WE DID NUCLEAR FUSION

Cleo, when you suggested building a fusor to help people better understand fusion, we were all in! Thanks for coming up with such an awesome idea. And Simone, thanks for letting us send parts of a fusion machine to your workshop (twice 😅). This was so fun to build and really helps explain some fusion fundamentals.

I like how David's completely unfazed by it all, like an electrical engineer who just showed a kid how to power a lightbulb with lemons or something.

Simone is such a natural fit for this channel. I hope we see her again!

This was so fun! And Simone is just the person to get this strapped onto a Delorean

Just today, Scientists at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory in California celebrated a breakthrough in their fusion experiments. For the first time, they were able to generate more energy than they invested in the process. The researchers used 2.1 megajoules of energy, with the help of laser beams, to initiate the fusion of two hydrogen isotopes. The fusion reaction in the facility generated 2.5 megajoules of energy. This is an important step towards the commercial use of fusion technology and a potential alternative to fossil fuels.

the character arc from trying and actually doing it is giving me serotonin

Great video, but ya'll didn't make any fusion. If you had you'd all be suffering acute rad poisoning being that close to an unshielded fusor. That big glass window would be spewing xrays. Fusion doesn't happen until at least 30Kv, and the amount of current required is directly proportional to the size of the chamber. That massive chamber would be quite difficult to get up to actual fusion range. You'd probably need 50kv and a fair bit of current and it would be wildly unstable, fusing sporadically while spewing x rays. There's a whole community who've been building fusors for years and the standards for claiming fusion are really well defined. It's a "pics or it didn't happen" kinda thing. Basically, you need to detect actual neutron output or you can't claim fusion. This means you either need a bubble detector, a neutron detecting tube, or to activate some other element with the neutrons and detect the gamma decay of the resulting unstable element. It's a lovely build and I commend you on getting as far as you did, but David should know better and it's really disingenuous to make the claim of fusion in this context. I've literally built the same device out of microwave parts and jam jars and while it glows nicely, there's 0 detectable fusion at the voltages demo units like this run at.

When you asked how you'd know that fusion had occurred, I'm surprised that David didn't pull out a portable neutron detector.

This video is so good! I never expected fusion to be so easy to understand and engaging to watch!

There's something poetic about doing a collab about fusion.

Whoever is organising PR for Helion is doing a fantastic job - this is FOURTH youtube video I’ve seen them on in the last month. Can’t wait for Polaris!

Beautiful colors! This would be a nice lamp for my living room!

I would absolutely ADORE seeing this as like a travelling museum exhibit/program, like. being able to have an event where you could go and see fusion in person would be so deeply inspiring for so many youths

I just read yesterday that the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California have finally achieved a net energy gain from a fusion reaction.

I couldn't help but cry from pure happiness when I saw Simone's glowing face mesmerized by fusion. Thank you for being so truly and deeply happy even when so many things had happen to you. You're pure light and make people like me appreciate life more and not take any great moment for granted.

A neutron detector would have confirmed the fusion reaction.

Nice job! I have a question though, the viewports are a major source of xrays and in the system we're building for a high school project, we are required to use cameras in order to view the reaction. I was wondering why this was not a concern in this system? What was the used voltage? What was the pressure of the chamber when filled with deuterium? If you ever read this, thank you so much :)

Love the Atom song dance! Cleo has great company and it makes me happy to see people love their job and enjoy the moment 😊

Such a great video!

I love how this came out literally a day before the most significant breakthrough in fusion technology history