomba on this thing to keep it clean. But that's also one of the challenges, Brian, is the fact that they get dirtier because they just sit there. There's not as much of runoff. But then at the same time, the solution to that problem works quite well. You say it's dirt cheap. The robot can clean up to 2 solar every day. So the robot can just kind of run continuously, like Arumba runs in people's houses. So every 50 days it starts over. The rough cost to clean a tracker plant one time is fifty cents per kilowatt hour. This is a plant where they're mounted normally fifty cents per kilowatt hour per kilowatt. And these panels can be cleaned for a year at wow, very interesting. So you would save money. Hardware is not cheap. But the solar panels that I saw here, they track, they're on Movable, tracking things that track the sun east to west. And of course, Texas is a lot farther south. That's going to yeah, we're not in the far north of Canada. We're in southern Canada, but that's still quite far north. So if we had flat panels here, the winter production would be pretty abysmal. Yeah, I don't think it makes sense. I said it last time, I don't think it makes sense in winter climates. Although I'm sure they could develop robots for cleaning snow if they had to. But I think it also just works better where we are. And the more northern you are, even northern half of the United States, it's going to make more sense to actually tilt them towards the sun, perhaps. I assume economically it makes more sense. Yeah. Obviously Texas is a lot further south, so the angle of the sun is not as big a deal in the winter. So yeah, there you go. News from here in Canada against Canada had made a pledge some time ago to stop subsidizing fossil fuel projects abroad outside of Canada. So the good news is that Canada has decided to stop any subsidies that would go to fossil fuel projects outside of Canada. The bad news is they haven't canceled those projects here at home yet. They haven't canceled those subsidies in Canada. But what can I say? It's progress of a kind. This was a pledge that Canada had made last year, and there was a deadline at the end of this year. They said, okay, we're going to do it by the end of 2022. So at the last minute, they have pulled it out and made that announcement. But this is typical of the progress that's happening right now in clean energy, is that governments are just not moving fast enough. But at least they're moving. I wish they'd done it with inside the borders. I mean, we're at a pretty critical time here, climate wise. It'd be nice if they get on that. Yeah. Canada is a fossil fuel country. It is a big part of our economy. So, of course they're worried about killing the economy and that's why they haven't done it here at home. But it's coming someday, I guess. This is the Clean Energy show with Brian Stockton and James Whittingham. Well, this was a very successful scientific experiment done in a laboratory to show that the process of fusion can be duplicated here on the Earth and that they can get more energy out of it than they put into it. But let me say that the way they did it in this National Ignition Facility is not the way we're going to be generating electricity. This was to study the process of fusion itself and study the lasers, the incredible lasers that they use to generate the power. All right, it's time for full team coverage of the fusion breakthrough. Okay. The advancement by Lawrence Livermore national Laboratory researchers will be built on to further develop fusion energy research. So this is a laboratory milestone, one that has been sought after for decades. Brian and from an environmental perspective, fusion has always had a strong appeal because it's not dangerous. It's different than fission, which is your normal nuclear power. Fusion combines atoms rather than splits them. Right. It puts them together. But it's very interesting and it's just hard to do. And they haven't achieved a net energy gain, so it takes a lot of energy to create particles, atoms that want to fuse together. It's hotter than the inside area of the sun. The center of the sun. Yeah. Well, I watched the YouTube channel. The Cleo abram YouTube channel. Huge if true, is sort of the name of the series. And a couple of YouTubers did you watch that? A couple of YouTubers built a fusion reactor in a garage. Did they? And it worked. But the key is they did not get more energy out than they put in. And this has been the problem with fusion for all these years. Takes a huge amount of energy, and they're not getting even that amount of energy out of it. Until now, billions of dollars from governments around the world have been put into this, and this is the first time that it's happened. I guess they got out 1.5 times the energy that they put in, using the world's most powerful laser to do this. There is always a nagging caveat, however, with this, and in that all of its efforts by scientists to control the unruly power of fusion, their experiments consume more energy than what was going in. But that changed. Brian. According to the New York Times, at on December 5, when 192 giant lasers at the laboratory's national ignition facility busted a small cylinder about the size of a pencil eraser that contained a frozen newbin of hydrogen. Do you have any frozen new bins of hydrogen laying around the house? Probably not. Let me check. The freezer encased in diamond. So that makes it even more rare. Well, that sounds totally practical. Well, that's what they did, and that's kind of yeah, it's a long story, but that's what they did. They used all these lasers to get to that. And in a brief moment, lasting less than 100,000,000,000,000th of a second 205 pardon me, 2.5 megajoules of energy, roughly the equivalent of a pound of TNT, I think. The Sneeze At bombarded, the hydrogen pellet out of flowed from that pellet a flood of neutron particles, the product of fusion. See, when you put things, when you put particles together, they create energy. When you take them apart, they create energy. Which carried about three megajoules of energy, a factor of 1.5. Yeah. And basically, this is how the sun works. The sun is like fusion energy is as near as I understand it. That's correct. And obviously, the sun is producing endless amounts of energy for free. It's doing a hell of a job. So the solar panels on our roof are technically fusion. Yeah, technically, wind is technically solar because you need the sun to create wind because it's the energy differences that create wind. So some people like to call wind power solar power, and now we can call it fusion. I don't know if you want to so does Tuesday's announcement mean we'll have cheap fusion energy soon? A lot of people, such as my uppity son, would say yes. They assume, oh, it's a breakthrough. They'll start manufacturing tomorrow. A couple of years from now, we'll see solar panels going to the landfill. Yeah, well, it's taken them, what, 50 years to get this far? Well, the answer is no. According to the New York Times. Okay, so even if scientists figure out how to generate bigger bursts of fusion, immense engineering hurdles would remain. Experiments have studied one burst at a time, basically. So a practical fusion power plant using this concept would require a machine gun pace of laser bursts with new hydrogen targets sliding into place for each burst. That's the challenge. They're using magnets and magnetism to float things and have a continuous repeating chain. There's three different ways of approaches to fusion power, and this is basically an experiment at a nuclear weapons facility. But there's a Canadian team working on something, too, and they're going to have a prototype power plant getting built in the UK. But it still doesn't mean that it's anywhere near decades away. So the torrents of neutrons flying outward from the fusion reactions would have to be converted into electricity. That's another challenge. Basically, the fact that they created more energy doesn't make a power plant. Okay, so the laser complex fills a building with a footprint equal to three football fields. So it's too big, too expensive, and too inefficient for a commercial power plant, at least right now. A manufacturing process to mass reduce the precise hydrogen targets would have to be developed. And that sounds to me nowhere near okay, let's put it into the contest. Grinders. Remember, we have to decarbonize the planet by 50% by 2030 and 100% by 2050. China, if you're listening, 2060 is not good enough, and we can do it. In fact, we have 80% of the technology available to 100% by 2030, I've read, if we wanted to. Yeah, but we choose not to. It's just things like heat pumps. Like, there's going to be a waiting list for my heat pump. We need to just crank up production of the existing technologies, win solar batteries and heat pumps. We just got to make enough of them and that's all we need. Yeah. My son doesn't think that the world is coming together and will reach those targets. I hope they do. I think they'll miss them. But at the same time, I think people underestimate the economics of clean energy from 2030 to 2050. Like, it's going to just erase at least as far as power generation goes. This is from Power magazine. They're on top of this, too. Tony Ralstone, a nuclear engineer at Cambridge University in the UK, told National Public Radio in the United States that unless more significant progress is made, fusion would be unlikely to have a major role in power generation for another 40 to 50 years. Yeah, that's too late. It's too late. It's too late for me, too. My kids might see it when they're my age or older. My grandkids might live in a world where a solar farm erected today would come down and be decommissioned in 30 years. And even then, it doesn't sound like it's going to be there. Okay, it could be, but it doesn't sound like it would be. Well, this is something we've talked about before, too, but there's so many super complicated energy systems that exist today, including things like nuclear. Like making a nuclear plant is just insanely complicated. Building an offshore floating oil platform to drill for oil, it's insanely complicated. And if solar, wind and batteries existed 50 years ago, we wouldn't have done any of these things. They're just too complicated and expensive when these cheaper alternatives exist. And that's kind of the problem is that solar and wind and batteries and geothermal and other things that exist and are getting cheaper make it less profitable for investment into stuff like this. Because there is going to be huge upfront costs to get the development there. And then you're going to have to really back the technology in order to get the prices down. So David Keith, climate expert, says fusion maybe but beware of the hype. I don't know the details, he says, but for what it's worth, my my first professional job was in Canada's National lab, working big lasers for fusion. And I have been interested since. Getting more energy out than went in. Into the laser is cool technical benchmark, but it has almost nothing to do with the practical requirements to make commercial power. That's what people don't realize. And you hear this silver bullet thing, I'm going to finish what he had to say, but they're just not looking at the whole picture, and maybe they're not hearing that one sentence. That caveat at the end of the interview, which is really important. Suppose one had a free supply of fusion reactions in Pellets. You could make competitive electricity? He asks. Hard. Getting cheap energy from neutrons is really hard. Even those neutrons, if they're free, it's really hard. And worse when it needs a high vacuum. So there's lots of just technical details that are hurdles, really. Yeah. Well, these YouTubers that made a fusion reactor in their garage yeah, like a vacuum is one of the big things for it. You got to suck all the air out and they blew a breaker on their wall and then they lost all the air, and then they had to suck all the air out again. It's still kind of cool that they made it and they sort of made it with these off the shelf parts. You know, it's a lot of fun. But yeah, it's just insanely complicated. It's it's it is a genuine breakthrough. Like, they got more energy out and people have been trying to do this for literally 50 years or more. So it's a huge breakthrough, but nowhere in your practice. But it's a slow churn towards commercialization, which is what we think of. Right. Another challenge is that it is as hot as the sun. So that stuff breaks down when you have something that has to contain something that hot and a vacuum in particular. So there's serious challenges here that I'm confident they'll work out. And I think that next century there will be no wind turbines or maybe even solar panels that will just have fusion at the end of this century, sometime maybe 60 years from now, when it's cheap and cheap enough to spread 70 years. I don't know. I think it is the future. It's just going to take a long sounds like it's going to take a long road to get there. So Bloomberg says this. It's still a long way from the breakthrough in California to building a fusion based power plant. Well, this experiment generated excess energy on a small scale. The industry needs to develop systems that can produce much more excess energy on a much larger scale. This is 1.5 brian. I heard ten X as kind of where they need to be, and that energy gain shows that the concept will work, but the systems are still. Complicated and expensive. The New York Times says this this is just taught off the press. This is after the announcement, which happened a little while ago on Tuesday morning. It says it will take quite a while before fusion becomes available on a widespread practical scale, if ever. Probably decades, said Kimberly S. Boodle, the director of the Lawrence Livermore facility where this announcement took place. The director herself is saying probably decades. So I'm not being a poopoo here. I'm not being a nuclear naysayer. This is from the horse's mouth, literally. Now, other people in the industry will say, well, we've moved along fast and it's going to be better than that, but it's certainly going to be decades. We might have something functioning next decade in some level, but it's not going to be commercially functioning that you can replicate and spread. Okay, this is what she said at the good news conference. Not six decades, I don't think, which is what most people used to say, I think not even five decades, which is what we used to say most often. So that sounds like 40 years. I think it's moving into the foreground, probably with concerted effort and investment. A few decades of research on the underlying technologies could put us in a position to build a power plant. Yet this is not around the corner. I'm sorry. I mean, I wish it was, but it's not. Most climate scientists and policymakers say that to achieve that goal of limiting warming to two degrees Celsius, or even the more ambitious target of 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming by 2050, the world must reach net zero emissions by then. And this, Brian, under any circumstance, doesn't seem like it's going to be any significant part of that. Even under the most ambitious optimistic scenario, we still have to rely on what we have. And what we have will become at least half as expensive in the next decade. So, Katherine Hale, this is the Canadian climate scientist. I'll just add this on here, she said on Twitter. Yes, it's a huge technological advance, and yes, it will help us long term, but no, it won't get us out of the climate crisis we're in today. The biggest invention we need right now, political and corporate. Will we need Canada to stop those fossil fuel subsidies not just abroad, but here at home as well. All right, I think this next story is the perfect one to go into because it's the exact opposite of what we're just talking about, the exact opposite of the incredibly complex world of fusion reactors. So this is a story from clean technica wind power to cut cargo ship emissions by 20%. So basically, what they're talking about doing, cargo ships take an enormous amount of fuel to ship stuff around the world. They're going to put wind sails on them. And you ever see, like, kiteboarding, is that what that's called? Or parasailing, where you can get on skis in the water, and you got a big sail in front of you to pull you along from your cottage. There are some parasailers at our cottage. It's a crazy sport, and I wish I could do it, but until it's passed me by anyway, they're going to do this on cargo ships. So this is the sea wing sale from a French company called Air Seat. Wait a minute. It's going to be like a parachute? It's like a parachute. Like, it's not like a sailing ship where you're putting up a sale, because I've seen pictures of hard sails put on ships, both new ships and retrofitting ships, and there's different rotating yeah, there's different rotating turbines that they've figured out for ships that kind of sit that look like a chimney. Oh, I'm looking at a picture right now. But yeah, it's like a parachute. And now I assume the caveat is you've got to have the wind at your back for this to work. What happens? The kite goes down? It looks like the ship is flying a giant kite. Yeah, the ship is flying a giant kite, but I imagine there's prevailing westerly winds out on the ocean. So if you're sailing west, just throw up your sail. Maybe they can't use it on the way back. Yes, this has been tested. It should cut emissions by 20%. Like, this is a thing, you know, wind power works. I'm kind of speechless. Like, this seems really cookie, to be honest with you. When you go and fly a kite, the kite twirls around, it goes down into the ground, and you have to send your kid to go throw it up in the air again. And then you know how that works? Well, you couldn't do that with this. It'd be go hit the water, and then you'd be like, oh, well, I guess we're done. I'm sure there's ways to people figure this out for parasailing, for kite surfing. Why can't they figure it out for ships? Well, you got a dude who's very skilled pulling that parasail at the right time to get it lifted up again, and you become very adept at that. But unless there's an automated AI system or something doing it, I don't know. But I mean, this is not the ocean. The ocean is a steady you're not looking at gusts on the ocean. I'm not an atmospheric expert for oceans, but I assume that it's less gusty, that it's just a blow. It flows regularly. Yeah, and they're not talking about powering the whole ship this way. It's a 20% reduction in emissions. This should help. So that's 20% reduction in the price that it takes to fuel those goods across the ocean, too. Yeah, fuel is super expensive, and you would save 20% of your costs. Yeah. Well, that's interesting. And maybe it would work with onboard sales as well. The ones that I was talking about. Brian, I wanted to talk to you about the sultan Sea. This is a place that I passed by in my big California trip a number of years ago. We went down to Calexico, which is right on the US. Border. There's a little town on the American side called Calexico. On the other side looks very different. It's called Mexicali, and it's kind of a cute thing. And of course, there's lots of drugs going on there, according to the shows I've watched on TV. Anyway, 40 miles north of the border, there's the Salt and Sea, which is this dead, salty lake bed. Okay? It's always been that way. And I guess in 1905, there was this overflowing of the Colorado River that overflowed some canals and filled it up partial way, I guess. It's it used to be much bigger, years and years, well, decades even, perhaps centuries ago, I don't know. But it filled up a little bit back then. And then it became like this popular resort in the 50s for like, Frank Sinatra and celebrities would all just go over there from La. And live in the saltwater. And there's all these remnants of this 1950s vacationy place left to look at when you go. It's a ghost town now, but there's lots of geothermal in the area. Okay? And what I didn't know, what I just learned today, is that it's got a lot of bad dust. So because it's geothermal, because the crust is between two tectonic plates, it's thin there. And so the water just sort of gurgles up the brine from the ground water, and it gurgles up because it's heated, and then it brings with it minerals, including lithium. And then the water dries and it just leaves the lithium behind. So this could be the cleanest, greenest lithium on the planet, they claim. And not only that, there's a lot of it. There could be enough to power the entire United States'lithium needs and then some. Yeah, of course, lithium being one of the key components in lithium ion batteries, which are kind of running the world right now. So, yeah, there's lots of dust, including arsenic dust, which is kicking up, so people trying not to even live there anymore. But there was this huge artist community. I mean, you're getting close to Coachella and places like that down there. Eleven geothermal plants producing 400 MW, which powers 350,000 homes worth just from geothermal. So there's actually a lot of geothermal plants there, probably the most in North America, I'd guess. The Earth's crust, like I said, is thin, so all this stuff gergles up. Now, usually at a geothermal plant, they would put the brine back into the ground. The water would come up, this hot brine, they take the energy out of it and transfer it to water to produce steam and then put it back in the ground. But what they're saying is it could be a cheap way, since they're bringing it up already, to just turn that into a lithium extraction. Right there at the geothermal plants or all of the eleven geothermal plants. Lithium mining is usually water intensive and leaves behind contaminants. And this bypasses those things. And there's a cool 15 minutes video that CNBC did. I put a link in your show notes for you to have a look at that. Just wanted to pass that along. And just some quick bad news. The bad news story of the week, the Keystone Pipeline. So this is one of the major oil pipelines that runs between Canada and the US. Massive leak in Kansas. So this is a company, TC Energy. Big controversy in Canada lately about expanding the Keystone Pipeline with kind of mixed results. But I think it's just important to remember that pipelines, it's probably a safer way to transport than by rail. There was a derailment near US not long ago with some oil on board that massive fire. But 26,000 barrels of oil since 2010 coming out of that pipeline. We'll be better off once we can stop doing that. Why a world without pipeline leaks or oil spills? Wouldn't that be something? All right. A nuclear study as a solution to global warming. This is something I want to talk about because it's from Stanford. They did a study and basically they said that in evaluating the solutions to global warming and air pollution and energy security, two important questions arise. And they are should new nuclear plants be built to help solve these problems? A lot of people say yes without thinking about it. I say, should existing aged nuclear plants be kept open as long as possible to help solve these problems? To answer these questions, the main risks associated with nuclear power are examined. And the risks associated with nuclear power can be broken down into two categories. One risk risks affecting its ability to reduce global warming and air pollution. Two risks affecting its ability to provide energy and environmental security aside from climate and air pollution. So the risks in the former category include delays between planning and operation, emissions contributing to global warming and outdoor air pollution, and costs as we talk about a lot. Risks in the latter category include weapons proliferation risks, reactor meltdown risk, radioactive waste risk, and mining, cancer and land despoilment risks. So new nuclear power plants cost 2.3 to 7.4 times those of onshore wind or utility PV per kilowatt hour, and they take five to seven years longer between planning and operation, five to 17 years longer, and produce nine to 37 times the emissions per kilowatt as wind. Something you don't hear about. The emissions that nuclear actually produces is not zero, and it's actually nine to 37 times the emissions of its energy output compared to wind. So, as such, a fixed amount of money spent on a new nuclear plant means much less power generation. A much longer wait for power at a much greater emission rate than the same money spent on WWS technology, wind, water and solar. There is no such thing as a zero or close to zero emission nuclear power plant, says the study. Even existing plants emit due to the continuous mining and refining of uranium needed for the plant. And however, though all power plants emit 4.4 grams per CO2 equivalent per kilowatt hour from the water vapor and heat they release. So water vapor is bad. This is a question I have about the fusion plants, rather, is that are they emitting any water vapor? I haven't heard on that, and I will get back to you as soon as I hear something. Or if you know something, always email us at the Clean Energy Show. Clean Energy Show@gmail.com this contrasts with solar panels and wind turbines, which reduce heat or water vapor fluxes to the air. On top of that, because of all nuclear reactors, they take ten to 19 years or more. Between planning and operation, there's two to five years for utility, solar or wind and nuclear causes a lot of emissions for 100 years. Overall, emissions from the new nuclear 78 to 178 grams/CO2 per kilowatt hour, not close to zero at all. So China's investment in nuclear plants take so long between planning and operation instead of wind and solar resulted, you know, because it chose nuclear instead of wind and solar because it took so long. China's CO2 emissions were increased 1.3% from 2016 to 2017 in one year, rather than they should have declined by 3% if they went the way that we suggest here on the show. Brian? Yeah. Solar, wind and battery. The resulting difference in air pollution emissions may have caused 82,000 additional air pollution deaths in China. This is nothing. This needs at literally between 2016 alone with additional deaths in years prior. And since some feedback here that came in just as we were wrapping up last week's show, this is from well, let's listen. Aloha, James and Brian. My name is Ryan Nielsen. I live in a little town called Gaylax, Virginia. G-A-L ax like galaxy without the Y. I originally grew up in Hawaii, hence the Aloha Go, Hawaii, for their clean energy. I've heard lots of things about it on your show the last few months. I've been listening for about six months now and never miss a week. We started listening after we got our first electric vehicle, an ionic five, and have taken an increased interest in the environment and helping to save our planet. We just found out yesterday about a solar farm. It's going to be a 20 megawatt solar farm that's in the plans for our community just a few miles from our home. And they're having a public commentary period for the next few weeks. I will be going to a public meeting for it at our local library tomorrow, and I wanted to get your guys thoughts on the pros of solar farms in the community to counter all the negative as there are lots of outlandish and ridiculous claims that are out there and already being put out there. So hope to hear from you guys and wanting to leave one of these messages for a while. Mahalo for all that you do. Well, thank you so much. We love SpeakPipe Voicemails because we get to hear our listeners. They're not just an intangible thing that we have to kind of imagine and people can listen to somebody else for a change. It's like having a third host of the show, or a guest perhaps. Congratulations on the Anna five. That's great news. Hoping you are enjoying it. If you have any issues with it or any questions or concerns, let us know. I know more about gaylax Virginia than I should, Brian, because I've been trying to find out, trying to find the solar farm proposal, and I can't find it. There's lots of other ones, but I couldn't find it. I went to the Galeax Library and I couldn't find it there. Yeah, so I can't find anything about it. So I don't know what the exact location is. My only guess that a solar farm could be trouble is if it visually disturbs nature when they put it on a hillside or a high elevation. That's the only thing that I can think of. And I have seen something like that. And I would say, well, why don't you put that in a valley? Or why don't you put it on a flat piece of land where you can't really see it? People probably don't even notice a solar or farms on flat land if you're driving down the highway. If you're not looking for it, there's no negatives, Brian. There's no negatives. No. And wind, it's kind of the same thing. Like, there can be an issue with migratory birds and killing birds, but I think usually the people who are against wind turbines don't genuinely care about birds. There's always small issues. My brother was just telling me recently, he lives in rural Ontario, and this sort of came up at a local planning meeting for the small town that he was in. And they weren't planning to do any clean energy, but it was just sort of on the agenda and they wanted to kind of get everybody's opinion, like the city councilors and everybody was against it. He said, wow. Yeah. I don't think it would have been a year or two ago. I think the rhetoric on Facebook, which is a lot of small town people, are even more connected to Facebook than anyone else because they need to be connected. And there's not a Starbucks to go to, necessarily. I do find that here where we live in a fairly rural area, and there's a lot of people on Facebook and they are in their bubbles and they are getting ridiculous information. Now, I don't know what to tell you about people who believe in ridiculous information. There's no magic bullet. I mean, you can try and sit down with them and reason with them, and sometimes that works, but I wouldn't do that myself. I'd like, screw that. If you want to be dumb, be dumb. If you want to have crazy ideas, fine, have crazy ideas. It'll be built somewhere else. It'll be built in another jurisdiction. Well, I guess that's the one sort of saving grace of all this, because yes, absolutely. There are going to be city councils everywhere voting this kind of stuff down, but it's a tide that can't be stopped. Clean energy is better and cheaper. It will eventually take over everywhere. It's just unfortunate. But I would encourage people to go to their city council meetings or whatever and speak on this topic, because sometimes if you don't, then nobody does. Yeah, I just don't like getting into arguments with people who are cuckoo because you can't reason with somebody who thinks the Earth is flat. And I don't like going to meetings. Meetings. I'm not a big fan of meetings, so I decided to start a podcast instead. This is our way to contribute. Yeah. So 20 is twice the size of the solar farm that I looked at nearby, and they're building around here right now. They are building bigger ones down the road. But, you know, Virginia is actually a pretty good place for solar. They have a lot of projects on the Go rooftop. Solar is possible there. The utility there has school bus rebates, which I happen to see just before I got his message, that they have they're buying a bunch of electric school buses, and they quite like them. They are more expensive right now, but immediately the drivers are really praising them and liking them a lot. We love to hear from you. Contact us by email at clean energyshow@gmail.com. We're on TikTok. We're on YouTube. Go there, find us. If you'd like to look at us and leave us a voicemail like this one, which was fantastic, and we can't thank you enough. SpeakPipe comclean energyshow. But if you don't want to do that, send us an email. We'll hear from you one way or another. And that means it's time for the lightning Round, a fast paced look at the weak in clean energy and climate news. Brian, if our show wasn't long enough as it is, it's long, and I apologize. I apologize, I apologize, I apologize. We are a long one this week. Some people, they can't get enough. Other people say, Come on, my commute is over. You should be done by now. A new clean energy poll from Abacus Research suggests 64% of Canadians realize that clean energy is cheap, affordable energy, which is pretty good, I think. Speaking of naysayers, there's a lot in Canada. That is the positive. It's cheap, it's clean. You want to win over people in a small town. Cheap. You save money cheap. Everybody likes money. Everybody likes saving money. Maybe people don't realize that. They probably read on Facebook that it's more expensive. We heard somebody say last week for the oil industry propaganda, that wind turbines have never worked anywhere in the world. They've been in operation for decades. OK. So it's another one. There's two talking points for you. Clean, cheap. In our current climate, energy security is a big, big thing. If you can control your own energy supply and get it from the sun, you don't have to deal with foreign dictators. Toyota again in the news, they are telling their suppliers that hold on, we're coming up with a new three year EV plan, especially with what they deliver to Europe. So it sounds like we're going to hear in the new year. Toyota coming around on the EVs. We'll see. Oh, it's time for a CES Fast Fact clean Energy show. Fast Fact from Eco watch. In Europe, 40% to 60% of fish caught are discarded because they do not meet supermarket quality standards. Nearly 50% is discarded in the United States. So that is all. Food waste is a big thing, Ryan. Can't they turn it into pet food or something? Discarded. Discarded. I'd look into that further, further information you email us. US gas prices peaked in June at $5 a gallon. That's dollar 31 a liter, which is not where we peaked here. We picked over $2, didn't we? Yeah, for sure. I say to that. In a study of 2055 German adults, a study found that a strong correlation between harboring conspiracy mentality and being unlikely to vote for wind turbines near your community. Again, this gets back to our feedback from Virginia. The correlation held regardless of if the referendum on the building of turbines was proposed by the supporters of the wind farm or its proponents. So in another study of a similar amount of German adults, a conspiracy mentality was found far and away the biggest predictor of voting against the wind farm, much more so than age, gender, education level, sad or being politically right wing. So if you believe in conspiracies, regardless of your political affiliation, regardless of your education and it's always sad to see educated people believe conspiracies. But it happens. I've seen it. Yeah. So Germany ranks third in the world for installed wind power capacity in 2020. Almost a quarter of the country's energy came from wind and the government has pledged to double that by 2030, designated 2% of Germany's landmass to become wind farms. So that's our time for this week, Brian, and it is more than time. So thanks for listening to everyone. We always appreciate it. Tell your friends. Spread the word. Write it on bathroom walls, in public washrooms. We don't care. No, we like to hear from you. As always. Clean energy show@gmail.com. Check us out. On social media, where our handle is at Clean Energy Pod. By the way, if you're new to the show, remember to subscribe on your podcast app to get new episodes delivered every week. And there is a donate button in your show notes if you care to buy us a cup of coffee. We'll see you next week. Probably one day late next this week, but we'll see you then. I can't wait to do it again, Brian. See you next week.

Scientists at the National Ignition Facility say they've achieved fusion. Theoretically, it can generate lots of energy without nuclear waste. Researchers and journalists are unionizing. They're part of a growing organizing movement over the last decade. “Fleishman is in Trouble” is a book-turned-TV series starring Jesse Eisenberg and Claire Danes as a newly divorced couple. Film critic Alonso Duralde talks about the latest holiday movies, including “Falling for Christmas” and “The Holiday Sitter.”

There's no way to dive into the heart of a star to learn what's going on. So scientists are creating their own stars here on Earth. The most recent experiment is creating the conditions found in the most common stars in the galaxy. Scientists have been using a facility at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque for years. It builds up a massive charge of electricity, which it discharges in an instant. That creates extremely high temperatures and pressures. Astronomers have used that to simulate conditions in several types of stars. The current experiment is using the National Ignition Facility — the world's most powerful laser. It's at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. It generates almost 200 laser beams, which focus on a target area the size of a pencil eraser. Scientists are using the lasers to create the conditions inside red dwarf stars. They account for more than two-thirds of all the stars in the galaxy — including our closest neighbor star. Yet they're so small and faint that not a single one is visible to the unaided eye. Conditions inside these stars are poorly understood. But they have a big impact on conditions at the surface. Many red dwarfs produce huge eruptions of radiation and charged particles. That could make it impossible for life to survive on any planets that orbit them. So understanding what's happening inside red dwarfs can tell us a lot about whether anything could live near them.  Script by Damond Benningfield Support McDonald Observatory