[nworno]

Don't understand how that could have somehow been vetted by a YC committee. I mean I'm all in for fusion power, but so far it remains in the state of utterly edge-case research project into which governments all over the world have been pouring insane amounts of money in the hope for the holly grail of energy. And you are spawning a private company that is discussing the nitty-gritty details of applying that non-existent technology to a niche market? I mean would people invest into a startup applying quantum computing to wearable devices? And that latter idea is actually way more down to earth.

[tim333]

Helion Energy (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8178450) has been going 11 years and building prototypes and raising many millions by saying power is 5 years away or so and not publishing any results. So I guess that model works sort of.

Currently "Helion claims it will build the world’s first nuclear fusion power plant by 2028 and has already secured a purchase agreement from Microsoft." but Sabine is sceptical (https://youtu.be/YxuPkDOuiM4)

[DennisP]

Helion's timelines were always conditioned on funding, which they didn't get until years had passed. Adjusted for when they did get funding, they're pretty much on track.

Building seven prototypes, each larger and more advanced, doesn't seem to me like a knock against them.

[nworno]

Interesting yes, but regardless of the scientific viability of Helion's approach (that I have no means to discuss), at least they are aiming at addressing the core problem of fusion energy as an investment strategy: turning an non-existent into an existent technology. What bewilders me here are people discussing the business model and implementation details of these ships' reactors for the endeavor to become profitable. These kind of discussions would only be appropriate in the Worldbuilding StackExchange.

[tim333]

I guess taking an optimistic view, these sort of designs seem quite similar to the MIT ARC/SPARC design put forward in a lecture put up on youtube "Breakthrough in Nuclear Fusion? - Prof. Dennis Whyte" https://youtu.be/KkpqA8yG9T4?list=PL_ywmYr5cjkBWSPyqEaps8uGu...

That actually seems a reasonable attempt at a practical design so all Maritime Fusion have to do is wait till someone cracks that and then do the marine version.

There are plans to build an ARC design producing power in the 2030s https://chesterfieldbusinessnews.com/2024/commonwealth-fusio...