WEBVTT - TechStuff Experiments With Fusion 0:00:03.960 --> 0:00:07.560 Get in tech with technology with textile from how stuffs 0:00:07.560 --> 0:00:16.240 that coming. Hey that everyone, and welcome to tech stuff. 0:00:16.280 --> 0:00:19.320 I'm Jonathan Strickland and I'm Lauren Bolkum, And today we 0:00:19.360 --> 0:00:24.439 wanted to talk a bit about nuclear fusion fusion, which 0:00:24.480 --> 0:00:27.600 is great because originally I thought it was fusion cuisine 0:00:28.240 --> 0:00:31.840 and I went and ate a lot of California cuisine, 0:00:32.159 --> 0:00:34.960 and um, it was delicious, but it wasn't very tasty 0:00:35.000 --> 0:00:38.080 and not necessarily a technological. Yeah. Then I thought was 0:00:38.120 --> 0:00:41.000 fusion jazz, and so I listened to some of that 0:00:41.280 --> 0:00:45.400 more technological, not not really less delicious. Yeah, but no, 0:00:45.479 --> 0:00:48.919 we're talking nuclear fusion and to uh kind of give 0:00:48.960 --> 0:00:51.840 you an idea of what nuclear fusion is, how we 0:00:51.880 --> 0:00:55.760 are trying to harness nuclear fusion as a source of 0:00:55.920 --> 0:01:00.200 energy production, really electricity production. Uh, and it's being towed 0:01:00.280 --> 0:01:02.160 as one of the technologies of the feature that is 0:01:02.160 --> 0:01:04.760 going to give us unlimited energy. And how far away 0:01:04.800 --> 0:01:08.200 is it twenty to thirty to fifty years and and 0:01:08.280 --> 0:01:13.720 every year it seems like we're years. Yeah. Yeah, it's 0:01:13.760 --> 0:01:17.360 that's one of those things that scientists will often Riley 0:01:17.480 --> 0:01:20.319 kind of joke about that the technology is always twenty 0:01:20.360 --> 0:01:23.240 years away and uh, and you know it's because the 0:01:23.360 --> 0:01:28.039 challenges that we need to overcome are quite impressive. Doesn't 0:01:28.080 --> 0:01:31.240 doesn't mean we won't do it because human beings are amazing, 0:01:31.440 --> 0:01:34.800 you know, we innovate and reinvent. But um, but let's 0:01:34.880 --> 0:01:37.440 let's kind of first of all, talk about the difference 0:01:37.440 --> 0:01:41.160 between fusion and fission. Fission is the kind of a 0:01:41.280 --> 0:01:44.479 nuclear process that is used in our nuclear power plants today. 0:01:45.040 --> 0:01:47.360 So if you are familiar with the nuclear power plants 0:01:47.400 --> 0:01:49.360 things like you know there, of course they're the famous 0:01:49.400 --> 0:01:53.279 ones that have suffered catastrophic failures like Three Mile Island 0:01:53.360 --> 0:01:58.720 or Chernobyl. Uh. But these are the the reactors where 0:01:58.760 --> 0:02:02.800 they split up larger atoms into smaller atoms and as 0:02:02.800 --> 0:02:04.960 a result, a great deal of energy is given off 0:02:05.440 --> 0:02:08.480 really in the form of heat, which is then harnessed 0:02:08.600 --> 0:02:12.880 to convert water into steam, which turns steam turbines which 0:02:12.880 --> 0:02:17.440 are connected to electrical generators generating electricity. So really it's 0:02:17.480 --> 0:02:21.560 just a very very efficient way of heating up a 0:02:21.560 --> 0:02:24.960 lot of water really quickly and making it do work. Yes, 0:02:25.000 --> 0:02:29.200 a very efficient, very radioactive steam generator. Yeah. Yeah, And 0:02:29.240 --> 0:02:32.840 that's one of the big issues with the fission power 0:02:32.840 --> 0:02:36.800 plants obviously, is that it uses nuclear radioactive material, not 0:02:36.800 --> 0:02:40.799 just nuclear material radioactive material, and that it doesn't the 0:02:41.120 --> 0:02:44.800 radioactivity is still very much a factor once that reaction 0:02:44.880 --> 0:02:48.920 is finished four thousands and thousands of years, right, Yeah. 0:02:48.360 --> 0:02:52.760 You generally speaking, only about three percent of the uranium 0:02:52.840 --> 0:02:57.320 in a uranium rod is used up in a fission 0:02:57.400 --> 0:03:01.639 reactor before the waste has to be disposed of because 0:03:01.840 --> 0:03:05.080 it will continue to heat up until it reaches a 0:03:05.120 --> 0:03:08.519 point that's too hot and the reactor itself can suffer 0:03:08.520 --> 0:03:11.920 a failure. Yeah, that's what you have down. Yeah. Uh. 0:03:12.040 --> 0:03:16.080 There are some, uh, some approaches that are suggesting that 0:03:16.160 --> 0:03:19.280 we take another pass at that nuclear waste and use 0:03:19.400 --> 0:03:22.040 that in a second round by immersing it in a 0:03:22.040 --> 0:03:26.480 molten salt the waist annihilating molten salt reactor, which I 0:03:26.560 --> 0:03:28.680 still I just can't I can't get over the the 0:03:28.720 --> 0:03:32.600 annihilator part of the waist annihilator. Uh. Yeah. So this 0:03:33.000 --> 0:03:35.960 this reactor would it's still a fission reactor, but it 0:03:36.000 --> 0:03:40.200 would immerse the the radioactive material, the uranium in a 0:03:40.240 --> 0:03:44.200 molten salt and use that to control the heat in 0:03:44.200 --> 0:03:46.160 a in a way that would allow you to use 0:03:46.200 --> 0:03:48.240 that material for longer, so you'd be able to get 0:03:48.280 --> 0:03:52.440 more use out of the same radioactive material and reduce 0:03:52.600 --> 0:03:56.600 the life of the actual radioactive elements at the at 0:03:56.600 --> 0:03:59.760 the final output, I think it would only be radioactive. 0:03:59.840 --> 0:04:03.600 It would only be reactive for another years. Yeah, so 0:04:03.960 --> 0:04:07.960 still well beyond our lifetimes right now. But not something 0:04:08.000 --> 0:04:11.160 that you would say, all right, generations and generations and 0:04:11.200 --> 0:04:13.080 generations are going to have to be aware of that. 0:04:13.120 --> 0:04:15.200 You don't have to start, you know, programming things that 0:04:15.240 --> 0:04:17.960 people you know, languages that don't exist yet wanting to 0:04:17.960 --> 0:04:19.919 be able to understand, Right, how do I how do 0:04:19.960 --> 0:04:23.480 I create a pictograph that shows exactly do not go 0:04:23.600 --> 0:04:26.839 in here? We messed it up really hard. Right in 0:04:26.880 --> 0:04:30.440 ten thousand years, English may not even be a thing anymore. So, 0:04:30.600 --> 0:04:32.600 um so yeah, I mean that's that's one of those 0:04:33.120 --> 0:04:37.000 possible solutions. But fusion is very different. Fission all about 0:04:37.040 --> 0:04:40.120 splitting atoms apart. Fusion is about being buddy buddy and 0:04:40.160 --> 0:04:43.240 bringing atoms together. And this is this is the kind 0:04:43.279 --> 0:04:47.200 of of process that we see happening in stars, including 0:04:47.440 --> 0:04:51.360 the sun, the sun being a star. Yes, yes, well 0:04:51.360 --> 0:04:55.800 I'm just making sure people know that. And despite what 0:04:55.920 --> 0:04:59.440 my one of my favorite Bands has said in a 0:04:59.520 --> 0:05:02.480 cover of a song, actually the Sun is not really 0:05:02.560 --> 0:05:06.600 a massive incandescent gas and gigantic nuclear fenness. But they 0:05:06.600 --> 0:05:08.520 did correct it in a later song and say it 0:05:08.560 --> 0:05:12.039 was a miasma of incandescent plasma. So they did go 0:05:12.080 --> 0:05:14.560 back and correct it. But they were actually quoting an 0:05:14.560 --> 0:05:19.320 old song from a science album for kids, which was 0:05:19.480 --> 0:05:22.640 to explain the process of fusion and how the Sun 0:05:22.760 --> 0:05:26.159 generates energy and light and uh. And the way it 0:05:26.200 --> 0:05:30.000 happens is it takes these hydrogen atoms, and because the 0:05:30.000 --> 0:05:32.320 Sun is so massive and dense, there's a huge amount 0:05:32.320 --> 0:05:35.440 of gravity there and it's creating an enormous amount of 0:05:35.480 --> 0:05:40.040 pressure and heat. So the heat is stripping those hydrogen 0:05:40.160 --> 0:05:44.760 atoms of their electrons, creating ions. That creates zions, and 0:05:44.800 --> 0:05:48.560 in a pure hydrogen atom is just a proton and 0:05:48.800 --> 0:05:51.120 an electron, so that electron goes away. Now you've just 0:05:51.160 --> 0:05:55.080 got a proton there, and so you have these protons 0:05:55.120 --> 0:05:59.200 now that are zipping around in incredible speaks um and 0:05:59.279 --> 0:06:04.039 being press together really tightly by the amazing force of gravity. 0:06:04.080 --> 0:06:06.839 And at the Sun's core where this is the strongest, 0:06:07.279 --> 0:06:11.320 these atoms are banging up against each other so fast 0:06:11.480 --> 0:06:16.760 and so close that one of the other fundamental forces 0:06:17.440 --> 0:06:21.960 in the universe overacts the electromagnetic force. Now, the four 0:06:22.040 --> 0:06:24.719 forces in the universe include gravity, which is the weakest 0:06:24.800 --> 0:06:29.480 but is the it is the most effective over huge distances. 0:06:30.240 --> 0:06:33.880 You have electromagnetic force, and then you have these strong 0:06:33.920 --> 0:06:37.120 and weak nuclear forces. Now, the strong force is what 0:06:37.320 --> 0:06:41.760 holds nucleic particles together. It's like the glue that keeps 0:06:41.760 --> 0:06:46.320 a nucleus together. Right, So, if you were able to 0:06:46.520 --> 0:06:51.760 get two protons close enough to each other, uh, the 0:06:51.880 --> 0:06:55.159 strong nuclear force would be strong enough to counteract the 0:06:55.200 --> 0:06:59.240 electromagnetic force. That's that's naturally driving them apart. Because protons 0:06:59.279 --> 0:07:01.360 both have a positive charge. And if you've ever taken 0:07:01.400 --> 0:07:04.560 two magnets and tried to stick the two positive ends together, 0:07:04.960 --> 0:07:07.400 it resists you. It doesn't want to do that thing. 0:07:08.160 --> 0:07:10.640 But when you get them to within one trillionth of 0:07:10.680 --> 0:07:14.120 a millimeter of each other, then that will that will 0:07:14.160 --> 0:07:19.120 go away or it will be overcome by the strong exactly. Yeah, 0:07:19.120 --> 0:07:23.160 so you have to get them really really close together. Now, 0:07:23.200 --> 0:07:27.880 at that point, when you have fused to hydrogen protons together, 0:07:28.160 --> 0:07:31.680 you have created a different element. Hydrogen has now become 0:07:31.840 --> 0:07:37.800 helium at a temperature millions of degrees. So yeah, we 0:07:37.880 --> 0:07:40.440 can't see. We might both be that, they might be giants. 0:07:40.520 --> 0:07:43.840 I'll be seeing them in a week to come into Atlanta. 0:07:44.080 --> 0:07:45.760 By the time you guys hear this, I've already seen 0:07:45.800 --> 0:07:49.000 it and the show was awesome, I guess. So anyway, 0:07:49.040 --> 0:07:54.200 the the protons have fused together to form helium. But 0:07:54.280 --> 0:07:58.480 here's the interesting thing. In that process. The mass of 0:07:58.520 --> 0:08:03.520 that helium atom is slightly less than the combined masses 0:08:03.960 --> 0:08:07.480 of the two hydrogen atoms that fuse together to make 0:08:07.720 --> 0:08:10.800 the helium. Why is that, Jonathan, Some of that mass 0:08:11.040 --> 0:08:15.000 gets converted into energy. Now, there's a little equation you 0:08:15.080 --> 0:08:19.600 may have heard of called E equals MC squared. I 0:08:19.600 --> 0:08:22.119 think I think some some guy named Einstein was talking 0:08:22.160 --> 0:08:25.680 about that. I don't know. Listen here Einstein. Yeah, Einstein 0:08:26.080 --> 0:08:28.760 came up with this idea where he came up with 0:08:28.800 --> 0:08:32.240 the theory and and turns out that it looks like 0:08:32.240 --> 0:08:37.960 it's true energy equals mass times this square or the 0:08:38.000 --> 0:08:40.600 speed of light squared. Rather not the square speed light, 0:08:40.640 --> 0:08:43.679 but the speed of light sweared. So speed of light 0:08:43.800 --> 0:08:46.400 is a big, big, big big number. Then you square 0:08:46.440 --> 0:08:51.080 it and it's even bigger, and you multiply, yeah, and 0:08:51.160 --> 0:08:54.880 multiply that times whatever the mass is, you get your 0:08:55.000 --> 0:08:59.319 energy output. And so essentially, what this equation tells us 0:08:59.800 --> 0:09:03.520 is a tiny little bit of mass, once converted into energy, 0:09:03.600 --> 0:09:06.760 will be an enormous amount of energy the same thing, 0:09:07.240 --> 0:09:10.360 and also that that mass and energy never really go away, 0:09:10.400 --> 0:09:13.840 and they are simply converted. Exactly, we cannot create or 0:09:13.880 --> 0:09:17.920 destroy energy, but what we can do is convert energy 0:09:17.960 --> 0:09:21.360 to mass and mass to energy. At least in theory. Now, 0:09:21.840 --> 0:09:23.560 if we were to convert energy to mass, it would 0:09:23.559 --> 0:09:25.679 take an awful lot of energy to make just a 0:09:25.720 --> 0:09:28.480 little bit of mass. Which is why I always go 0:09:28.559 --> 0:09:31.160 crazy when I read the Harry Potter books and people 0:09:31.200 --> 0:09:32.959 conjure stuff out of thin air, because I think, do 0:09:33.000 --> 0:09:36.440 you you just destroyed like three solar systems in order 0:09:36.480 --> 0:09:38.800 to do that, clearly pulling them from a parallel dimension 0:09:38.880 --> 0:09:41.040 or something like that. Yes, so there's just a people 0:09:41.040 --> 0:09:43.320 in a parallel dimension, Like it's so cold, there's a 0:09:43.520 --> 0:09:46.800 there's a really huge room of requirement somewhere. That's okay, 0:09:46.920 --> 0:09:50.280 all right, now you're talking about language. So, yeah, a 0:09:50.320 --> 0:09:52.120 little bit of mass creates a lot of energy. So 0:09:52.240 --> 0:09:57.040 even though we're talking tiny atomic measurements here where we 0:09:57.120 --> 0:10:00.600 have the helium atom, which has got a lower mass 0:10:00.600 --> 0:10:03.720 than the two combined hydrogen atoms, that still puts off 0:10:03.800 --> 0:10:06.240 quite a bit of energy. And and the Sun is 0:10:06.280 --> 0:10:10.120 doing this all the time with tons of hydrogen converting 0:10:10.120 --> 0:10:14.559 into helium every day. All right, so massive amount of 0:10:14.640 --> 0:10:16.960 energy that's being that's being emitted. I mean if it 0:10:17.040 --> 0:10:19.240 weren't being emitted, then there would be no life on 0:10:19.240 --> 0:10:21.800 this planet. Right. And and we know it works, you know, 0:10:21.880 --> 0:10:24.480 so we can serve this. This is this is as 0:10:24.520 --> 0:10:28.240 far as we can tell real science. Yes, so we 0:10:28.280 --> 0:10:30.080 know it works, We know we can do it. In fact, 0:10:30.120 --> 0:10:32.120 we have done it. We've reproduced it here on Earth. 0:10:32.120 --> 0:10:34.560 We'll get into that in a little bit. But the 0:10:34.640 --> 0:10:37.880 question was if the Sun does this, if that's how 0:10:37.920 --> 0:10:40.480 the Sun does this, could we create energy here on 0:10:40.520 --> 0:10:44.120 Earth using a similar method. Knowing that on Earth the 0:10:44.160 --> 0:10:46.960 conditions are very different from the core of the Sun, 0:10:47.040 --> 0:10:49.000 we don't have that gravity or that heat that is 0:10:49.040 --> 0:10:54.400 allowing the Sun to overcome the right electronic Yeah, this 0:10:54.640 --> 0:10:57.080 and the and the gravity is the really important part 0:10:57.160 --> 0:11:01.920 because that gravity is what's allowing this nuclear fusion process 0:11:01.960 --> 0:11:04.640 to happen at a temperature that would actually be lower 0:11:04.640 --> 0:11:06.640 than we would need here on Earth. Because we don't 0:11:06.679 --> 0:11:09.239 have that gravity, we don't have the ability to compress 0:11:09.360 --> 0:11:13.080 the atoms as tightly together as we would if if 0:11:13.120 --> 0:11:15.720 we had the Sun's gravity. We have to we have 0:11:15.760 --> 0:11:19.240 to overcome that with even more heat. Yeah, the Sun 0:11:19.280 --> 0:11:23.640 only needs about fifteen million degrees kelvin. Only am easily 0:11:24.040 --> 0:11:27.520 fifteen million kelvin. Sorry sorry, yeah, yeah, yeah, my my bad. 0:11:27.559 --> 0:11:29.679 I always do that. I did it once and one 0:11:29.679 --> 0:11:32.520 of our great listeners corrected me. And that's the only reason, 0:11:32.760 --> 0:11:35.000 because our listeners are awesome and they let me know 0:11:35.040 --> 0:11:37.760 when I've done something silly like that, completely ridiculous, the 0:11:37.840 --> 0:11:41.360 only reason I know, So, thank you listeners. Um so, so, yeah, 0:11:41.400 --> 0:11:44.120 the Sun only needs about fifteen million kelvin. In order 0:11:44.200 --> 0:11:45.880 to do this here on Earth, it would be something 0:11:45.880 --> 0:11:49.199 like a hundred million. Yeah, so we're talking massive amounts 0:11:49.200 --> 0:11:50.800 of energy that we would need here on Earth to 0:11:50.960 --> 0:11:53.120 compensate for the fact that we don't have that gravity 0:11:53.160 --> 0:11:56.440 there to help us with this reaction. Um. Now, in 0:11:56.480 --> 0:12:01.280 the Sun, you're talking about the pure high yrogen encountering 0:12:01.280 --> 0:12:04.840 other pure hydrogen. So one proton one electron, the electrons 0:12:04.840 --> 0:12:07.960 get stripped away, the protons get fused together. But on 0:12:08.280 --> 0:12:13.240 Earth we've discovered that there's a better combination to go with. 0:12:13.320 --> 0:12:15.839 It requires less energy than it would if we were 0:12:15.840 --> 0:12:18.920 to use pure hydrogen. Right, It's it's relatively difficult to 0:12:19.040 --> 0:12:21.720 run into pure hydrogen here. Yeah, you would have to 0:12:21.800 --> 0:12:24.520 you would have to essentially split the hydrogen off of 0:12:24.600 --> 0:12:28.880 something else. There's lots of hydrogen on Earth. We have 0:12:28.920 --> 0:12:31.240 no shortage of it. Yeah, it's just connected to lots 0:12:31.240 --> 0:12:35.080 of other stuff. So, um, the two types of the 0:12:35.160 --> 0:12:38.920 two isotopes of hydrogen and isotope, by the way, means 0:12:38.960 --> 0:12:44.160 that you have more or fewer neutrons than whatever the 0:12:44.160 --> 0:12:46.800 the atom typically has, but it's or it's it's a 0:12:46.840 --> 0:12:51.120 different number of neutrons than the base version of that atom, 0:12:51.640 --> 0:12:55.400 but it's um same number of protons, same number of electrons. 0:12:55.440 --> 0:13:00.000 So an isotope is one isotope of hydrogen is a deuterium, 0:13:00.120 --> 0:13:03.040 which is also known as heavy hydrogen, and it has 0:13:03.280 --> 0:13:06.920 one proton and one neutron, So typically you would not 0:13:07.000 --> 0:13:10.040 have a neutron with hydrogen. Deuterium does have a neutron, 0:13:10.440 --> 0:13:13.280 and then you have tritium, which is called also called 0:13:13.400 --> 0:13:18.360 heavy heavy hydrogen. So it's extra heavy. He's not heavy, 0:13:18.440 --> 0:13:21.280 he's my tritium. Uh. And this is a proton that 0:13:21.320 --> 0:13:26.000 has two neutrons. Uh so same still the same element, 0:13:26.080 --> 0:13:29.680 it's just a different isotope. Now, deuterium, we've got a 0:13:29.679 --> 0:13:31.600 lot of that here on Earth. Yeah, it can be 0:13:31.640 --> 0:13:35.400 extracted from seawater. It's not radioactive or anything. Yeah, it's 0:13:35.400 --> 0:13:38.680 not dangerous um that but yeah, you can you can 0:13:38.720 --> 0:13:44.080 find deuterium in in ocean water. Um. You cannot find 0:13:44.120 --> 0:13:49.000 tritium very easily, mostly because it's not completely stable. It 0:13:49.040 --> 0:13:51.800 does tend to decay and it's just it has a 0:13:51.800 --> 0:13:53.800 half life of about ten years that you can um. 0:13:53.960 --> 0:13:56.640 You can get it from lithium. Yeah, you you if 0:13:56.640 --> 0:13:59.840 you take lithium, the metal lithium, not the medication, the 0:14:00.040 --> 0:14:03.600 metal lithium, and you bombard it with neutrons, then one 0:14:03.640 --> 0:14:06.040 of the things you get out of that is tritium. 0:14:06.080 --> 0:14:08.920 So that is one way to get the treatium. And 0:14:08.920 --> 0:14:11.320 it we found out that tritium and deuterium, if you 0:14:11.360 --> 0:14:14.440 try to fuse those two together, then you get helium 0:14:14.480 --> 0:14:18.720 and a neutron out of that reaction. And uh, it 0:14:18.800 --> 0:14:23.160 requires less energy than than other combinations. Do write these 0:14:23.200 --> 0:14:25.920 are the current forms of fusion that are possible on 0:14:25.960 --> 0:14:29.800 our planet. Are our deuterium tritium. Yeah, and we're going 0:14:29.840 --> 0:14:33.360 to talk about how, you know, generating a nuclear fusion 0:14:33.400 --> 0:14:35.800 reaction here on Earth, what kind of challenges we encounter, 0:14:35.880 --> 0:14:38.720 and and how we've worked around them in just a moment. 0:14:38.720 --> 0:14:40.840 But before we do, let's take a quick moment to 0:14:40.920 --> 0:14:44.520 thank our sponsored All right, let's get back to fusion. 0:14:44.640 --> 0:14:47.840 So we've got the deuterium in the sea water. We 0:14:47.920 --> 0:14:50.560 can bombard some lithium with some neutrons and get some 0:14:50.600 --> 0:14:54.840 tritium out of that. We're ready to introduce the deuterium 0:14:54.880 --> 0:14:58.600 to the tritium and uh and and make a date 0:14:59.200 --> 0:15:02.080 and have them fused together in a single unit of 0:15:02.120 --> 0:15:05.520 helium and shoot off an extra neutron and a lot 0:15:05.520 --> 0:15:08.280 of energy. What do we need to do? So we 0:15:08.400 --> 0:15:11.120 know that we're going to be using deuterium and tritium, 0:15:11.120 --> 0:15:14.640 because that's the the most efficient way that we've found 0:15:14.720 --> 0:15:17.280 so far to be able to It's the easiest for 0:15:17.360 --> 0:15:19.880 for us to use deuterium. Deuterium would actually be more efficient, 0:15:20.120 --> 0:15:22.880 but it's more difficult to get started. I see, I 0:15:22.920 --> 0:15:25.760 see so right, so we we might get more energy 0:15:25.800 --> 0:15:28.400 output with deuterium deuterium, but it would also require more 0:15:28.480 --> 0:15:31.000 energy to get the whole thing started, right, which is 0:15:31.080 --> 0:15:33.400 kind of the entire problem with fusion. Yeah, In fact, 0:15:33.800 --> 0:15:35.440 that's that's that's the biggest all right, we'll just go 0:15:35.440 --> 0:15:37.240 ahead and say that one of the biggest challenges we 0:15:37.280 --> 0:15:40.240 face with fusion is the fact that in order to 0:15:40.400 --> 0:15:42.560 make a fusion reaction here on Earth, you have to 0:15:42.600 --> 0:15:45.120 pour in a great deal of energy so that you 0:15:45.200 --> 0:15:49.600 can create the the the the situation you need to 0:15:49.680 --> 0:15:51.920 You're you're replicating what goes on in a star that's 0:15:51.960 --> 0:15:55.000 really a lot of temperature, a lot of pressure. So 0:15:55.040 --> 0:15:57.280 in order to do that without all that pressure here 0:15:57.280 --> 0:15:59.479 on Earth, we've got to pour and even more temperature. 0:16:00.080 --> 0:16:02.360 So that's the big challenge is how do you create 0:16:02.720 --> 0:16:05.480 a reaction that's going to generate more energy through the 0:16:05.520 --> 0:16:08.840 output than it required to start it. So if it 0:16:09.040 --> 0:16:11.560 requires more energy to go in, then you get out, 0:16:11.600 --> 0:16:14.600 you have an energy sync. You actually in the red 0:16:14.680 --> 0:16:17.480 and that's not really useful. I mean, it's it's pretty 0:16:17.480 --> 0:16:20.760 it's still pretty cool, yeah, but just doesn't commercially viable. 0:16:20.800 --> 0:16:23.400 I guess if you want to make helium. Uh, they're 0:16:23.440 --> 0:16:29.400 probably we are running out, I mean, but still that's 0:16:29.440 --> 0:16:32.120 a lot of energy you're pouring into making some balloons 0:16:32.120 --> 0:16:35.440 float or cooling the large Hadron collider, however you want 0:16:35.440 --> 0:16:37.160 to think about it, right, But so so we do 0:16:37.240 --> 0:16:39.760 have we do. There's two main ways that we are 0:16:39.800 --> 0:16:42.720 experimenting with this on Earth, and one of those it's 0:16:42.760 --> 0:16:46.920 called magnetic confinement. Right. So, magnetic confinement is what was 0:16:47.120 --> 0:16:51.840 used in the joint European Torus or jet fusion reactor. 0:16:52.440 --> 0:16:54.880 And this was sort of a test reactor. It wasn't 0:16:55.040 --> 0:16:59.320 meant to be uh like an electrical generator, right right, 0:16:59.320 --> 0:17:01.160 It wasn't a power plant. It was more science is 0:17:01.200 --> 0:17:03.760 cool than anything else. But and this is a good 0:17:03.760 --> 0:17:06.560 point to say that, you know, ultimately the way we 0:17:06.560 --> 0:17:09.720 would generate electricity with these is not that we have 0:17:09.760 --> 0:17:14.959 some magical like yeah that just plug into the bolts 0:17:15.000 --> 0:17:18.040 and then it pulls. Yeah. This is still a steam generator. Yeah, 0:17:18.160 --> 0:17:20.119 which is which is really interesting to me because you know, 0:17:20.200 --> 0:17:22.880 this is technically this is steam punk. I mean, yeah, 0:17:22.880 --> 0:17:29.639 we're essentially harnessing the power of them, yes, the stars themselves, 0:17:30.040 --> 0:17:33.360 to turn water into steam. Yeah, it's still it's still 0:17:33.440 --> 0:17:37.359 converting water to steam to turn steam well really efficiently, 0:17:37.600 --> 0:17:39.520 and a lot of water because you're talking about a 0:17:39.520 --> 0:17:42.040 lot of heat. So then that's the That's the other 0:17:42.119 --> 0:17:43.840 thing is that if if you could have used the 0:17:43.840 --> 0:17:46.680 same amount of energy you used to start the reaction 0:17:47.320 --> 0:17:52.080 to heat up some water and get a better effect 0:17:52.080 --> 0:17:54.600 than Obviously this makes no sense. I mean, that's the 0:17:54.600 --> 0:17:56.480 whole point is that we have to find a way 0:17:56.520 --> 0:17:59.920 to do a fusion reaction where we're getting more energy 0:18:00.000 --> 0:18:02.440 then we're putting into it. Otherwise, just take the reactor 0:18:02.440 --> 0:18:05.800 out and just direct your energy to water directly, take 0:18:05.800 --> 0:18:10.000 out the middleman. But m magnetic confinement you mentioned. It 0:18:10.119 --> 0:18:15.800 uses a really powerful magnetic field to hold the ionized 0:18:16.080 --> 0:18:20.000 gas in place. An Ionized gas is plasma. So plasma 0:18:20.040 --> 0:18:22.320 is a gas where you've got free roaming electrons. That 0:18:22.520 --> 0:18:25.080 is what the sun is. That's you know, all that 0:18:25.119 --> 0:18:27.919 heat has stripped away the electrons, you've poured energy in, 0:18:28.520 --> 0:18:31.840 You've pushed the electrons away, You've got these free flowing 0:18:32.359 --> 0:18:37.360 uh nuclei uh inside the plasma, and then the magnetic 0:18:37.400 --> 0:18:41.760 field starts to press all of these nuclei together until 0:18:41.800 --> 0:18:44.399 you are able to fuse them and what you get 0:18:44.520 --> 0:18:49.520 our helium adams and free neutrons. The neutrons fly off 0:18:49.920 --> 0:18:54.119 and they hit what they call blankets, blankets of lithium. Ye, blankets. 0:18:54.440 --> 0:18:56.840 Lithium is in the blanket as well. Yes, and that 0:18:56.840 --> 0:18:59.720 that means that because remember, if you bombard lithium with 0:18:59.760 --> 0:19:02.199 a new tron, you create tritium, which means that you 0:19:02.240 --> 0:19:05.240 can continually create part of the fuel source you need 0:19:05.280 --> 0:19:08.040 for this reactory while you're in the middle of the process. Yeah. 0:19:08.080 --> 0:19:10.439 It's pretty pretty neat. Yeah. And it's also giving off 0:19:10.480 --> 0:19:12.200 a lot of energy in the form of heat which 0:19:12.200 --> 0:19:15.280 has been heating up the water to turn into steam, etcetera, etcetera. 0:19:15.760 --> 0:19:19.640 So that's magnetic confinement. Um and we use different things 0:19:19.720 --> 0:19:22.800 to heat up the plasma, like we might use microwaves 0:19:22.840 --> 0:19:26.840 or lasers or electricity or I think that that accelerator 0:19:26.960 --> 0:19:31.240 driven neutral particle beams are our our integral in the 0:19:32.119 --> 0:19:36.080 international through nuclear experimental reactor or either, which is the 0:19:36.119 --> 0:19:40.440 one in France. Yes, it comes from France. That one, Yes, 0:19:40.480 --> 0:19:45.680 it does. That one is still being built. It's it's 0:19:45.680 --> 0:19:50.160 projected to be finished and protected, projected to be online 0:19:50.200 --> 0:19:53.760 by although whether or not that is a true fact 0:19:53.800 --> 0:19:56.640 or not is you know, remains to be seen. Yeah. Yeah, 0:19:56.640 --> 0:19:59.560 so if it stays on target, then we'll be able 0:19:59.600 --> 0:20:03.480 to a by you know, if this is actually a 0:20:03.560 --> 0:20:07.400 viable means of generating electricity for us. By the way, 0:20:08.240 --> 0:20:12.240 the chamber has a special name. It's a it's a 0:20:13.080 --> 0:20:17.280 how did how do we decide to tacomac? Yeah, we've 0:20:17.320 --> 0:20:19.640 got tacomax here in Atlantic. Yeah, so it keeps throwing 0:20:19.680 --> 0:20:22.440 me out. Taco Mac is a is a restaurant chain 0:20:22.480 --> 0:20:27.119 in Atlanta that has obviously tacos. But this is tacomac. 0:20:27.520 --> 0:20:31.320 It's actually a Russian acronym for toroidal chamber with axial 0:20:31.359 --> 0:20:34.520 magnetic field, which basically means it's a donut. It's a 0:20:34.520 --> 0:20:41.159 magnetic it's a magnetic donut, magnetic donut. Yeah. And granted 0:20:41.200 --> 0:20:42.960 this is this is a you know, the Eider version 0:20:43.040 --> 0:20:45.680 is a is a hundred foot tall, twenty three thousand 0:20:45.800 --> 0:20:51.320 ton million part donut, enormous magnetic donut. Yeah. And the 0:20:51.359 --> 0:20:53.720 reason for the donut shape is they've found that that 0:20:53.920 --> 0:20:58.520 is the most effective way of of containing the plasma 0:20:58.600 --> 0:21:02.200 in this really tight field so that you can have 0:21:02.280 --> 0:21:05.840 these fusion reactions take place. So we've got magnetic confinement. 0:21:05.840 --> 0:21:10.560 There's another method which has receives some some attention early on, 0:21:10.680 --> 0:21:12.480 and there's still some labs, like there's some in the 0:21:12.520 --> 0:21:15.359 United States that are still looking at this approach. And 0:21:15.400 --> 0:21:17.640 it may even turn out that this ends up generating 0:21:17.720 --> 0:21:21.080 more energy in the long run than the magnetic confinement, 0:21:21.160 --> 0:21:23.840 but we're still trying to figure that out. It's called 0:21:23.920 --> 0:21:27.240 inertial confinement, right, and this is using laser beams or 0:21:27.280 --> 0:21:30.640 ion beams to squeeze and heat that hydrogen plasma. Yeah. 0:21:30.800 --> 0:21:35.320 In this case, really they take a pellet a frozen hydrogen, 0:21:35.840 --> 0:21:39.000 so you have deuterium and tritium in an actual physical pellet. 0:21:39.040 --> 0:21:42.480 So you're talking super cold yeah yeah, and and piece 0:21:42.560 --> 0:21:44.680 eyed I mean like little bitty thing. Yeah. And you're 0:21:44.760 --> 0:21:47.919 using these these lasers or ions to heat that pellet 0:21:48.000 --> 0:21:51.920 into a plasma almost instantaneously. I mean, you're just you're 0:21:52.000 --> 0:21:56.160 bombarding it with an enormous amount of energy. And essentially 0:21:56.160 --> 0:21:59.280 what's happening is that all right, if you've ever seen 0:21:59.520 --> 0:22:03.119 the match trick where the magician walks up to the 0:22:03.119 --> 0:22:05.800 the the dining table with all the beautiful glassware and 0:22:05.840 --> 0:22:09.159 everything that's perched perfectly on the tablecloth and then he 0:22:09.200 --> 0:22:11.000 grabs the table cloth, gives it a quick jerk, and 0:22:11.040 --> 0:22:15.160 everything stays there. Kman failed to do and exactly. Yeah, 0:22:15.760 --> 0:22:18.080 it's the same same sort of idea here, and that 0:22:18.240 --> 0:22:21.920 you are heating it up so fast that because it's 0:22:22.040 --> 0:22:25.159 because this is a compressed pellet and the lasers are 0:22:25.160 --> 0:22:27.879 actually compressing it. Our ions are compressing it even further 0:22:28.320 --> 0:22:32.440 as it's being heated up. Before the electromagnetic force has 0:22:32.480 --> 0:22:35.360 the opportunity to push the atoms apart, the strong nuclear 0:22:35.400 --> 0:22:38.359 force fuses them together and so kind of implodes. Yeah, 0:22:38.359 --> 0:22:42.560 so you gotta do. I mean, it's happening super fast. Now, 0:22:43.160 --> 0:22:45.879 the the fraction and like one millionth of a second, 0:22:46.000 --> 0:22:48.919 I think, is how fast this happened. It's insane and 0:22:48.920 --> 0:22:52.159 and uh, it's there are other differences between the initial 0:22:52.240 --> 0:22:55.560 confinement and magnetic confinement. With magnetic confronment, the goal is 0:22:55.600 --> 0:22:59.640 to find a way to have ongoing fusion reactions so 0:22:59.680 --> 0:23:03.000 that you don't have to just generate electricity or generate 0:23:03.040 --> 0:23:05.920