Source: Wall Street News

Is Altman's heavy bet on nuclear fusion about to achieve a breakthrough soon?

Recently, in an interview with Bloomberg, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman revealed that nuclear fusion technology will achieve breakthroughs "very soon," and he expects that the company he invested in, Helion, will "soon" demonstrate net energy gain nuclear fusion.

Altman stated that although it will take several years to establish a system that does not cause damage, scale up, build factories, and obtain regulatory approval, he expects that Helion will soon demonstrate that nuclear fusion is feasible.

To address the energy consumption problem of AI, major technology companies are turning their attention to nuclear energy, with nuclear fusion regarded as a potential infinite, safe, and clean Energy source that could help solve energy shortages and climate change issues.

The so-called net gain nuclear fusion refers to a nuclear fusion reaction that produces more energy than the energy input required to drive the reaction. This is seen as an important milestone in achieving controllable nuclear fusion power generation.

In fact, the USA's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) achieved net energy gain from nuclear fusion reaction for the second time during the National Ignition Facility (NIF) experiment on July 30 of this year. Despite this breakthrough, the industry generally believes that there is still a long way to go to achieve the goal of generating energy through fusion.

What is net energy gain nuclear fusion?

Nuclear fusion is a process that releases energy by combining atomic nuclei into heavier nuclei, which has the potential to produce limitless, safe, and clean Energy without generating the radioactive waste associated with nuclear fission.

Net energy gain nuclear fusion refers to a fusion reaction where the output energy exceeds the input energy. This means that the nuclear fusion reaction can produce more energy than it consumes, thereby achieving a net energy gain. This process is considered a crucial step towards the commercialization of nuclear fusion Energy.

In December 2022, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in the USA achieved net energy gain from a nuclear fusion reaction for the first time at the National Ignition Facility (NIF), producing about 3.15 megajoules of energy, which is 150% of the energy output of the lasers; on July 30, 2024, LLNL again achieved net energy gain from a nuclear fusion reaction, obtaining about 3.5 megajoules of energy, higher than the last experiment.

Despite the scientific breakthroughs, the goal of producing Energy from fusion is still far off, with challenges including:

Currently, NIF can only conduct one fusion reaction per day, while a commercially viable fusion power plant would need to perform multiple reactions per second.

The existing energy gain only compares the energy produced by the reaction with the energy of the laser, not with the total energy drawn from the grid. Achieving commercial nuclear fusion requires the energy output to be 30 to 100 times that of the laser input.

In addition to scientific feasibility, engineering feasibility issues also need to be addressed.

Altman makes a significant bet on Helion.

Helion Energy is a nuclear fusion Venture founded in 2013, co-founded by David Kirtley and others.

Altman has been involved as the Chairman of Helion since 2014. In 2021, he personally invested $0.375 billion, making Helion the third largest nuclear fusion company in terms of funding, with a valuation reaching $3.7 billion. This is also one of Altman's largest personal investments.

Altman believes that the success of nuclear fusion is crucial for the widespread application of AI, as the development of AI requires substantial Energy support. He believes that by reducing Energy costs, the quality of human life can be significantly improved.

Helion claims it will build the world's first nuclear fusion power plant by 2028 and provide power to companies like Microsoft. This goal seems very ambitious in the nuclear fusion Industry because scientists have only made limited progress after nearly a century of attempts.

The fact that Helion does not publish experimental results or conduct peer reviews has raised questions in the scientific community. CEO Kirtley stated that their main task is to build nuclear fusion reactors, not to publish papers.

Altman is confident in Helion's research and believes its technology is one of the most promising methods to achieve nuclear fusion. He not only actively promotes Helion in public but also actively advocates for it on Social Media.

编辑/jayden