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Dennis Whyte

๐Ÿ‘ค Speaker
1833 total appearances

Appearances Over Time

Podcast Appearances

Lex Fridman Podcast
#353 โ€“ Dennis Whyte: Nuclear Fusion and the Future of Energy

So then this means is that the electromagnets are configured in such a way that it produces the desired magnetic fields around this.

Lex Fridman Podcast
#353 โ€“ Dennis Whyte: Nuclear Fusion and the Future of Energy

How precise does this have to be?

Lex Fridman Podcast
#353 โ€“ Dennis Whyte: Nuclear Fusion and the Future of Energy

You were probably listening to our conversation with some of my colleagues yesterday.

Lex Fridman Podcast
#353 โ€“ Dennis Whyte: Nuclear Fusion and the Future of Energy

So it's actually, it depends on the configuration about how you're doing it.

Lex Fridman Podcast
#353 โ€“ Dennis Whyte: Nuclear Fusion and the Future of Energy

The configuration of the electromagnets and about how you're achieving this requirement.

Lex Fridman Podcast
#353 โ€“ Dennis Whyte: Nuclear Fusion and the Future of Energy

It's fairly precise, but it doesn't have to be, particularly in something like a tokamak, what we do is we produce planar coils, which just mean they're flat, and we situate them.

Lex Fridman Podcast
#353 โ€“ Dennis Whyte: Nuclear Fusion and the Future of Energy

So if you think of a circle like this,

Lex Fridman Podcast
#353 โ€“ Dennis Whyte: Nuclear Fusion and the Future of Energy

What does it produce if you put current through it?

Lex Fridman Podcast
#353 โ€“ Dennis Whyte: Nuclear Fusion and the Future of Energy

It produces a magnetic field which goes through the circle like this.

Lex Fridman Podcast
#353 โ€“ Dennis Whyte: Nuclear Fusion and the Future of Energy

So, if you align many of them like this, this, this, this, there's things online.

Lex Fridman Podcast
#353 โ€“ Dennis Whyte: Nuclear Fusion and the Future of Energy

You can go see the picture.

Lex Fridman Podcast
#353 โ€“ Dennis Whyte: Nuclear Fusion and the Future of Energy

You keep arranging these around in a circle itself.

Lex Fridman Podcast
#353 โ€“ Dennis Whyte: Nuclear Fusion and the Future of Energy

This forces the magnetic field lines to basically just keep executing around like this.

Lex Fridman Podcast
#353 โ€“ Dennis Whyte: Nuclear Fusion and the Future of Energy

So, you tend to align.

Lex Fridman Podcast
#353 โ€“ Dennis Whyte: Nuclear Fusion and the Future of Energy

That one tends to โ€“ well, it requires โ€“

Lex Fridman Podcast
#353 โ€“ Dennis Whyte: Nuclear Fusion and the Future of Energy

good alignment.

Lex Fridman Podcast
#353 โ€“ Dennis Whyte: Nuclear Fusion and the Future of Energy

It's not like insane alignment because you're actually exploiting the symmetry of the situation to help it.

Lex Fridman Podcast
#353 โ€“ Dennis Whyte: Nuclear Fusion and the Future of Energy

There's another kind of configuration of magnetic, of this kind of magnetic confinement called a stellarator, which is, we have these names for historic reasons.

Lex Fridman Podcast
#353 โ€“ Dennis Whyte: Nuclear Fusion and the Future of Energy

It's different than a tokamak, but it actually works on the same physical principle, that namely, in the end it produces a plasma which loops in magnetic fields, which loop back on themselves as well.

Lex Fridman Podcast
#353 โ€“ Dennis Whyte: Nuclear Fusion and the Future of Energy

But in that case, the totality, basically, the totality of the confining magnetic field is produced by external three-dimensional magnets, so they're twisted.