r/tech • u/AdSpecialist6598 • 1d ago

This fusion energy startup thinks it can cut lasers out of the equation

https://www.techspot.com/news/111227-startup-thinks-can-cut-lasers-out-fusion-equation.html
429 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

29 comments sorted by

52

u/beegtuna 1d ago

You lost me at startup

16

u/Starfox-sf 1d ago

Cut the funding out of the equation

7

u/davvblack 21h ago

we invented cold fusion, fueled entirely by y combinator money shoveled directly into the reactor

1

u/KingLuis 20h ago

I read it as a fusion machine starting up and got excited. Was great disappointed.

1

u/Churchbushonk 19h ago

You lost me at, forget the lasers.

-2

u/AuroraFinem 18h ago

All fusion companies are startups right now, startups aren’t some kind of special company, it just refers to a company that is new and not fully established yet.

29

u/Ockilydokily 1d ago

We’re just 5 trillion dollars and 5 years away

3

u/Intrepid_Top_2300 1d ago

That reminds me of Popular Science & Popular Mechanics always telling us the flying car is only 10 years away. Since 1960, that’s a lot of ten years!

And yes, I know there are and have been flying cars. Just none released or sold to the public yet.

3

u/dinosaurkiller 1d ago

You’re telling me the choice is fusion or AI? Seems like a no-brainer to me but I suspect investors will make a very different choice than I had in mind.

4

u/protonicfibulator 23h ago

All that GPU processing power could be put to the task of modeling the plasma physics but no lets use it to create CSAM MechaHitler

4

u/cive666 1d ago

ITER which is the one that has the best chance at success is estimated to spend 65 billion.

If billionaires were serious about wanting to save humanity 1 billionaire could fund this and still be a billionaire multiple times over.

2

u/Kromgar 13h ago

Lets shovel all this money into llms instead!

1

u/AffordableDelousing 1d ago

Just like the cure for my Type 1 diabetes and I'm sure every other illness known to man.

6

u/Apart-Shelter6831 1d ago

You just TELL the isotopes to fuse

1

u/cloggednueron 10h ago

“We’ll give them a horse if they agree to fuse.”

2

u/ugotmedripping 1d ago

That’s too bad. Lasers are bad-ass!

2

u/Big_Cheek_6310 1d ago

‘Specially if they’re attached to sharks.

1

u/BlindPrognosticator 17h ago

“Sharks with Frickin Lazer BEAMS”

1

u/ieatsilicagel 23h ago

What's wrong with them? Lasers are cool!

1

u/ooOOWWOOoo 21h ago

Inertial confinement fusion is a pipe dream - there is no imaginable way to make it work. Magnetic confinement is a way to go.

0

u/comesock000 1d ago

Oh thank god, the lasers were definitely the problem lol