This Post Has 18 Comments

1. I would very much like to hear from Mr. Donaldson a comparison between his approach and that of Helion (Seattle) or HB11 (Australia). Helion, in particular, also started with electricity generation as the target. Their fusion-to-electricity connection seems more efficient than fusion-to-heat-to-electricity. Any comments?

   I am also curious about the wear on the pistons. What is the expected lifetime of a piston? How is GF minimizing the friction/wear for the pistons in such an environment?

2. I know it's surface fluff but I do like hearing from the engineers who are on the front lines of trying to solve the practical problems. A more in depth interview with Mike would be a treat getting into equations and mechanics of how it's possible to use steam piston induced compression with a liquid medium and the shock waves which are created. It's a fascinating approach and I'd love to hear more about the engineering that goes into it. I know they'll be tight lipped on the specifics and diagnostics but the general 'how it works" on a wave progression tack would be extremely entertaining to unpack.

3. Nice talks

4. BTW the mentioned way of getting Tri needs not widely known Li-7 but 14 times more rare Li-6.

5. 100 MW demonstrator sounds good. Mid 2030's, let's hope so 🤞

6. Tritium seems like a dead end.

7. This was a fun one. Thanks!

8. Wen net energy gain for General Fusion?

9. Hmmm ,, so my thing is that fusion is clearly a long ways out, even with such promising ideas underway, but fusion (as this video brings up, , makes atoms from other atoms) ,,, could it be used to manufacture atoms that could be used as fuel for another plant (perhaps radio-isotope thermo-electric) that would result in much safer waste than fission plants do, by consuming renewables during high production low demand (instead of charging batteries basically),, and then these other plants could produce power on demand? ((the idea is,, this would create a stepping stone where fusion plants could be iterated even though they are not able to have particularly significant positive production numbers))

10. Been following this company for a long time… read about them and the founder (Michel Laberge) in an issue of Science.
    The world needs a power source like this ASAP!

11. How will this be turned into electricity?

12. Excellent interview. There was nothing left to say. This is all very exciting. It's been a Eureka moment. However, we will only be able to claim victory when the first fusion power plant is fully operational.

13. Wow !

14. The illustrations for the GF concept show the plasma being injected info a rotating cylindrical caldron of Liquid Metal and then magically stopping half way into the cylinder while the pistons strike the walls of the cylinder in a sequence that form a collapsing sphere. The plasma fuses under the pressure of the collapsing Liquid Metal and the Liquid Metal is somehow slung out to the perimeter of the rotating cylinder to repeat the process. This is suppose to happen at 1 hertz. I am very skeptical of the fluid dynamics of this operation, the ability to precisely stop the plasma / time the collapse of the Liquid Metal, along with difficulty of maintaining the conditions (presumably a high quality vacuum) that are suitable for the plasma injection. I was hoping Matt would ask some tough questions to answer questions like this.

15. LOVED IT MATT !!!! been waiting for this one !!!! LOL had to be HUSH HUSH lmao

    MUCH LOVE FROM

    NORTH OF THE WALL!

16. Good interview! I wish he could have provided more details on how close they are to Q-plasma and all systems involved net positive energy production. His responses seemed somewhat vague.

17. The Canadians will get this done.

18. I think General Fusion have a good design, I also think we are 200yrs away from it being practical…

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