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David Kirtley

๐Ÿ‘ค Speaker
See mentions of this person in podcasts
1578 total appearances

Appearances Over Time

Podcast Appearances

Lex Fridman Podcast
#485 โ€“ David Kirtley: Nuclear Fusion, Plasma Physics, and the Future of Energy

It does.

Lex Fridman Podcast
#485 โ€“ David Kirtley: Nuclear Fusion, Plasma Physics, and the Future of Energy

It's cheaper and that's great.

Lex Fridman Podcast
#485 โ€“ David Kirtley: Nuclear Fusion, Plasma Physics, and the Future of Energy

But you can also go and get three of those turbo pumps that are sitting on eBay right now.

Lex Fridman Podcast
#485 โ€“ David Kirtley: Nuclear Fusion, Plasma Physics, and the Future of Energy

Bring those in-house.

Lex Fridman Podcast
#485 โ€“ David Kirtley: Nuclear Fusion, Plasma Physics, and the Future of Energy

Test them.

Lex Fridman Podcast
#485 โ€“ David Kirtley: Nuclear Fusion, Plasma Physics, and the Future of Energy

Maybe only one of them meets the specifications you need.

Lex Fridman Podcast
#485 โ€“ David Kirtley: Nuclear Fusion, Plasma Physics, and the Future of Energy

But guess what?

Lex Fridman Podcast
#485 โ€“ David Kirtley: Nuclear Fusion, Plasma Physics, and the Future of Energy

You just got a pump in two weeks instead of nine months.

Lex Fridman Podcast
#485 โ€“ David Kirtley: Nuclear Fusion, Plasma Physics, and the Future of Energy

Yeah.

Lex Fridman Podcast
#485 โ€“ David Kirtley: Nuclear Fusion, Plasma Physics, and the Future of Energy

And you got it.

Lex Fridman Podcast
#485 โ€“ David Kirtley: Nuclear Fusion, Plasma Physics, and the Future of Energy

It's in the door and it's operational and it's running.

Lex Fridman Podcast
#485 โ€“ David Kirtley: Nuclear Fusion, Plasma Physics, and the Future of Energy

and you're moving.

Lex Fridman Podcast
#485 โ€“ David Kirtley: Nuclear Fusion, Plasma Physics, and the Future of Energy

And everywhere you can, you still have to deliver the working product.

Lex Fridman Podcast
#485 โ€“ David Kirtley: Nuclear Fusion, Plasma Physics, and the Future of Energy

That cannot sacrifice the quality.

Lex Fridman Podcast
#485 โ€“ David Kirtley: Nuclear Fusion, Plasma Physics, and the Future of Energy

But do you really need the shiny brand new one when the used one is going to do the job?

Lex Fridman Podcast
#485 โ€“ David Kirtley: Nuclear Fusion, Plasma Physics, and the Future of Energy

And we think about that across the board.

Lex Fridman Podcast
#485 โ€“ David Kirtley: Nuclear Fusion, Plasma Physics, and the Future of Energy

Do we take the best plasma diagnostic, the most sophisticated plasma diagnostic in the world that has an accuracy of within 3%?

Lex Fridman Podcast
#485 โ€“ David Kirtley: Nuclear Fusion, Plasma Physics, and the Future of Energy

And it's going to take me three years and maybe a few million dollars to go build.

Lex Fridman Podcast
#485 โ€“ David Kirtley: Nuclear Fusion, Plasma Physics, and the Future of Energy

Or do I take a technology from 10 years ago that's 5% accurate, that's good enough that I can go build in a month?

Lex Fridman Podcast
#485 โ€“ David Kirtley: Nuclear Fusion, Plasma Physics, and the Future of Energy

And the answer for us, for Heliana, for the team that we put together is that scrappy.