Building a nuclear fusion reactor that can generate more energy than is put in to make it work is one of the biggest challenges facing engineers today. Like quantum computing, decades of research have mostly resulted in proofs of concept, not hardware that can be rolled out commercially.
So it came as a surprise to hear that
Y Combinator and
Mithril Capital Management are investing $1.5 million in
Helion Energy, a Redmond, Washingon-based startup that says it has a plan to build a fusion reactor that breaks even on energy input and output, a challenge whose solution has been considered decades away for, well, decades. Helion CEO David Kirtley says that his company can do it in three.
Helion was founded by four scientists working at
MSNW, an organization spun-off from the University of Washington that focuses on determining the feasibility of turning plasma physics research into commercializable hardware with aerospace and power-generation applications.
When the team left to form their own company, they did so with the express intention of using electronics advancements from other fields to create a magnetic-inertial confinement fusion reactor.
so what breh? Surely the ecosystem that brought us breakthroughs like Farmville and Hashtags can do better.
